Byelection? Appointment? Council could be heading for a fight to fill Ward 13 vacancy
Andrew Lupton | CBC News | Posted: October 8, 2021 8:00 AM | Last Updated: October 8, 2021
Staff recommend appointment vote to fill Kayabaga's seat, some councillors have other ideas
Arielle Kayabaga's election to Parliament is setting the stage for what could be a fractious debate at London city hall about how best to fill her vacant downtown council seat.
Under Ontario rules, council can opt for a byelection or simply appoint someone to fill the spot until the next municipal election, which is set for Oct. 24, 2022. On the surface, a byelection option may seem the most straightforward, democratic approach, but it's not what City Clerk Cathy Saunders is recommending in a report coming to Tuesday's meeting of the corporate services committee.
Her report, which you can read here, instead recommends council to issue a call for interested parties to apply to fill the Ward 13 vacancy. The candidates would then be voted on by full council, with each member getting a single vote. The voting would continue round by round until one candidate receives an absolute majority. After each round, the candidate with the least amount of votes would be removed from the list.
So, why this approach instead of letting voters decide?
Saunders's report argues that tight timelines, due to multiple provincial rules that govern election timing, pose big challenges. The winner of the byelection wouldn't be in place until February, only three months before a nominations open for the municipal election. Her report says that would put a stress on resources, with staff running a byelection while getting ready for the full election.
Everything is really tight, it's a divided council and I'm expecting the conversation about this to follow that same path - Coun. Elizabeth Peloza
While Saunders's report doesn't cite this as a reason to opt for appointment, a byelection would cost between $165,000 and $180,000 with a suggested voting day on Jan. 31.
Council doesn't have to follow the clerk's recommendation, and after CBC News spoke to some councillors on Thursday, it's clear the appointment approach is far from assured.
Other options abound
Coun. Maureen Cassidy, who chairs the corporate services committee, likes the option of appointing someone with previous council experience to fill the seat, as long as that person agrees not to run again in the full election (though there's no law to hold them to this).
"I believe if we appoint someone and they opt to run again, we'd be giving that person an unfair advantage," said Cassidy.
Council took this approach in 2014 when former mayor Joe Fontana resigned. Ward 5 Coun. Joni Baechler was appointed to fill in as mayor for the five months remaining in the council term, and former councillor Russ Monteith stepped up to fill her seat.
"I think we should be able to find someone who doesn't cause too much dissension," said Cassidy. Any newbie filling the seat would have trouble overcoming the steep learning curve that comes with the job, she added.
What about Kayabaga's runner up?
Another approach would be to appoint John Fyfe-Millar to fill the seat because he finished second to Kayabaga in the ranked ballot municipal election in 2018.
Many council members said this idea is being floated around city hall, though no one who spoke to CBC News said they're outright backing the approach. Coun. Josh Morgan, for example, said he's not decided on the best way to fill Kayabaga's seat but did say he likes the idea of "reflecting the will of Ward 13 voters in a meaningful way."
Fyfe-Millar, who told CBC he'd be "honoured" to do the job, finished behind Kayabaga after an eight-round nail-biter in the 2018 election, which used the now-scrubbed ranked ballot system. Coun. Stephen Turner rejects this approach, saying he believes few Kayabaga voters would have ranked Fyfe-Millar, a conservative, as their second choice.
"I think the argument that ranked ballots identify who the next person should be is a perversion of the process," said Turner. Other councillors pointed out that Fyfe-Millar failed to win the ward when he ran in 2014.
Some councillors expressed concern that a mid-winter civic byelection would have low turnout and compound voter fatigue left over from a federal election which failed to bring any significant change to Parliament.
Turner, however, said he thinks a byelection is the only fair way to hold the vote.
"If we wanted to avoid all those costs and all those issues, we'd have dictatorships," he said. "We don't do that in Canada."
Turner said he's "disappointed" by the report and its recommendation for appointment, which he said "falls on the side of what's convenient instead of what's right."
Coun. Elizabeth Peloza, who sits on the corporate services committee, said she'll listen to what others have to say before making a decision on how best to fill the seat. But regardless of how it's filled, she said who fills it will be significant in a divided city council and a ward that covers most of London's downtown core.
"We've had so many 8-7 votes," said Peloza "Everything is really tight, it's a divided council and I'm expecting the conversation about this to follow that same path."