The municipal election campaign is in its final few days, and most of the attention locally is on the race for mayor in Langley Township.
Mayor Rick Green is fighting off two challengers, Councillor Mel Kositsky (whom he endorsed for a council seat, before Kositsky decided to run for mayor) and turkey farmer Jack Froese.
While that is obviously a close race and one to watch, I hope that the race for the eight other seats on Township council doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. Many voters say they want change. It will be council, not the mayor, who determines if there will be any.
When there are 27 candidates running for eight seats, the incumbents start off with a big advantage. Their names are better-known and chances are most voters have heard of at least some of them. The longer they have been on council, the more that advantage works in their favour.
Green said after the last election that people voted for change. They did — in the mayor’s office. All the incumbents were re-elected, with Bev Dornan picking up a vacant seat. This time around six of the eight councillors want their jobs back.
So there will be at least two new councillors. Green is running with a slate this time, and if voters handily favour him for re-election, it’s possible that his slate mates will get a lot of votes as well. So two of them may have a good shot at those vacant seats.
Both Dan Sheel and Sonya Paterson came close in 2008. They are running again and they too may have a good shot. Sheel spent a lot of money on his campaign last time and appears to be doing the same this time.
Two other council candidates ran federally — Rebecca Darnell and Carey Poitras — giving them higher name recognition. Petrina Arnason, daughter of longtime former councillor Muriel Arnason, a perennial vote-getter, also has an edge.
Many people get confused when there are so many candidates running. I urge them to take a look at the videos posted on our website. Of the 27 candidates for councillor, there are two-minute videos from 25 of them. These give potential voters a good look at who they are and what they stand for.
It is also important to point out that voters do not have to mark eight names when voting for councillor. They can vote for as few as one. It’s far better to get out and vote and mark one, two or three names, than to stay at home.
The other advantage of voting for less than eight is that “lesser” choices (most of us have a few of those) don’t edge out your top picks. It is entirely possible that the last couple of seats may come down to just a few votes.
For those comfortable choosing eight candidates, please do so. The point I am trying to make is that those who are hesitant to vote shouldn’t be — they can vote for one to eight councillors.
One mote point. The weather forecast for Saturday indicates there is a slight chance of snow. For those who really want to vote and don’t like driving in snow, they should go to the advance poll Wednesday, from 8 to 8, at Township hall.
