By Doug Draper
We’ve had the municipal elections in Niagara, Ontario this October, but it is not over!
Should this regional chairman, Peter Partington, be replaced by someone elected by Niagara residents?
The next important decision to be made in municipal governance in Niagara, Ontario is the choice of a new chairman who will be the top politician at the regional council level for the next four years.
Whoever is elected to this position, by a vote this coming December 9 by 31 newly elected regional councillors and mayors across Niagara , will set the tone for where we go in this region around policies and programs over that four-year term. It is an election that occurs at a time in a region that faces tremendous challenges and opportunities.
There is now a grassroots petition going around, urging newly elected regional councillors not to consider a candidacy by someone outside their elected ranks. There have been reports in the local media that some un-elected people may be vying for the top seat at the region, including Damian Goulbourne, the outgoing mayor of Welland who lost his bid for a regional council seat in his city. Goulbourne declared his wish to throw in his hat for the regional chair’s seat while he was running for one of two Welland regional council seats – won by incumbents George Marshall and Cindy Forster, in her case a former mayor of Welland.
Niagara At Large is posting the petition and its preamble for our readers information. It follows below.
Petition Eligibility for the Office of Regional Chair and Voting Procedure The Municipal Act and Municipal Elections Act allow any person who is eligible to be an elector in a municipal election to run for the Regional Chair position even though that person was not elected to one of the 30 regional seats across Niagara.
This has never happened in Niagara’s 40 year history. The Chair is always elected from the 30 elected Regional Councillors. If this traditional process is circumvented, then this becomes an issue of the erosion of our rights as electors in the Niagara region because we will be represented as a region by an individual who was not one of the people we the electors of the Niagara region chose to represent us but instead we will be represented in some cases by a failed candidate for regional councillor.
Any individual who was not elected to a Regional Councillor seat on October 25th but wants to be nominated and elected to the Regional Chair position on December 9th becomes part of that erosion.
To visit the petition and find out more about saying “yes” or “no” to it visit http://www.democracyniagara.com/
(Visit Niagara At Large At http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
There is a lot of interest in the upcoming election of the Regional Chair on December 9th. I’d like to clarify some statements carried in the petition preamble, according to some research done by Regional staff today. So, for the public record, John Campbell was appointed as the first chair in 1969 by the Premier of Ontario. Mr. Campbell was reappointed Regional Chair for six additional terms of office by Regional Council without having been elected to Council. He retired in 1985 after serving as Regional Chair for 16 years. Mr. Wilbert Dick served as Regional Chair from 1985 to 1991. In 1985 he was elected as the Regional Councillor for Niagara-on-the-Lake and he was appointed Regional Chair by Regional Counicl. In 1988 Mr. Dick was appointed by Regional Council for another term as Regional Chair without having been elected to council. Since 1991, all the appointed chairs (Brian Merrett, Debbie Zimmerman and Peter Partington) have been elected members of Council. The inaugural Regional Council meeting takes place in two sessions (10 a.m. and 4 p.m.) on December 9th. Our website at http://www.niagararegion.ca will be updated when we confirm if we can manage webstreaming those meetings live. TVCogeco has confirmed they will tape the meetings and televise them on Friday, December 10 at 11 a.m. We also plan to identify a space or room at the Region in addition to the public gallery to welcome residents to this important meeting. Please visit http://www.niagararegion.ca for updates this coming week. Thank you.
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