Days from deadline, no one has signed up to run for mayor of Markham or Vaughan

Thestar.com
July 24, 2018
Noor Javed

Have you ever wanted to be the mayor of a large suburban municipality?

This could be the year to make your move.

As of the end of the day Tuesday, just days before Friday’s 2 p.m. deadline to register as a candidate in the October municipal election, no one has registered to run for mayor in the large suburban cities of Markham or Vaughan--including the current mayors, Frank Scarpitti and Maurizio Bevilacqua.

The Star contacted both mayors to find out their intentions for the upcoming election, but neither responded to a request for comment.

Fellow councillors also seemed unclear about when or if the two would be registering.

“At this time I personally do not know who is running for mayor,” said Ward 4 Markham Councillor Karen Rea, who is running again in October. “There is lots of speculation and gossip.”

Rea said many fellow council members are watching closely to see what happens this week. “No one will actually know until Friday who exactly is going to run where. Even those already registered could change their mind and opt for a different position,” she said.

The delay in registering, according to some municipal experts, may be a “strategic” move to dissuade others from tossing their names into the ring.

“Is it a case of saying I am going to leave everyone in suspense and jump in at the last second, to nip other opponents?” said Robert Williams, a retired political science professor at the University of Waterloo.

“Or on the flip side, in cases where an incumbent is not going to run, a lot of people will put their name in--since they don’t have to defeat an incumbent,” he said. “But if you don’t know if the incumbent is running, it has a ripple effect on other candidates.”

“A decision to register at the very last second doesn’t strike me as a terribly appropriate way to treat the office,” he said.

In the 2014 election, Bevilacqua won easily with nearly 80 per cent of the vote, but faced a challenge from three other candidates. Scarpitti took about 70 per cent of the vote in 2014, running against four other mayoral hopefuls.

While the role of mayor includes long meetings and an obligation to attend social events, there are some perks to the job, too. Scarpitti was the highest-paid mayor in the GTA, taking home over $250,000 in 2017, including his regional, city and board pay. Bevilacqua was close behind, with combined compensation of $243,000 in 2017. These numbers don’t include expenses, benefits, car allowance or pension.

The apparent lack of interest in the cities’ top jobs isn’t limited to Markham or Vaughan. In Richmond Hill, for example, only two candidates are so far taking on longtime Mayor Dave Barrow, who is running again. In Mississauga’s race, only two candidates are in the running against current Mayor Bonnie Crombie, while 15 candidates sought the position during the 2014 election.

Joseph Lyons, a political science professor at Western University, says the lack of interest in the municipal election could be due to political fatigue following a particularly contentious provincial election campaign. And it could also be because most residents aren’t thinking about local politics in the middle of the summer, and that running municipally often involves people “doing a lot of stuff on their own” that is often taken care of by political parties at higher level, such as fundraising.

But all hope is not lost, said Williams. He says in municipalities where the politics has been particularly controversial, or where there is no incumbent, there are still many new candidates willing to take on the responsibility of governance.

For example, in Peel, 10 candidates so far, including former provincial PC leader Patrick Brown, are running in the regional government’s first election. In Toronto about 20 challengers have so far registered to take on Mayor John Tory.