The Oct. 27 municipal election is shaping up to be a vote unlike anything Greater Sudbury has ever seen. If anyone needed convincing this city is hungry for change, the 70 candidates who have thrown their hats in the election ring should do it.
We’ve 10 mayoral candidates, folks, and 60 seeking a seat on council. You don’t need to conduct a poll to determine voters in the Nickel City want to see a shift at Tom Davies Square — those numbers are convincing enough.
This is a city more politically engaged than most. Voter turn out in the last municipal election was around 50 per cent, which is high. Many communities are lucky to get 40 per cent — sad, considering the municipal branch of government has the biggest impact on our lives.
Given the level of interest, I’m fully expecting more than 50 per cent of you will vote next month.
And while it’s gratifying to see so much citizen engagement, the sheer number of candidates makes the choice we have to make more challenging. At Northern Life and NorthernLife.ca, we are trying to do our part to make it a bit more convenient for you.
We unveiled last week a new election section on the website. Just look for the word “Election” in the drop-down menus at NorthernLife.ca. In there, we have compiled the full list of mayoral, council and school board trustee candidates, arranged by ward and board.
You’ll find their photographs (of the candidates who provided a picture), links to their websites and social media and their contact info. You’ll also find news releases and platform info they’ve provided.
That press material is posted verbatim from the candidates. We didn’t clean any of it up in attempt to make anything more readable or understandable as we believe it helps all of us make better choices when we see how those running for office express themselves and their ideas in their own words.
And if you have questions, the contact info for the candidates is there so you can ask them directly.
Northern Life’s political affairs and city hall reporter, Darren MacDonald, will also continue to dig into the platforms of the city’s top mayoral candidates. I say “top,” because of the 10 on the list, only five — Dan Melanson, Brian Bigger, Ron Dupuis, John Rodriguez and Jeff Huska — are what I would consider serious contenders.
They have public profile, strong election teams, a measurable amount of support and three of them have unveiled platforms with actual concrete ideas.
The remaining five — Richard Majkot, Jeanne Brohart, Ed Pokonzie, Jean-Raymond Audet and David Popescu — have limited public profile or support and little in the way of election teams, making it difficult for them to gain the support necessary to make a serious run for the mayor’s job.
Beyond Ed Pokonzie, who is running in his fifth election, and actually has a platform, the other four seem to have no real ideas beyond the city-hall-is-corrupt-corporations-are-evil-and-only-religion-can-save-us-now variety.
As opinions, these are fine; as mayoral platforms, they’re more than a little thin.
We have also invited the top five candidates individually to sit down to talk about their platforms in front of our video cameras. Northern Life plans on bringing those editorial board sessions to you live (although the video footage will also be available after the fact at NorthernLife.ca).
We’ll let you know once all the arrangements have been made.
On the subject of live coverage, we’ll also be bringing you some of the mayoral debates that are scheduled. We haven’t decided which yet, but certainly the Oct. 15 debate organized by the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce is on the list.
Closer to the date of the election itself, we will also be publishing an election section in the paper with candidate and voting info, polling data and some interesting stories concerning the municipal election, so look for that as well.
Yes, summer may be behind us, but with an election just over the horizon, things are only just beginning to heat up.
Talk to you soon.
Mark Gentili is the managing editor of Northern Life and NorthernLife.ca.
