A deluge of candidates for some municipal byelections, none at all for others

A few of the 30 municipal council positions up for grabs in next Monday's byelections are especially competitive, and a few have attracted no interest at all. 

Eighteen contests have at least two candidates in the running, according to Elections NB's unofficial list.  

Six of those races have attracted even more candidates.

Kim Poffenroth, the CEO of Elections NB, is happy with the interest.

"We're just really pleased to see that level of interest across the province," said Poffenroth.

A council seat in Bathurst has attracted six candidates. Five candidates each are running for council seats in Moncton and Sackville, and four candidates are chasing one spot in Saint Andrews.

"Now it's up to the residents in those municipalities to get out and vote," Poffenroth said.

Geoff Martin, a political scientist at Mount Allison University and a former Sackville town councillor, said it's a bit unusual for municipal byelections to attract so much attention.

"I think the dynamics of municipal … byelections are similar to the dynamics in municipal elections," Martin said.

"Sometimes you'll find you'll have a … council of eight and the mayor, and sometimes you get 11 or 12 or 13 candidates, sometimes you get 20 candidates. There can be some variation anyway."

Targeted awareness campaign 

This fall, Elections NB implemented a targeted social media campaign to raise awareness of the byelections, both to increase turnout and to encourage people to run.

"When you're talking about municipal byelections it's very localized audiences, so we try to target our social media campaign to those audiences," Poffenroth said.

"By using these targeted campaigns we can feel more confident that it gets out to the people that it's relevant to."

New Brunswick is just now getting back to a sense of governmental normalcy after September's general election resulted in no clear winner and weeks of uncertainty about who would form government.

Provincial vote created openings

Martin said it's possible the provincial election inspired more people to get involved municipally, not only because there was so much talk about politics but also because some vacancies were created when councillors ran for provincial office.

"I mean politics is in the air, and with these vacancies having come from people having moved up or at least in most cases people having moved up from the municipal order of government — that can certainly be a factor," said Martin.

"In a case like Sackville, so, you've got Megan Mitton, who got elected to the legislative assembly, and now who's going to replace Megan Mitton on the council."

The political turmoil and elections have kept Elections NB busy, and even after byelection day, it won't be slowing down completely.

"Because of a minority government situation, we really do at Elections NB have to be ready at any time," Poffenroth said.

Still acclamations

The increased interest in byelections has not been universal in the province. 

Nine positions in eight municipalities attracted only one candidate each and will be decided by acclamation.

In Beaubassin East, Florenceville-Bristol and Riviere-Verte, no candidates at all came forward for council positions, which will remain empty until at least the 2019 spring municipal byelections.

"It's important that these municipal councils in order to work most efficiently and to best represent all their citizens, so all their citizens have a voice, it's important for those council positions to get filled," said Poffenroth.

Martin said acclamations and uncontested races are fairly common, especially in smaller communities.

Harder job in small communities

This is due, in part, to the smaller pool of potential candidates in small areas, but also to the dynamics of running a smaller community.

"Some of the larger and ultimately more prosperous communities … particularly the southern New Brunswick towns and cities, well, there's more staff to implement council policies," said Martin.

"There's more money to work with in terms of projects. It's not as oriented towards austerity as it may be in some of the more depressed municipalities."

Municipal byelections will be held Monday, Dec. 10. Polls open at 10 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.