Less than three weeks from now, one thing is certain: Thompson city council and the School District of Mystery Lake board will look much different than they currently do.
When the nomination period for mayor, council and school board candidates closed on Sept. 20, there were 22 candidates overall for 16 positions — one mayor, eight councillors and seven school board trustees. This isn’t as good as in 2018, when there were approximately, in total, two candidates for every one available position, though of course they were not equally apportioned. There were more people running for council than for school board but every race had enough candidates to make an election necessary.
This time, that is not the case. With all but two of the current school board trustees electing not to run again, there were five available spots. Fortunately in one way and unfortunately in another, there were also five new candidates who put their names forward, though one of them previously ran unsuccessfully for the board in 2018. It is fortunate because it means there is a full slate of trustees for the 2022-2026 term, or the start of it at least. This eliminates the need for the trustees to try to draft someone to join them or for a byelection to be held. On the negative side, these five candidates obtain elected office without the electorate having a chance to weigh their ideas and opinions on, well, anything and decide which candidates best reflect their own values and indicate that approval by casting a ballot. This doesn’t necessarily mean that any of the five new trustees aren’t worthy of the positions they will hold after Oct. 26. It just means that they won’t have had to justify themselves to the people they represent before starting to do so.
When it comes to the council election, the first piece of good news is that there will be a council election. There are 12 candidates vying for eight spots, and eight of those candidates would be new councillors if they are successful in their campaigns. If all of the incumbents who are running again —Earl Colbourne, Brian Lundmark, Kathy Valentino and Duncan Wong — get re-elected, half of the council will be rookies. If any incumbents aren’t among the top eight vote-getters, there could be five, six, seven or even eight rookie councillors. Depending on what happens in the mayoral race, they could be serving alongside a rookie mayor as well.
Obviously, trying to predict precisely what the new council will look like is literally nothing more than a guess. But it could have more female representation than it currently does, as three of the eight potential rookie councillors are women. Regardless of who is elected, it seems like there will be a different dynamic on council. Two of the incumbents seeking re-election are in the bloc that usually carries votes during the current term, while two of them aren’t. The de facto opposition side in the current council is made up of three councillors who often vote together and a fourth who does so at times, though not quite as regularly. At least half of these councillors will be gone, though one of them could end up as mayor. Two of the larger bloc have declined to seek re-election as well. Depending upon who gets in as mayor and who gets elected to council, these frequently diametrically opposed members could find themselves in unfamiliar positions of power or of powerlessness. Or there could be a new bloc that controls many votes. Or a council made up largely of swing voters who raise their hands according to their own consciences rather than based on alliances. There are numerous possibilities even before taking into account the position of mayor. Though the mayor only has one vote like the rest of the councillors, having a clique whose members hold similar viewpoints can make things easier on a mayor if they largely agree with them, or harder on them if they largely disagree. Judging by the councils over the past 12 years or so, it’s a pretty safe bet that there will be a couple members who disagree with each other on almost everything and that debates will sometimes get tense as a result.
Thompson is a city that sometimes seems like it is undergoing constant changes. This is probably true of many other cities as well, but the Hub of the North has seen considerable disruption since the current group of councillors were sworn in in early November 2018, apart from Andre Proulx, who didn’t join the group until a byelection the following spring. There are plans to build a new pool to replace the old one that got shut down after falling into disrepair. Parts of the city are currently dug up due to ongoing infrastructure work, and it’s set to continue for several more years. Vale slashed hundreds of jobs when its smelter and refinery were shut down four years ago. A new sobering centre is on the way, someday. Whoever the next group of councillors are, there should be plenty of work to keep them busy and plenty of big decisions for them to make. But for the next few weeks, they won’t be the ones making decisions. The voters will.
This editorial appeared in the Sept. 23 print edition of the Thompson Citizen.
