New leadership, new faces

First of all, we want to congratulate all the winners and to thank all candidates who ran in this election. Not all of our "preferred" candidates were elected, but several were and we look forward to a new year and a new council. And we hope that many of the candidates from this election will continue to attend council meetings, to present ideas, and to keep this group honest and accountable to the residents both in Clarington and in Durham Region.

All our new councillors will have a bit of a learning curve, and none more than our new Mayor, Jim Abernethy. But my hope is that he will be given some time and some leeway for getting up to speed before people begin criticizing or hounding him. It's a big job, but remember that this is a man who felt strongly enough about the previous leadership and the issues facing Clarington that he put his hat in the ring months before ex-Mayor Mutton's personal problems came into the picture - long before the assault charges were laid. So Mr. Abernethy deserves to be given a chance to address the problems Clarington has faced over the last several years, including the "democratic deficit". He will address the financial state of Clarington and will work hard on our economic development. He will be courteous to residents who make delegations to council and allow them to have their say. We will be watching of course, and while encouraging him in his new position, we will also hold his feet to the fire when necessary. But we welcome him as our new Mayor and look forward to good changes in Clarington.

While we hope that our new council will get along with each other, we also hope to see some much needed debate over issues, instead of the rubber-stamp approach that seemed to be the norm during the last term or two. We hope input from residents will be seriously considered and that fewer decisions will be made behind closed doors.

There will be much to discuss in the months to come and we hope voters in Clarington will attend council meetings and become involved in the process. The first meeting of the new council is on December 4, at Town Hall in Bowmanville, council chambers on the 2nd floor.

We want to thank all the campaign workers too, for helping the candidates to get their issues and faces out there, get their signs (ugh!) up, help with canvassing (door knocking and phone calls), and all the other duties that are necessary in a campaign. Without campaign workers and supporters, our candidates wouldn't get far!

And lastly, kudos to the voters of Clarington, who did a pretty credible job in voting for most seats, and who voted in higher numbers than in the previous election, and higher percentage turnout than any of the other lakeshore (urban) municipalities in Durham Region. Let's keep up that trend and stay involved.

Sticking around? Or time to go?

Is this the end for the Clarington Watchdog blog, since the election is now over? Is there any further need for it or will there be such an interest since we don't vote again for another 4 years?

We think that even though we have several new faces on Clarington Council, including a new Mayor, and a few new faces will be showing up at Regional Council as well, there is still a need to keep their feet to the fire. There are campaign promises to be fulfilled and there will always be new issues arising that will affect our municipality, which in turn affects our quality of life (and rate of taxation!).

We will do our best to report on issues, give opinions and try to help to keep Clarington residents informed. We plan on opening up for comments again shortly, but please be careful not to libel anyone. We had numerous threats awhile ago and had to close down the comments or close down the blog. Now that the election is over, hopefully that will no longer be a problem.

So for the next couple of weeks we'll be commenting on the election results, voter turnout, upcoming issues, the appointment of the Durham Region Chair, and anything else that happens to come to mind. We've had a lot of support from voters over the last several months and hope to keep informing you and also making you think a little about what is happening around us. And hopefully to encourage you to become involved in our wonderful community.

ELECTION RESULTS 2006

Election Results for Municipality of Clarington

Nov 13, 2006
x - denotes incumbents

Mayor

Jim Abernethy - 11,204
John Mutton-x - 5,968
Jim Schell - 4,596
Richard Ward - 495
Wayne Chaskavich - 291

Regional Councillors

Ward 1 & 2
Mary Novak - 3,081
Kevin McAlpine - 2,877
Don MacArthur - 2,718
George Van Dyk - 2,523
Arnot Wotten - 1,073

Ward 3 & 4
Charlie Trim-x - 5,120
Linda Gasser - 3,079
John Buddo - 1,660

Local Councillors

Ward 1
Adrian Foster-x - 3,978
Oudit Rai - 1,988

Ward 2

Ron Hooper - 3,176
Colin Argyle - 930
Terry Lynch - 835
Mike Slocombe - 490
Steve Rowland - 259
John Sturdy - 186
Blair Smyth - 137

Ward 3
Willie Woo - 2,284
Kevin Anyan - 1,706
Kyrke Innis - 590
Lou DeVuono - 130

Ward 4
Gord Robinson-x - 2,743
Wendy Partner - 1,330
Paul Jones - 1,071

Trustee English Public

Cathy Abraham - 10,107
Steven Cooke - 7,536
Karen Hills - 6,108
Todd Shrigley - 3,405

Trustee French Public

Sylvie Landry - acclaimed

Trustee English Separate

Maureen Day - 1,909
Granville Anderson-x - 1,337
Barbara Malone - 1,325
Andrew Bennion - 433

Trustee French Separate

Adrien Lamoureux - acclaimed

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And our informal Mayoral Election Poll wasn't too far off:

Jim Abernethy - 43.4%

John Mutton - 23.4%

Richard Ward - 18%

Jim Schell - 12%

Wayne Chaskavich - 3.3%

We had a total of 1768 votes tabulated. Richard Ward and Jim Schell traded places in the actual result, but Abernethy was the leader from the start.

More Mail-in Misgivings

Much has been written about our mail-in ballot system, in local papers, blogs, letters to the editor. Candidates have been ridiculed (as have their scrutineers) for wanting to watch the process closely, to identify problems so that they may be corrected or improved upon before the next election. Having these scrutineers at Town Hall is a good thing (thanks Martha).

"Clarington's ballot problem relatively minimal, says ministry spokesman" - Some areas much higher - so reads the headline today for the Clarington Metroland on-line paper. I guess that makes it okay, since our rate of rejected ballots is smaller than some other municipalities? A rate of 3 to 4% seems to be acceptable to the municipality and to the ministry, but remember that there will almost certainly be many more when ballots are actually counted as there will be spoiled ones. How high will that raise the rejected ballot total?

"An array of issues led to the rejections including failure to sign or include the voter declaration and placing the voter declaration inside the secrecy envelope."

Failure to sign or include the voter declaration - fine. I can see that being a problem. But I'd like to know how they know that the voter declaration was placed inside the secrecy envelope? Don't you have to open that envelope to know that? I thought those secrecy envelopes couldn't be opened until the polls officially close at 8 pm on November 13.

"Some municipalities are making efforts to lower the rejection number using methods such as opening the end of the secrecy envelope to see if the declaration form has been included there, said the Ministry spokesman. Others are calling people who neglected to sign the declaration, to help increase the number of accepted ballots."

Again, I thought the secrecy envelope HAD to remain sealed until polls close. Is this actually permissible? What happened to the "secrecy" part of that equation? Wouldn't/shouldn't an unsealed secrecy envelope not conform to protocol and therefore once again be grounds for not being accepted? And wouldn't a "secrecy envelope" that had been opened already be more susceptible to fraud? What is the difference between "opening the end of the secrecy envelope" and opening it at the flap? In either case the contents can be taken out, viewed, corrected (?), replaced within the envelope to be counted days later when polls close. What happens with those envelopes - are they taped up after being opened so that ballots don't fall out? Is premature opening of these ballots legally allowed???

We have been critical of this mail-in ballot method of voting since 2000. There are still "issues" with it and people have a right to be concerned, especially the candidates.

There are plenty of other problems as well, including non-delivery of voting kits to voters, delivery to the wrong address, no verification of the signatures on the voter declaration form. Anyone could have extra votes if they picked up discarded voter kits from apartment lobbies, blue boxes, etc. Just sign that form because there is no verification on it other than the signature. Anyone who knows how to write can sign a name, and the voter's name is printed on the form itself so you know who's name to sign.

Voter turnout doesn't seem to be much heavier than it was in the last election, when we had all those acclamations and very few (seriously) contested seats. With the very large number of candidates in this election and the voter anger over a number of issues, you would think there would be a huge voter turnout this year. But so far (even though there are a few days left) it doesn't seem to have increased much, if at all. Hopefully there will be a large surge on Election Day of voters who choose to deliver their ballots in person. Or maybe there are a lot of voters who have decided, "What's the point"? Our Council doesn't seem to listen to us, there is never any "debate", and everything seems to have been decided before Council meetings even take place. Will new councillors show any more backbone in standing up to an intense, hard-ball Mayor? Will we have a new Mayor? We can hope for the best in this election. The call for "change" has gone out. It remains to be seen whether voters have heeded the call.

Every vote is important and must be counted. But for any municipality to open the secrecy envelope prior to election day is just plain wrong. And if they're not doing that, how do they know the voter declaration form is inside the secrecy envelope instead of in the outer, yellow envelope?

We are interested only in the integrity of the election process. But some of the statements made bring cause for worry. The chance for mail-in mishap is too great at the present time for our liking. Yes, we have voted, but we are not confident everyone's ballot will be able to be counted, or that some unscrupulous people have not had the opportunity to vote multiple times. It's the system, not the municipality we are criticizing. At least it is good to see that some of our concerns are being publicized this time around and are being taken seriously.

Total Hockey Museum- hit or miss?

There was much hype surrounding the new Total Hockey Museum which opened in Bowmanville last weekend. There has been much discussion among Clarington residents, and what I've heard has been mostly con with few pro comments. Many have been worried that after the grand opening, or after one visit to Total Hockey, that would be enough and people won't return, making it a bust as far as covering overhead expenses year to year. People are afraid this "tourist attraction" forced upon Clarington by our illustrious Council will end up costing residents in higher taxes. There is a much bigger hockey museum, the Hockey Hall of Fame, just 80 km west of here. What would make people make return trips to Bowmanville for Total Hockey, unless the Prime Minister and hockey greats such as Frank Mahovlich, Red Kelly, Johnny Bower, Bobby Baun and others continue to come here on weekends (as they were a major part of the attraction this past weekend)?

Media coverage was interesting. One newspaper (Canadian Statesman) reported that along with Prime Minister Harper, thousands attended the Total Hockey opening...

"He was among thousands who attended the event to see the new hockey museum, which is not without its detractors in Clarington. In fact, some candidates in the Nov. 13 municipal election have made it one of their lead issues, saying the $2 million spent was money wasted on a facility neither wanted by Clarington residents nor likely to generate any income."

Were there actually "thousands" who visited the Total Hockey museum? Director of Community Services Joe Caruana commented that a capacity crowd filled the Arena (which seats 1,400) to watch the big game in which NHL Alumni faced off against the Bowmanville Eagle Alumni. Yes, the game was a big hit.

However, according to Total Hockey curator Brian Shea, not nearly so many people actually visited the Total Hockey museum. The Orono Weekly Times (Nov. 1 edition) reports:

"According to Shea, 321 people took advantage of the grand opening half price special, $3 admittance fee, to Total Hockey on Sunday. In addition to touring the facility on Sunday, visitors also had the opportunity to get autographs from hockey legends Red Kelly, Senator Frank Mahovlich, Mike Palmateer, Bobby Baun and Johnny Bower."

Only 321 people paid to visit the museum for the grand opening, with all the pomp and circumstance, the "celebrity" hockey guests, the Prime Minister of Canada, Bev Oda, John O'Toole, and the Alumni Hockey Game. Regarding cost to the municipality (taxpayers), the Orono Weekly Times also reports,

"The Municipality purchased the hockey collection from former hockey broadcaster Brian McFarlane in October 2003, for $225,000. A 4,000 square foot stand alone building to display the collection has been constructed adjacent to the Garnet B. Rickard, Recreation Complex in Bowmanville, for a total estimated cost of $1.8 million. Half of that cost will be debentures for the next 15 years."

We would say that in light of the costs of this project and all the hype prior to the "grand opening" to lure visitors to the Total Hockey museum, it was a "miss". It may have been a "hit" for incumbent mayor John Mutton and the incumbent Councillors, as one more media event and campaign opportunity which was paid for by the taxpayers, rather than by the (incumbent) candidates, but it was a "miss" for the taxpayers. When will our council realize money doesn't grow on trees?

The timing of this grand opening, during an election campaign and shortly after voters received their mail-in ballots in the mail for this election, is certainly very suspect. But whether it will help the incumbents because of the free publicity, or hurt them because of the lack of interest in the museum itself even at it's grand opening, and the realization that it will cost us all in the long run - is a question that might only be answered on November 13.