Lucas Cleveland campaigned with a promise to lead instead of manage and to do things differently. Although he has no Council experience, he’s now our new Mayor, narrowly defeating incumbent John Henderson. And that’s not the only change: Nicole Beatty beat incumbent Suzanne Séguin for the Deputy Mayor’s position. In Council, there are two new councillors: Miriam Mutton and Randy Barber – although both have had some previous experience as Councillors (Miriam in Cobourg in both 2006 and 2010 and Randy Barber in Markham). Full vote numbers are below. I was surprised with three results: Nicole Beaty beating Suzanne Séguin and both Michael Sprayson and Mark Mills losing. The only certain thing that can be read from the results is that a large number of people in Cobourg want change.
For those who are worried about the direction of the new Council, remember three things:
- The Mayor by himself does not control the Town – he is just one vote. We’ll have to hope that Lucas can do what he says and “get everybody on the bus”. If he leads everyone in a direction that we all want, he’ll be a good mayor.
- The Deputy Mayor may be “in charge of the budget” but she also only has one vote. Nicole also promised to be a prudent money manager.
- With all councillors (but not the mayor) experienced, there’s little danger of going too far off-track.
In Port Hope, they also elected a newcomer: Olena Hankivsky. She replaces long-time Mayor Bob Sanderson who did not run.
Here are the numbers:
2022 Municipal Election Results
Mayor
| Candidates | Total Votes | Result |
| Lucas Cleveland | 3391 | Elected |
| John Henderson | 3286 | – |
| Total Votes Cast (includes declined and spoiled) | 6757 | |
Deputy Mayor
| Candidates | Total Votes | Result |
| Nicole Beatty | 3817 | Elected |
| Suzanne Séguin | 2751 | – |
| Total Votes Cast (includes declined and spoiled) | 6740 | |
Councillor
| Candidates | Total Votes | Result |
| Adam Bureau | 4111 | Elected |
| Brian Darling | 3761 | Elected |
| Aaron Burchat | 3412 | Elected |
| Miriam Mutton | 3260 | Elected |
| Randy Barber | 2531 | Elected |
| Mark Mills | 2362 | – |
| Michael Sprayson | 2336 | – |
| Ashley Bouman | 2269 | – |
| Sara Gardinier | 1819 | – |
| Johnny Percolides | 1261 | – |
School Board – English public Trustees: Terry Brown and Jaine Klassen-Jeninga
The Town of Cobourg has 16,523 eligible electors and the Voter Turnout was 40.9 per cent. The number of ballots cast was 6,757. The turnout in 2018 was 43.6%.
Resources
The Municipal election page on Cobourg Internet here gives the picture before the election. The page includes results from previous years. It will be updated around midday on Tuesday 25 October.
Addendum 25 October 4:45 pm
The Town has now released Official Results.
Print Article:
Yawn,,,,,,,,meanwhile where is the outrage at Ford/Piccini destruction of Ontarians Charter Rights? Where are the comments about vagrancy, crime and lawlessness in Cobourg?
It is not surprising what the Ontario government is going , unfortunately uninformed people vote them in , so much for fool me once 😁
you should be commenting here about your second question 😉
https://www.cobourgblog.com/news-2022/police-update-october-2022
Its rich listening to Trudeau drone on about the human rights violations as it relates to Provinces proposed “notwithstanding” legislation – the same person who froze the bank accounts of innocent Canadians, established vaccination detention centers, forced terminations of unvaccinated workers, denied the right to earn a living to tens of thousands of Canadians, etc… His Human Rights contraventions are on display during the public inquiry. Hypocrisy is alive and well in Ottawa.
The Province needs to pony up with some real money for CUPE workers – 1.25 – 2.50% isn’t going to get it done and CUPE needs to understand the 11.5% isn’t realistic. But in either case, students should not be used as chess pieces and must remain in the class at ALL costs.
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
Thumb down for the first paragraph. Thumb up for the second one.
Really Me Cleveland…what were you trying prove at McDonalds
A calm sane individual would have said ok. They would have taken the $100 bill back and offered a $20 or interac.
Now we a mayor elect who believes he is victim at both McDonalds and Kellys.
The Town doesnt need the drama.
Mr Cleveland might I suggest a quick apology and move on with the statement ” I know I can do better and will do better for the Town.”
There were several candidates who appeared on this blog during the campaign, Cleveland was one. I would be nice to invite Cleveland back to provide an explanation…of course we would need to limit the length of his explanation as he has a tendency to really enjoy the sound of his own “voice”. He needs to clean this up quick because it’ll become increasingly difficult to shake off his new nicknames: Mayor McCheese and Cobourgs NEW McMayor
Or known as Lucas ” Wheres the Beef” Cleveland
Have you ever considered removing the chip from your shoulder? Pete M? Lucas has only been Mayor for 2 weeks.
Audrey dont be a. Lucas apologist.
A mature adult would have known better. A savvy politician would have known even better.
I believe most people know that most businesses will not accept $100 bills. And really in this day and age who uses paper bills.
In Lucas’ case, i feel that as mayor elect he was trying make a point that Im the mayor elect and an exception should be made for him.
And for that I say shame on him.
There is no chip on my shoulder..
It is my belief that Lucas should hold himself to a higher standard now that he is elected and a representing all of Cobourg.
And if he isn’t capable of doing that then he deserves the new nicknames he’s earned thru his antics.
In future he needs to avoid McDonalds and Happy Meals.
I would Suggest he try Big Boy Burgers
If the employee refused to give back the $100 bill then how could Mr. Clevland take it back? Maybe he did not have any smaller bills to offer (not a problem I personally have). Usually there are several employees working at the same time. I would have asked one to get the manager. Most business do not like bad publicity so the manager may have been able to help out without calling the police. For all I know the employee already spoke to the manager who is the one who called the police. Does McDonald’s have a policy of not accepting $100 bills? Did the employee think it was counterfeit? Was the employee having a bad day? How hungover was Mr. Clevland? There is something missing from this story. Hopefully we will know soon, in the interest of transparency of course. If this is the biggest issue we have in Cobourg at the moment then life here is very good. Today I am going to meet a friend for breakfast and take advantage of the warm weather to get some outdoor work done.
I am so happy to see that Mayor Cleveland is a real live actual human being. For heaven’s sake, you people. He has explained both incidents. If I can find it online so can any of you. I’ve met him and chatted with him; so have both of my adult daughters. I wouldn’t be able to live downtown any longer were it not for M&S and he’s strongly indicated that he does care about seniors in Cobourg. Furthermore, his parents live here. Furthermore, he’s spent all of his time in Cobourg as a very popular and well-liked figure. Now he’s a new, very young Mayor and almost half the town are out to bring him down. FOR USING A ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL. In any case, the more he’s mocked and scorned, the tougher his skin will become. And he responded to both incidents with humility. So pphhhhhhhhhttttttttt.
Now his third version comes out does he know how to be truthful. If I’m a councillor I don’t believe a word out of this guys mouth for the next 4 years
You’ve got to wonder – if given another chance would those who voted for him choose to do it again? I mean, his character was pretty clear if you looked before the election but as established in this thread, that seems too much to ask for of the electorate. Now that it’s practically a meme – people are paying attention. Woulda’ Coulda’ Shoulda’.
Might be better to pose that question in 12, 18 or 24 months not 2-weeks after the election, when they haven’t even had a meeting.
Nothing like a good ole fashion, small town rush to judgement…. 😉
But you’re right about one thing, this is a meme and he messed up.
If this was the one and only “mess up”, I would agree. The “messing up” keeps happening before and after the election (and…is likely to continue to happen). Can’t wait 😔
Rushing to judgment? I’m not one to do that about anything – those who know me often criticize that I’m too slow to judge. The evidence here is plenty, documented, explained, and repeated.
I am dismayed at the public response to the news story in Today’s Northumberland, November 1, 2022, regarding our newly elected mayor and McDonald’s on William Street, over a $100 bill being kept and police being called. Not the best start to your new position. Pity. https://todaysnorthumberland.ca/2022/10/31/exclusive-incumbent-cobourg-mayor-not-very-mchappy-with-service/
So what’s been the public response? I didn’t see any here or in N-Today or in Today’s N.
I thought the link went to TN Facebook page. There are over 111 comments. Some blame the Mayor, some blame McDs for holding his money and not giving him change or his order. Choose a side. Some calling the Mayor untruthful (my word). You name it. Quite the interesting read so soon after an election.
From Today’s Northumberland article:
“I walked into Kelly’s the other day and couldn’t even get a drink because I was booed out of the place.” -mayor elect Lucas Cleveland
I don’t think so.
There have been accounts on Facebook today dealing with this very topic and at least two people said that this event the booing of the mayor elect never happened. They also said that they were there and saw the interaction
That floored me. Someone who claims they were at Kelly’s the night of the alleged booing called Mr. Cleveland out as being untrue. In the comments on the TN FB page.
What floored you — that our new mayor is a liar or that someone called him out about it?
Me thinks we are in for a long 4 years. Unless he fails to finish his term for one reason or another.
Thats a great story – the focus should be on why this MacDonalds worker, attempted to steal/keep the Mayor-elects money. Under what circumstance is this okay, regardless of who the customer was. I’m certain if they attempted to keep my money, they wouldn’t have needed to call the police, I would have called them first. I hope the individual was reprimanded… Also, I love that Cleveland states he was hungover and just trying to buy a Happy Meal for his son. I don’t always like our small-town politics and reporting, but this is terrific. Clearly, Kelly’s is enemy territory for Cleveland given the number of years Henderson has polished the bar with this shirt sleeves. It’ll pass…but hopefully we will get a few more stories like this first. 🙂
If we are dealing in speculation here the employee probably kept the $100 bill because she was under instructions to keep such bills because of the possibility of being counterfeit. It happens it is company policy for some companies to do that.
There is signage in establishments that indicates that they will not accept certain bills (commonly $50 or $100) and employees will refuse to accept them, however I don’t believe they would be instructed to keep someone’s money if presented with it and wait for law enforcement.
Well, a problem customer probably wouldn’t have hung around for a $5-$6 McHappy meal, but he would for C-note until the cops got there.
Shake your head Rob.
You were dismayed. sob
“sob”, like in sonafabitch?
or
“sob”, like in crying/tears?
crying/tears. I should have just played my tiny violin. 🙂
This is a small town and people talk. I’m not going to re-tell second hand stories that are not mine to tell. But I will say that the absence of any of the ‘Flub 4’ who got elected, nobody congratulated or welcomed the new Mayor Elect. was noticed. People are watching you Council. Act accordingly.
I hope our new Council will not approve/disapprove the Police Budget because
how could they possibly absorb that budget in just a few days time. They should plan to delay the vote.
According to many of the comments on here, the incumbent mayor and deputy mayor being voted out is down to an uninformed electorate, or the candidates names being displayed on the ballot alphabetically.
An alternative theory: their loss is a direct result of them spending the last four years pandering to interest group(s) who don’t hold anywhere near the the political clout they think/would have you believe they do.
The prevailing political wind isn’t always making the most noise.
A big shock was Micheal Sprayson not getting more votes. Here is a an intelligent, informed well spoken candidate that would have been a great addition to council. A big disappointment was Nicole Beatty voted in as Deputy Mayor. As she’s never been prudent with spending of taxpayers money before, why start now? Hopefully there’s another opportunity for her to jump ship to the Liberal party and she’ll be gone. The 3 councillors receiving the top numbers of votes is also disappointing as basically as far as voting for council matters goes they could control the narrative along with Beatty. Same old, same old. Good news for Lucas Cleveland, Miriam Mutton and Randy Barber.
I have a question that someone may be able to answer. We have never had children and I know nothing about the school board candidates. However, it seemed to me that if I didn’t vote for them my vote would be deemed spoiled. I voted on line. Did I make a mistake somewhere or is that so, and if so, why?
Gailr……we had the same concern! I purposely went to our library, to the voting area, to bring this to the attention of the young man in charge! I cannot remember his name, but he took it under advisement and said he would look into it? We had to ‘back track’ to the page with the school nominees and just pick ‘someone’ in order to carry on with our finalising our vote!
Thanks Ken. I have already mentioned it to the Town Clerk. Is it a legal requirement? Or an IT goof?
I believed that with the online requirement to confirm each voting segment before being able to continue to the next one, and with also not voting for unfamiliar School Trustees, my votes would qualify just as they would if using a paper ballot.
Hopefully the new council and mayor will push to get the East pier back to all the people, the previous group obviously failed
We can’t afford it!
Then give it back to the province
The Province never owned it. It was originally owned by the Federal Govt.
Tourism in Cobourg did just fine for the last few years without it.
There’s that magic word again…Tourism.the main goal of Cobourg.
Cornbread
As usual a shoot-from-the-hip, black and white reply.
The East Pier rebuild and its’ proposed combination of uses will add a unique recreational and income producing asset to our Town. If businesses don’t draw your wrath when they invest for the future, why should investments by the Town do so?
Cobourg is set to at least triple in population over the next 75 years, as it did over the last 75.
The high-quality-of-life available to all will be a factor in attracting residents who want to both live and work here. More jobs will come here because those are the kind of employees businesses want.
Yes, the cost of the East Pier restoration has become a problem. The answer is “fix the problem”, not scrap the project!
Perhaps what this town needs is more shoot-from-the-hip instead of endless expensive consultants reports that very seldom get acted on. Repair the pier has a limited return on investment. Let the area return to a more natural setting at limited cost…you will still have a protected harbour. Cobourg, I don’t believe our town has the land mass for 75,000 population unless they build high-rise structures, and I don’t think that will happen.
Cornbread
“Shoot-from-the-hip” values ignore tested information and examples of success found elsewhere. It supports the fact that we seem to have to experience disaster before we work together to prevent it.
You raise the specter of high-rise apartment buildings which says to me you are unaware of other attractive housing types, as well as adding ancillary apartments and independent structures to existing single family homes and their lots.
The latter is now one of a number of solutions to the lack of housing-affordable-to-all being promoted by the Town. Adding a rental unit to an existing property might help prospective buyers afford the purchase price.
Staying within Cobourgs’ present boarders for the next 75 years is a challenge that will force the more efficient use of our urban land, end sprawl and the distruction of valuable agricultural lands and improve the quality-of-life for all.
An example of sprawl is now taking place at the end of Elgin St East. On the north side you will see a sickening example of development offering only single family and plex housing.
The key to achieving a sustainable lifestyle and effectively getting climate change under control is using less energy.
The development north of Elgin East will never be served by well designed, frequent and affordable public transit as an alternative to the private automobile.
Keep depending on the private vehicle as we do and we can kiss the well-being of future generation ‘”goodbye”.
At our present rate, the UN has just predicted that worldwide average temperatures will increase by 2.5 degrees above pre-industrial averages by 2300. The maximum tolerable increase is agreed to be 1.5 degrees.
Goodluck to us all!
Keith, it seems incredible that you feel that adding rental apartments to single family homes, infill buildings and other ways to increase density is conducive to keeping Cobourg a family friendly town. Instead we should direct our efforts to maintaining large lots with trees and gardens, wider streets, more parks and larger play areas for our children. What possible reason is there for accepting that Coburg will have 75,000 residents? Instead we should be working to ensure larger setbacks, larger lots. spacious well built single family homes and generally lower density.
Ken
Thank you for your honesty in describing what you believe the future of Cobourg should look like.
“Family friendly” in my experience means a healthy, interactive, inclusive and diverse neighbourhood of which there are few if any in present day Cobourg.
To be honest what you describe is beginning to sound like a gated community in the wealthy section of Key Biscayne, Florida.
Affordable housing has been a problem for decades. Some people can afford large lots with spacious homes but many cannot. With rents as high as they are tenants will never be able to afford spacious homes on large lots. Increasing minimum wage will increase the cost of everything including food and clothing. This would make it even more difficult to save for a down payment. Large lots and spacious homes are good for some people. Smaller detached homes and apartments are better for others. If population density is increased with smaller homes, people could live closer to work. There would be less need for private cars and wide roads. Workers could walk or ride a bike to work decreasing their transportation costs. Fewer roads decrease maintenance costs and hopefully keeps property taxes lower. “War time” homes were built for soldiers and their new families after WWII. Those homes were small but worked. Many of the homes built today are much larger with fewer people. Smaller homes require fewer resources to build and maintain. Hopefully our new council will find ways to speed up the process and reduce the costs of permits. This will help keep housing costs down. Of course, more housing would mean more people which could make the beach more crowded.
Im curious Keith?
What are these ” other attractive types of housing” you speak of?
Because right now, it seems you do not want to change the foot print of the Town or the present residential boundaries.
It sounds as though ur opposed to tearing down older single family dwellings and building low rise ( 4 stories or less)multi family dwelling in place of the single family dwelling. This new dwelling would increase density that you are so eagerly want.
I take it you are in the process of adding an ancillary apt or independent structure to your single family dwelling?
Pete M
Adding an independent apartment to my house? … Done that! Kept rent low; great mutual friendship, excellent neighbour.
With me at age 85 and beginning to need help, I’m thinking of turning house into a co-housing project as well as building an independent duplex unit when cost of building material goes back to normal.
Attractive housing as an alternative to the status quo? There are many located in Toronto, several just off Avenue Rd.
Examples already in Cobourg? Look at the six-plex south west corner of Durham and Albert, or imagine a three story version of Palisade Gardens at the corner of Chapel and D’Arcy (including the James Club condos facing James St), capable of 45 units per acre including an inner court yard and parking. This is four times the number of typical single family dwellings as described by Ken below.
There are the six-plex units at the south west corner of King East and Willmott (first street intersection west off the railway bridge) which because of fewer square feet of exterior wall area per unit cost 30% less to heat and cool and cost as much as 20% less to build.
I have enough professional experience to know what I’m talking about. The Globe and Mail, the Urban Land Institute publications are full of articles describing what I’m only repeating..
The new “strong mayor” system of government, now part of the government of Toronto and Ottawa should soon begin to produce examples of a more compact urban form and all the benefits that follow.
Keith, an acre is 43560 square feet so 45 units per acre means that each unit occupies about 958 square feet including sidewalks, hallways, storage areas, play areas, parking, driveways and green space. Looked at differently, everything for each unit would have to fit into the space of two garages!
Your suggested density is not four but is actually ten times the density that is desirable for family accommodations.
Ken
You need to familiarize yourself with multi-storey structures which you seem totally unfamiliar with.
With that knowledge and using your math, Palisade Gardens, with thee storeys of apartments/condos and one of underground parking, equals a one storey equivalent of 3,832 sq ft per unit but includes a common inner court yard, hallways, storage and parking. That would be the equivalent of a modest single-family home on a 38×100 foot lot.
Enough! I’ve clearly made my case which will be accepted or rejected by readers. In doing so I’ve tried to answer thoughtful questions by others.
Keith: there is no way you can triple the available residential housing stock by “infill housing”. Not even close.
Jim T
I said infill housing was only part of the solution, not the solution. Could be promoted, explained and carried out right now.
Jim T, the official plan calculated that filling the infilled boundaries could accommodate 11,000 people if properly used. Start with that!
Correction!
The UN prediction concerning the rise in global temperature by an average of 2.5 degrees was to the end of this centry, or by 2100 not 2300.
Does this UN prediction replace those related to global cooling? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling
Cornbread & Keith,
The EP and harbour repairs will be a significant financial burden on the Town and its taxpayers. There is lots of blame to go around. Mainly, IMO, to prior councils and staff.
The problems have been known for 20 years, since the Town purchased the harbour from the Feds in 2002. The Feds even gave Cobourg $400K cash in lieu of repairs. Talk about an omen.
Had repairs been done over the years as needed, the Town (we) would not be facing a $15M+ repair bill now.
Bryan
The lesson to be learned by the example of the East Pier repair is that when a problem presents it’s self, and especially if it has the potential to get worse … make it a priority, act, solve it.
I believe that it was several years before the need for major repair wotk was determined that several large, shallow sink holes were identified, filled in and repaved. That should have rung everyone’s bell.
The new mayor has indicated he will manage things differently.
One could argue that the Council is now half new and half old. This could result in a kind of balance which will promote change but not to an extreme.
Will be interesting to see how Randy Barber and his expeience as a two-term councillor elsewhere fits in.
Another example of the consequence of inaction is the final cost of the last piece of privately owned land that now makes up Victoria Park. This north west segment was first offered to the Town for 100 thousand, which the Town refused. Several years later a group of concerned citizens helped the Town buy it for 400 thousand.
With the current inflation rate, the tag would be close to $20M
You’re not wrong – enough squabbling. This group can have the legacy by moving past small-town politics and personal agendas and simply getting things done. I hope Randy Barber represents an old guard, to keep the team on point and settles things down – much like a veteran hockey player on a young team. This will likely be necessary to keep Cleveland calm and to ensure when progress slows (and it will), that Cleveland doesn’t take it too hard. Someone needs to keep Nic Bea focused on her current job and not any potential seat in Provincial/Federal politics and certainly away from her leftist agenda.
I also hope this Council puts significant pressure on the CAO – with a freshly minted team of new hires and considerable increase to SG&A, there should be no excuse for unfinished business and extending deadlines.
People tell you who they are — if only more would pay attention.
Randy can ‘represent the old guard’ as much as he wants. He doesn’t have the votes. He also may want to revisit the marina expansion (just watch the sustainability all-candidates video – it’s right near the end)
Lucas had a LinkedIn account pre-campaign. I stopped being able to find it several weeks ago. Curious. He has also ‘been responsible for managing multi-million dollar corporations.’ Really? And he can’t afford to live in Cobourg? Even after moving from one of the most expensive provinces in Canada? If you look, his partner kept a blog while they traveled. That wasn’t long before they decided to move to Cobourg. They celebrated that Lucas became a driller in 2014. Do some math. He wants us all to get on the same bus. When asked where he would drive it (Cogeco interview), he balked saying that wasn’t his role. I will lead. That’s the platform.
Nicole is 40 years old. She claims experience in and with multi-million dollar companies and organizations for the last 20 years. 20 years puts her in second-year university. Again, math is sometimes hard to follow. She also openly shares her journey with sobriety (beginning 6 years ago). That’s something you could sit and think about for a minute. She brought a motion to council last summer regarding tent encampments and then voted against her own motion. Her reasoning – she wanted policy. There was policy! No encampments. She was against the last big consulting project, then for it (because she talked to staff many of which don’t live here).
Adam voted for every motion to spend above the budget last year. He has a goal for the mayor’s seat. Mark my words. And, he’ll likely get it because you see him, every day, smoking, outside of his pawn shop.
Aaron has fallen asleep in council. More than once.
Brian shuns public engagement. It ends at the election.
Civil discourse has become difficult because so many turn to Facebook for their news and discussion. What happened to sitting with uncomfortable questions until you get answers? Too many people would rather be handled at their front door and vote because someone made them feel special for a second. I hope for their sake the same people will come to ring the doorbell again when this ride gets bumpy and the wheels start to fall off the bus. Maybe then some research and critical thinking will be worth their time.
As decent a man as Mr. Henderson is, I think the Town needed a break from his style of management and he will appreciate the break from the Town’s politics. Hoping Council all pulls together behind Mr. Cleveland. Fiscal management is more important than ever now.
I never heard of Lucas Cleveland nor his store and he’s been here 6 years??? I hope his ideas benefit all the town. Sadly to say, the only ones that ever knocked on my door this year were Brian Darling and Aaron Burchat, so they are the only ones that got my vote. Maybe the reason the vote was so low, was that nobody knew who you were.
Tucker
If having a candidate knock on your door is the prime reason you vote for an individual, then we are in a sorry state!
It can be argued that local government is the one that affects the quality-of-our-lives most directly.
All of us should watch Council meetings from time to time, enough that we get to know Councilors, staff (and even deligates when their issues are important to you), understand what motivates their decisions, how well they do their jobs as coordinators.
Maintaining a true democracy, especially a local one, depends on everyone being involved to the best that their circumstances permit, not just making the effort it takes to answer the door bell every four years.
Well Said Keith!!!
Keith,
This is one of the few times I have agreed with you.
As Pete M wrote “well said”
Sad the percentage who voted us low when it is so easy to do it online. I’m sorry to see our mayor leaving. I contacted him twice with concerns to which he reacted immediately to both and responded within 24 hours. Glad to see some previous councillors I had voted for and disappointed one got in. Let’s pray they do well and I feel filling in the surveys they put out to us in the past allows for our input. Vote and be involved
An admitted afterthought: A campaign to broadly publicize John’s blog would have helped shake out the recumbent incumbents.
,,,, maybe next time we should collect money to rent a billboard or distribute a blog newsletter or hire a consultant (just kidding)……
4 members of council are the old guard, 3 members of council are the new guard. Don’t hold out much hope that there will be much change. I agree with Pete M below. The temptation to hire more consultants will be huge for a number of reasons: New/untried Mayor and DMayors and staff hasn’t changed. As Henderson said “staff decide the priorities” and I still believe that to be the case. Further, the ‘realities in Cobourg’ of life-politic will shortly descend on the new Mayor and with the Province further incursion on the municipal planning and development departments, will result in considerable compromising on the newbies.
Interesting to see that alphabetical voting seems to still be a thing.
For mayor and deputy mayor both candidates whose last names comes first in the alphabet won. For council everyone with name recognition won, followed by the person listed first alphabetically.
A similar pattern can be seen in vote totals for each candidate, with Percolides receiving the fewest votes. Both Mills and Sprayson break the pattern, likely due to name recognition, but then it continues in the order with Bouman, Gardinier, and Percolides.
It’s not quite as egregious as last election, which made this pattern quite obvious.
While I’m pleased with this election outcome, I do think the candidate order should be randomized on every voter’s ballot.
While I think that most people vote their conscience, I expect there is still a large portion of the voting public that votes for the names that appear at the top of the list. The election of Miriam Mutton seems to go contrary to the idea that alphabet is the prime tool for voter selection. Yet Ms. Mutton was well known, and name recognition would add significantly to her success. While it is likely only a minority that vote the names that first appear on the ballot, it does give a sizeable edge to candidates with a surname beginning with the early letters of the alphabet. This could help explain the defeat of a quality candidate like Michael Sprayson.
While I agree with Stan G. there is a systemic flaw in this method of voting, I do not believe randomizing the order that names appear will cure the defect. It will just make it slightly less obvious some voters simply choose the names at the top of the list.
Perhaps the fault is our constant urging everyone to get out to vote. Maybe it would be better if only those who took the time to educate themselves on the candidates and the issues were encouraged to vote.
When I say randomizing the ballot, I mean that it should be randomized for each individual ballot. You would have a different order than I would, and so would your neighbour and so on. I feel this would be the most fair solution.
And I should perhaps clarify my point a little. I agree that most people do indeed vote their conscience. But with so many options, I have to imagine most people don’t feel strongly about all candidates, and may end up voting the top of the ballot just to “use up” all their slots, even if they don’t technically have to do that.
Meaning, say you have an opinion on the mayoral race, and maybe three of the councillors. When you go vote you’d obviously pick those four people regardless of their name, but for the rest of the candidates you may not feel motivated to do the research to figure out who to vote for. So you just tick the top boxes and go about your day.
Randomized ballots for every voter would help alleviate this, and would be a trivial thing to implement in today’s electronic voting age.
I’m sure this is easy enough to accomplish for online ballots however I think it is much to do about nothing…I don’t believe this has been the case over the last several elections. It looks like alphabetical order hasn’t played a role.
StanG, if not alphabetical voting then how do you explain the results? They were certainly based on ability, previous performance, effort of campaigning or other obvious factors.
Ken probably because not everybody agreed with your choices, don’t make excuses for them!
“…I don’t believe this has been the case over the last several elections. It looks like alphabetical order hasn’t played a role.”
It doesn’t appear to have been the case in 2014, but in 2018 the pattern was even more obvious:
https://www.cobourgblog.com/news-2018/municipal-election-results
Note that I’m not saying that this is for sure something that’s happening, it could all be a coincidence. But at the same time, it’s certainly not impossible that my little theory is correct.
Stan, nobody has offered a plausible alternative explanation.
3 of 5 Council members elected on Monday were incumbents. Mutton might fall in this category to some degree as well (so 4 of 5). Incumbents are (re)elected at a far greater rate than newcomers. I would say this is particularly true in sleepy towns that struggle with change and transition. 3 of 5 elected incumbents last names also started with a letter found in the first 4 letters of the alphabet (complete coincidence).
If the other Mayoral candidate was named Zac Zackerson, Henderson was still going to get ousted – change was’a coming. Many newcomers aren’t elected during their first run in politics but Cleveland ran a very effective campaign…door knocking, social media, using the store and its brand recognition, signage, etc… I would say there was no other candidate that came close to the effort and energy that was put into his campaign.
Randy Barber was elected because he has outstanding credentials, was active in the community and educated voters saw this. Thank goodness his name wasn’t Randy Wilson or he may have been overlooked. 😉
Good morning. It is great to see change.
I am hoping that the new Council–like our new Mayor– understands that this town is a pretty easy place to retire in. What is difficult to do here is:
(1)-open a business; create jobs and provide a needed service.
(2)- to ask our children to grow up here.
Lets–please–work on those last two things…
Great points. We desperately need new business downtown. I’d hate to end up like Peterborough where the Main Street has been overtaken by drugs. And a huge ask – I’d love to see a new restaurant that doesn’t serve pancakes or still think people want to eat a chicken Caesar wrap or any other menu item that can be purchased from an Air Canada cart.
I suppose you don’t go downtown much. It IS overtaken by drugs , and homeless. Also , glad you can afford food other than a wrap
Lemon Cake thank u for sharing what u dont want. Would u be so kind to share what u would like and maybe someone or some entity will meet ur need
At least now we’ll get to find out what exactly our new Mayor has in mind when he talks about change and improved processes. I could never find any specificity on what he actually intends to do or change.
That’s an interesting idea, one that we will all wait for. When asked for a plan of action for his campaign he demurred smiled a cheesy grin and said “I will lead”. Lead whom, lead what and lead where. We anxiously wait for answers.
I absolutely do not want to be led. Certainly not by any politician.
I wish to be governed, effectively, without partisanship (at the local level).
Several posters have noted the low turnout and that is a problem. However, votes by a poorly informed electorate are a far larger problem. Consider three of the candidates in yesterday’s election:
Candidate A
Current Councillor who has voted to approve every spending increase and every unnecessary consultant hired over the last 4 years. No website, almost no roadside signs, no promises to control spending nor any real platform, little time canvasing.
Candidate B
No political experience, single important issue, website noted by Mr. Draper as having little content, no roadside signs, no promises to control spending nor any real platform, little time canvasing.
Candidate C
No political experience but successful in business, excellent website, daily email of answers to voter questions, many roadside signs, well reasoned and articulate proposals to control spending and increase resident engagement, many hours canvasing, support from spouse and teenage sons.
Results
Candidate A re-elected. Neither Candidate B or C elected yet Candidate B received almost as many votes as Candidate C.
Ken I agree with your analysis.
I do disagree with John s assessment that voters wanted change.
From my assesment voters didnt want Suzanne or John as DM and mayor, yet returned back to council every member from last council that stood for re-election.
And in John s case he lost by only 105 votes which says there were alot of voters who supported John s actions on the last council.
Change would have been voting in Sprayson and Mills in and not a recycling of last council and past council members.
As I ve always said, people vote the name and not what the name stands for.
What I do know is the consultants of this Province are ecstatic…cha ching, cha ching… The spigot remains open
Not every voter in town wants to see a cheapskate council like a good number of visitors to this blog do.
Ahewson, not every voter in town has unwanted $100 bills falling from their wallets. Many have a problem paying for groceries and spending on unnecessary consultants, additional managers and nice-to-haves will make their problems far worse.
Mr. Strauss, your suggestion that you have a clue about living on a less than adequate income is quite hilarious. Did you know that a single person on welfare only receives a maximum of $710 monthly? That includes rent too.
Deborah, that is a curious comment! How does wasting our tax dollars on unnecessary consultants, additional managers and nice-to-haves relate to my knowledge of living on a less than adequate income?
Tip for future candidates….Just stand on the sidewalk all day and say “hi” to everybody who walks by.
While smoking and vote to waste $175,000 each year on an art gallery that nobody visits.
Yeah, really! $3,300.00+ a week for the AGN! A week!
Jim T, please research this grant and you will find you are really confused.
Ben, please enlighten us regarding how JimT is really confused about the grant.
I am sure you know Ken, you were speaking to the Chair of the Art Gallery the other night!
Yes, Ben, you are correct. I shared a dinner table with the Chair of the AGN on Monday. How does my dining companion change the fact that Cobourg’s taxpayers giving the AGN $175,000 per year is more than $3,300 per week?
Ben,
How is Jim T confused?
The 2021 grant to the AGN was $150K
The 2022 grant was $175K
Jim T said $3,300+ per week
$175K = $3,365.39 per week. Close enough
To at least 4111individuals….
“However, votes by a poorly informed electorate are a far larger problem.”
And whose fault is that? The candidates that’s who. When a person who wants to be on Council they have to get their name out. How many of these new candidates gave themselves enough time to do that?
To knock on every door requires six weeks of four hours a day. Many signs erected as soon as allowed and being at all meetings. If a candidate did that they would have shown the poorly informed electorate just who they were, at the very least that same poorly informed electorate would have recognised the name and maybe be motivated to vote to give that candidate a vote for effort.
Ken name one candidate who did that and you may have conquered this thorny problem.
Ben – You don’t think there are any willfully ignorant people living in Cobourg? I think you are giving the electorate an awful lot of credit. Just show up and talk to me, I’ll vote for you. I don’t think the results in several of the municipalities reflect that.
It’s been mentioned by different commenters on radio, social media, and news stories (not just in Cobourg) — people are apathetic, entitled, and largely unwilling to inform themselves.
I think some candidates put a lot of work into this campaign. I think some candidates didn’t. I don’t think either really mattered.
You are absolutely correct but it is my contention that when one has five votes to share amongst twelve candidates who do you think is going to get one?
The candidate who made the effort to contact the voter in person that’s who. As to the efficacy of door knocking look at the post by Tucker – “Sadly to say, the only ones that ever knocked on my door this year were Brian Darling and Aaron Burchat, so they are the only ones that got my vote.”
Made my point!
Im sorry I take exception to the statement…
Tucker was home when those two knocked. How do we know or do t know if others knocked, but tucker wasnt home?
Thats a cop out to say I only vote the person I spoke to at the door.
What if any research did u the voter do to find out what the candidates stood.
Lazy voters are dangerous voters
I agree, Pete.
Ben – we will have to agree to disagree. I think Tucker’s example better displays Ken’s argument (and supports Pete’s argument that lazy voters are dangerous voters) You knock on my door = I vote for you? That’s a pretty low bar. It certainly isn’t an informed one.
To expect a candidate to get face time with 17k voters is a pipe dream. To think a voter might take an hour to figure out what each candidate is about shouldn’t be too much to expect, but it absolutely is these days. It screams entitlement.
You [candidate] need to seek me [voter] out. Even though you [candidate] are one person, spending your own money and using your time. I [voter] resent the fact that you [candidate] want me to spend any time researching you! You [candidate] better seek me [voter] out, where I am, when I want you to.
What a terrible attitude when municipal politics is what actually matters when it comes to your day-to-day activities.
memo to Just a thought, try this thought – read my reply to Pete M and then having carefully considered it you may like to reconsider your absolute rejection of my POV!
Pete M read the comment I posted; “but it is my contention that when one has five votes to share amongst twelve candidates who do you think is going to get one?”
That is not the same as; “I only vote the person I spoke to at the door.” My statement is not exclusionary, we do know that if you have five votes you can vote for five people. If two of your choices are for people you spoke to at the door so be it.
By the way are you implying that if one votes for less than the allotted five votes then they are “lazy and Dangerous?” That is a statement that needs clarification as it is completely wrong. “Plumping” – being selective about using your votes to push one candidate above another is a time honoured Municipal voting tradition and lots of voters did it. Compare the number of people who voted in the Mayor’s race to the total vote count to the votes cast in the Councillors race and you will see that not everybody voted all five votes.
Do you think these missing votes came from “Lazy and Dangerous voters” or “Wise and selective” voters who “plumped” their vote?
I’m not lazy or dangerous, thank you very much, but selective in who I would want to govern. Why should I vote for someone who I do not know, don’t know what their agenda is, just to be able to put my “X” on 5 people. If I had wanted a candidate to win, I would have voted for them.
Tucker – how much time did you devote to doing some research on your own? Do you feel like you know Brian or Aaron simply because they caught you at your door? You are one person who had months to consider 14 candidates. The candidates are also one person expected to introduce themselves to and educate 17,000 people? We pay councilors less than $26,000 a year. Unless retired, candidates would need to have a job in order to live in Cobourg. So again, same amount of time you had for 14 people – the expectation is that they will visit 17,000 people. Sounds ridiculous.
Forget about whether you like the people who were elected or not. Do you truly feel, with all the issues we have and all the needs of all the people (many would argue have not been adequately addressed in the last 4 years), we elected the most qualified group of people?
“You are one person who had months to consider 14 candidates.”
Not true most candidates only put their name on the list weeks (and only a few weeks for some) before voting day.
And why dont you know who they are or what their platform is? Because you were lazy to inform yourself.
If you had of said “I did my research and didnt agree with their platform. ”
Then great you put in some effort and a rational reason not to vote for them.
But i’m sorry in this age of internet and social media, your reason is because I dont know them and dont know their agenda speaks volume to a lazy apathetic voter
If a candidate wants to run for office, it’s my opinion that it’s up to the candidate to let the voters know what they stand for and NOT up to me to go and seek them out to find out what they stand for. They want my vote, then make an attempt to get it. I’ve served on a Board of Directors for over 18 years and not once did any of the owners ever come to me and say “what are you going to do for us this year” and by the way, we never got paid a cent and always got the job done.
All future candidates standing for election in 4 yrs time, please note Tucker requires you to schedule a time with him to bring to him a a large screen with power point presentation in order for him to vote for you…. A website, facebook, instagram, Pinterest and twitter will not be considered…paper pamphlet maybe considered if it gets in his hand
Sorry to say I don’t do Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter so yes, by all means send me a paper pamphlet, I also don’t listen to radio.
Tucker,
You say you served on a private sector business board.
Did you seek the appointment or were you recruited?
You weren’t paid, so why did you do it?
You wrote “owners ever come to me and say “what are you going to do for us this year””. Of course not. The owner told you what results he expected you to deliver.
Stepping up and running for municipal council (win or loose) should be applauded. As others have pointed out, it takes considerable resources and money to run for office in Cobourg. Due in part to the lack a daily newspaper. Blogs like Draper, Pete Fisher, Rob Washburn, 89.7FM, 93.3FM and Northumberland News do a reasonable job considering their resources, but none equal distribution of a daily newspaper.
Given the effort the candidates make, I don’t think it is unreasonable to ask the residents to put in a bit of effort to learn about the candidates and what they offer.
That’s part of your civic duty as a resident:
Educate yourselfVote
Pete M and Bryan stop digging the hole!
Just surprised that the voter turnout was as high as it was. Did any of the candidates inspire the turnout? How many people voted out of a sense of civic duty?
We had no door-knocks, 1 piece of literature and hardly any other publicity. No wonder it was the older demographic that voted – many of them had little else to do.
The big surprise to me was that the only candidate that made a splash – signs, excellent website and a newsletter failed to win.
The bottom line is that all candidates deserved to win – they stepped forward and accepted the challenge, but only five can. Congratulations to all
It’s great to see change! I would have liked to see Sequin in the DM spot but hopefully Nicole Beatty will show some fiscal prudence. It really seems like the town has noticeably declined over the last few years – more crime, more drug abuse (at least it’s visible in the streets), more pot shops, and seemingly rudderless sprawl on the outskirts as we build more cheap fast food joints and let the retail mall rot. Here’s hoping these folks can help make this a place that can balance the needs of people who live here and make it an easier place to raise a family.
More info please. What percentage of eligible voters turned out? How many spoiled or declined? What percentage voted early?
Also I believe new Council will meet early in their term to set their priorities. Will there be an opportunity for public input?
That piece of info is right there in the article: 40.9%
Stan G
The gross percentage turnout is the base figure. To try and understand what motivates voters the declined and spoiled figures are important to know
Can there be a spoiled ballot with online and phone-in voting?
Stan G
Important to know why registered voters go to the trouble of declining or spoiling their ballot. It’s usually an act of protest, but against what? Otherwise easier for them if they just didn’t vote.
They may only be 1 vote each – however, it worries me that there are a total of 4 people on Council who regularly say yes to spending our money on Consultants.
Hooray! Hurrah! So pleased to have a new Mayor and DM!
Boo to the low voter turnout.
So easy to vote in this election, early on line or in person day of the election. No excuse for not voting other than lack of interest in your own town politics and direction. Please don’t complain if you did not vote we have a voice and sad to say some countries in the world don’t.