The election races in Centre Wellington and Guelph-Eramosa seemed to heat up a bit recently, with several candidates meetings last week.
The races for mayor in each township are particularly interesting, although, at times, it’s for unfortunate reasons.
Centre Wellington candidate Bob Foster has repeatedly lambasted the township’s current council – of which he is a part – for its “serious spending problem.” He has tried to make the township’s borrowing of millions for ministry-ordered sewage upgrades the major issue in this election.
Borrowing is never anyone’s first choice and Foster is correct in asserting that using development charges to repay the loan will mean they are not available for other projects.
But in this case, it seems the debenture was unavoidable and Foster’s repeated attempts to bring up the issue – including the rejection of past grant applications – has served to highlight one fact more than any other: Foster himself has not offered any funding solutions to address the problem.
In Guelph-Eramosa, issues of a different kind have arose.
Clint Martin, who lost his mayoral seat to Chris White in the 2006 election, has stated publicly on more than one occasion that the township is facing numerous lawsuits as a result of White’s alleged inept leadership.
But Martin would be hard pressed to find any municipality in the county – or the country for that matter – that is not sued at least several times a year.
What’s worse though, is Martin’s assertion last week that the current council is “dysfunctional.” He’s not wrong; this council has had some major issues over the last four years and has routinely been split by 3-2 votes.
But anyone familiar with the previous council, under which Martin served as mayor, knows it had just as many similar issues, if not more.
It may be entertaining, but all candidates would be better off sticking to real election issues, rather than trying to conjure up controversies.
