Guelph council set to pick new colleague from 26 candidates who applied to take over vacant seat
The seat became open after Dominique O'Rourke, who was serving as a councillor for Ward 6, was elected Guelph's MP on the April 28 federal election. After the win, O'Rourke resigned from council.
On May 27, council voted to fill the empty seat through an open call for nominees. Council also could have opted to hold a byelection or go with a previous runner up from the 2022 municipal election.
Nominations were open between June 9 and July 7. In order to put their name forward, a person needed to be a resident of Guelph or own or rent property in the city, be a Canadian citizen, be at least 18 years old and not be prohibited from voting or holding municipal office.
Each candidate sent a statement to council ahead of Wednesday's meeting to indicate why they wanted the position. Some also received letters of support, which were given to councillors ahead of time to review.
The vote on Wednesday will follow an open voting process for transparency. Each councillor will vote for one person.
A candidate must receive 50 per cent of the vote to win. If that doesn't happen in the first round, then the candidates with the fewest votes are removed from the list and there's a new round of voting. That continues until someone has 50 per cent of the vote.
Once the vote is over, the person chosen by council will join the city clerk at the council horseshoe to take part in the declaration of office.
The person chosen will go through orientation before council's next committee of the whole meeting scheduled for Sept. 3.
A report by the city clerk notes the seat must be filled by July 26 under the law. The special council meeting on Wednesday to choose the next councillor starts at 4 p.m.
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