We only have 26 days before we vote for a new mayor, council and school board here in Thunder Bay. Everyday I notice more and more election signs popping up on street corners, people’s lawns and on fences. Municipal elections are different than Provincial or Federal ones… there are way more people running. First of all we have four different categories to vote in, mayor, councillor in your ward, councillor at large, and school board. In provincial and federal elections you vote for one person for one riding. In each riding there might be 5 different folks running for that seat… there are only so many political parties.
In municipal elections there can be as people running as want to run.
For mayor this year there are 11 different folks,
26 running for councillor at large,
24 people for the different wards: 4 Current River, 3 Mcintyre, 4 Mckeller, 5 Neebing, 2 Northwood, 3 Red River, and 3 in Wesfort
18 guys and gals running for Public School Board
and 16 for the Catholic School Board
If I did my math right… and I like to think that I did, that’s 95 people running in one election
Which means there is potential of seeing 95 different signs… that would take up an entire football field. Can you imagine driving home and see all 95 signs lined up one after another on Memorial? By the time you got to home you probably couldn’t remember 3 names. As it is we are already seeing cluster of signs on different corners and lawns.
Each of us could vote for 12 to 15 different people depending on what school your kid goes to.
Here is the break down: Mayor, Councillor in your ward, 5 councillors at large and 5 to 8 school trustees. So that means we could have up to 15 different election signs on our lawn… wow that’s a whole pile of signs.
Check out these websites to get more info about the candidates and the election