logo
Guelph council set to pick new colleague from 26 candidates who applied to take over vacant seat

Guelph council set to pick new colleague from 26 candidates who applied to take over vacant seat

CBC5 days ago
Guelph councillors are set to hear from 26 people on Wednesday who want to fill the currently vacant council 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.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Over 200 candidates sign up for Poilievre's byelection — doubling previous record
Over 200 candidates sign up for Poilievre's byelection — doubling previous record

CBC

time5 hours ago

  • CBC

Over 200 candidates sign up for Poilievre's byelection — doubling previous record

Social Sharing More than 200 candidates, mostly associated with a group of electoral reform advocates, have signed up to run in an upcoming federal byelection next month. The number more than doubles the previous record on a single ballot. Former Alberta MP Damien Kurek vacated his seat in Battle River-Crowfoot to give Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre a chance to rejoin the House of Commons. Poilievre lost his longtime Carleton riding in April's general election. A group known as the Longest Ballot Committee has been organizing candidates to run in byelections in recent years in an effort to push for electoral reform. The committee's organizers want to put a citizens' assembly in charge of electoral reform and say political parties are too reluctant to make government more representative of the electorate. As of Sunday evening, 209 candidates had registered to run in Battle River-Crowfoot, exceeding than committee's goal of 200. That's more than double the previous record of 91 which has occurred twice in the past year: during a byelection in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun last September and Carleton during the last general election. That number of candidates resulted in a ballot roughly a metre long. The massive ballots have resulted in delays in vote counting and have confounded some voters. Elections Canada told CBC News on Wednesday that it will finalize ways to minimize disruptions from the long ballots. "We are looking at ways to [simplify] things based on recent experiences with elections involving a higher-than-usual number of candidates. We will finalize our plans after the deadline for candidate nominations," spokesperson Matthew McKenna said in an email. Elections Canada has already had to make changes to accommodate the mammoth-sized ballots — mostly through early counting and bringing in extra workers. Although the Longest Ballot Committee has organized in two elections where Poilievre is running, the group has also targeted Liberal strongholds such as Toronto-St. Paul's and LaSalle-Émard-Verdun in 2024. But the advocates' efforts to push the limits of a ballot have sparked calls for changes, most recently from Poilievre himself which he refers to as a "scam." The Conservative leader wrote a letter to government House leader Steven MacKinnon on Tuesday, calling for legislation to change Canada's election rules in an effort to curb the long ballot protests. A spokesperson for MacKinnon's office said the Liberals share those concerns and are open to changes. MPs were debating legislation last Parliamentary session that could have implemented some of Poilievre's proposed changes — specifically to limit electors to only signing one nomination form. The advocates have voters sign multiple forms. Elections Canada head Stéphane Perrault himself made the suggestion in front of a committee of MPs that was studying a bill to amend the Canada Elections Act before Parliament was prorogued. Perrault argued that "certain penalties" should be imposed on individuals who sign — or encourage others to sign — multiple nomination papers in an effort to get as many candidates on a ballot as possible, though he didn't say what those penalties should be. The deadline to register as a candidate in Battle River-Crowfoot is Monday. Voters head to the polls on Aug. 18.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store