A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper
Posted May 1st, 2026 on Niagara At Large
This May 1st marks the first day that anyone interested across Niagara can run for a municipal council seat or a trustee’s seat on one of the region’s two major school boards in this coming Fall’s municipal.
And with Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his Conservatives working harder than any provincial government has before to dissolve the decision-making powers of our municipal councils and school boards, it is more important than ever that we have people sitting on our councils and school boards that have what it takes to stand up to the Ford juggernaut on behalf of the people and communities they are elected to represent.
Sadly, I have not many mayors or councillors at the local and regional levels who have shown that kind of moxie to date.
The only mayor out of all of them currently representing Niagara’s 12 municipalities who has consistently demonstrated a record of opposing Ford’s earlier bid to force municipal amalgamation on us (a plan the premier has temporarily put aside) and his more recent push to slash the size of Niagara’s Regional Council from 32 councillors s down to twelve local mayors ruled over by a Chair appointed by Ford is Fort Erie’s Wayne Redekop.
Town of Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop
Redekop has been a profile of courage for Fort Erie and for all of Niagara, and hopefully he will run for mayor in the Town of Fort Erie again.
The other mayors -particularly those in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland – have either expressed their support for this provincial power-grabbing scheme or have signaled to Ford that they are prepared to go along with him, whatever he decides to do.
So if, as it looks right now, Ford is successful in his bid to slash Niagara’s Regional Council down to 12 mayors and whatever servant to him that he picks as a Chair, it is critical that we have people running for the seat of mayor across our region who are going to have the strength and determination to represent us.
It is also important that we elected people to our local councils who will support the mayor in that effort and who ultimately make it their mission to stand up for our interests and not those of Ford and his hand-picked regional government Chair.
So now is the time for all good men and women dedicated to the good of our communities to come forward and run for a seat on their municipal councils.
This is also a shout-out to younger people out there because it is your future at stake.
Niagara At Large will continue pounding this drum as they days and week now leading up to this Fall’s, October 26th municipal elections.
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Stay tuned. Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
To receive details on how you can register to run for municipal office in Niagara, click on – https://createsend.com/t/t-040B491DF2620E0A2540EF23F30FEDED
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