Vote!

By Doug Ewen Midland Free Press September 24 2010
With the municipal elections just a month away and given the extraordinary challenges that will face Midland and Penetanguishene, I felt compelled to send out this encouragement to vote. People do not seem to take advantage of their right and privilege to vote in municipal elections. In the 2006 municpal election the turnout in Midland was less that 40%. Let’s spread the word about the October 25th election and aim for a far stronger turnout to the polls. This encouragement to vote is especially important as our towns are at a crossroad. The leaders that we will elect on October 25th will need to have a vision and a bias to action to navigate the critical issues and challenges that we are facing.
In my opinion, the most important issue facing our towns is the future of economic planning and development. A strong economic development vision and action is the foundation of absolutely everything else that we do in our community. We cannot continue to simply raise taxes. We need new business, new industry and new jobs, which in turn create new revenue. Our municipalities have not taken a proactive role in true economic development. This is reflected in the fact that the Ontario government and Simcoe County do not even consider our area an “urban node” in their planning, meaning that Midland will take a back seat to Wasaga, Collingwood and others in the county when it comes to funding and development opportunities. This is not acceptable.
Our towns must act immediately and plan for our own economic future or we will stagnate and the programs that we all enjoy will become unsustainable. Conversely, if we take our economic future into our own hands, we can chart a course to controlled growth and prosperity, allowing us to sustain and enhance our municipal programs.
In each one of our communities we have been given very distinctive choices in the races for mayor, deputy mayor and councillors. I encourage you to engage the candidates and their vision for our future, make an informed choice and ensure that you cast your vote. Please don’t take our future for granted. The challenges facing us are far too important to leave to chance.
Please share this message with as many people as you can throughout our municipalities to encourage them to vote. Let’s get the voter turnout up in 2010.