Public split on if East Gwillimbury should move to a ward system

Yorkregion.com
April 24, 2017
By Simon Martin

Be careful what you wish for. East Gwillimbury council wanted more input from the public to help make a decision on the town’s electoral review. But if councillors thought the April 19 public meeting would give them more clarity on what direction to take they were sorely mistaken.

Around 70 residents piled into council chambers and what became abundantly clear 15 minutes into the meeting was there was no consensus.

What further complicated the matter is residents were responding to different ideas: whether East Gwillimbury should switch from an at-large electoral system to a ward system and if they should add two additional members to council.

Holland Landing resident Don Howard was adamant he didn’t want to move ward system. “Right now I have four reps on council that I can go to if I have a problem. I don’t want it to be reduced to one,” he said.

There were several others who espoused support for the status quo. Resident Bruce Robitaille said it would be best if council did nothing siting the 2010 ballot question on the issue. “The electorate told you to leave it alone. Nobody can say one system is better than the other,” he said.

Holland Landing resident Doug Leitch also didn’t understand what the problem was with the current system. “What problem are we trying to solve?” he asked.

For a lot of Mount Albert residents at the meeting the problem is very apparent to them. When longtime councillor and Mount Albert resident Cathy Morton ran for mayor and lost in 2014 it left the area without a resident on council.  “I am from Mount Albert. We don’t feel we have councillor. I do support a ward system. We want someone from our area to represent us,” Mary McIntosh said.

Mount Albert resident Scott Crone was concerned that the at large system would grow more inequitable as Holland Landing, Sharon and Queensville are set to grow prolifically in comparison to Mount Albert. “When you look at the last election three members of our council are from Holland Landing,” he said.

Some residents also thought a ward system was important because it would ensure that a councillor would have even greater stake in representing them. “A ward system would ensure a person who has a stake to our wants and desires,” Mount Albert resident Shea Thompson said. “Other areas outvoted us. It wasn’t because we didn’t (our representatives.) We got outvoted. That’s why a ward system is important.”

The distinct village cores in Queensville, Holland Landing, Sharon and Mount Albert would seem to best be served by a ward system, Christine Glenn said. “It’s important to have one person who has their eye on the ball in that community,” she said.