As the deadline on Sept. 10 at 2pm nears, some candidates here are jockeying in the wards to get elected.
In County Ward 6, councillor Shawn Watters suddenly found himself without an opponent because Bob Wilson, who has held the ward for the past four years had moved his race next door to County Ward 5. That brings him up against ward incumbent Jean Innes.
Wilson said in an interview, “I had some reasons. I prefer not to go into them. It was just something that I needed to do.”
Wilson said he has been in ward 6 all alone but Watters lives in that ward. Wilson actually lives in the northern part of West Garafraxa, which is in County Ward 4.
Wilson added, “I’m looking for new challenges all the time. I may or may not win against Jean, but I thought I’d prefer to run against her than Shawn. I love a challenge.”
In another county ward, Jim Heinbuch is challenging incumbent Lynda White in County Ward 4.
Meanwhile in the township council race, candidate Vinnie Green has dropped out of the race in Ward 5 in order to challenge newcomer Jeremy Vinck in Ward 3. That leaves incumbent Walt Visser and John Ortt to face off in Ward 5.
Green said in an interview he switched from the township Ward 5 race to Ward 3 for two reasons. One, he said, is he does not believe anyone should be elected unopposed.
But the main one, he added, is he is concerned about downtown Fergus.
“I’ve been looking at downtown Fergus a long time,” he said, noting that it now has 62,000 square feet of empty store space, and that two businesses closed their doors in the last week alone.
“I’m concerned,” he said.
There is already a race for mayor, with incumbent Joanne Ross-Zuj facing a challenge from councillor Bob Foster.
There is a race in Ward 1 where two newcomers are vying for the seat. Kelly Linton will face Ian Rice.
Incumbent Kirk McElwain is still awaiting a challenge in Ward 2, as is incumbent Fred Morris in Ward 4.
In Ward 6, there are three candidates. They are Mary Lloyd, Steven VanLeeuwen, and Mike Wisniewski.
David Gohn, of Elora, is running for trustee for the Upper Grand District School Board. Nancy Anderson, of Guelph, has filed to run for the Catholic School Board trustee position for Centre Wellington and all of northern Wellington.
