Residents of Brantford Can’t Afford to be Lax About Our Upcoming Elections
In less than two months now, residents of Brantford will go to the polls to elect a new City Council. With dozens of candidates running, we voters will have a medley of options to choose from – a very good thing.
That’s because events in recent years – ranging from the COVID-19 to the impact of climate change – have made it clear that Brantford faces strong challenges, from a lack of affordable housing to our crumbling infrastructure to a less-than-strong economy.
To successfully address these, we’ll need bold and innovative leaders to rise to the occasion. But we’ll also need Brantford’s residents to make their voices heard.
Unfortunately, recent events have me concerned.
In this summer’s provincial elections, Ontarians turned out to vote at the lowest levels in our province’s history. Voters in communities like ours decided not to participate in our democracy, with potential disastrous results. Take, for instance, recent cuts to local health care services as but one example of this.
So I applaud everyone who put their name forward to serve our community, it’s also clear that what happened in our province could also happen in Brantford this October. With much of our current City Council retiring or deciding not to run for re-election, most Council races are wide- open.
While there are a number of excellent candidates for each, others are running on single issues or unquestionably lack the skills and knowledge to tackle Brantford’s many problems. Yet, unless we all participate in the October election, we could be stuck with them on our City Council for four years.
We simply cannot let that happen. With so much on the line, I urge my fellow Brantford residents to take the time to examine the candidates that wish to lead our community and make sure that our voices are heard.
Apathy will get us nowhere, and we have a chance to build a better future – but only if we all participate.
Andy Straisfeld
