BWG: Ward system limits choices

Jay Gutteridge – Simcoe.com –Sep 17, 2010
I suspect residents of wards 6 and 7 won’t be too happy when they read this week’s front-page story.
While they’ll still get to vote for mayor and deputy mayor in the Oct. 25 municipal election, they won’t have a say in who represents them as councillor.

That’s because no one ran against James Leduc and Peter Dykie, so they’re going to be back at the council table next term.
This isn’t a commentary on those men as councillors, but it’s a shame people in wards 6 and 7 get less choice than everyone else.
I suspect most supporters of Mr. Leduc and Mr. Dykie would agree with that.
Competition is good for democracy.
When I was speaking with one of the candidates for council this week (I won’t say who, because we were speaking off the record), the person told me he/she doesn’t like the ward system.
This person said the system is more likely to result in acclamations and if a ward ends up with a bad councillor, its residents are stuck with that councillor for four years.
By contrast, if councillors were elected at large (place all the names in a pool and the top seven vote-getters are elected), acclamations would be very unlikely and every councillor would represent every resident.
I think an at-large system would make sense for Bradford West Gwillimbury.
Some people might argue such a system would result in rural voices not being heard, but I disagree.
I suspect at least one rural resident would still be elected most of the time and even if one wasn’t, most councillors would be able to see the bigger picture and realize Bradford West Gwillimbury’s rural components play an important role in the town.
I also like the idea of residents being able to call any councillor for support, not just the one from their ward.
Yes, residents could do that now, but a councillor from another ward might just refer them to their own councillor or not take their concern seriously.
I realize Bradford West Gwillimbury is stuck with the ward system for the time being, but perhaps another revamp of the electoral system is something the new council could examine.