Who would want to be the mayor of Renfrew?
Other than perennial candidate Cal Scott, what person would have the willingness to take on a thankless position at the head of a table of squabbling councillors and overly-confident and assertive administrative types?
Is it the base salary of $20,425? Add committee and board assignment remuneration to this base salary, but where does that get you?
As recently as 2022, the mayor landed some $42,400, so one could maybe be forgiven for assuming that the mayor’s position took an almost twenty grand haircut in the two years since.
My point here is that it can’t be for the cash, at least not in 2025. Maybe in 2022, when it was all rainbows and cherry blossoms, but not now. At least I don’t think so.
Trying to get information on this sort of thing is like sitting in the dentist’s chair while they take multipole measurements of each tooth in your mouth while everyone in the room gets older. Because of this, I’m going to take the $42,400 number as my working number, and to hell with what the internet says.
So, after all that, my question remains, who would want to be mayor of this place? Is just over forty grand enough money for the self-abuse that surely follows everyone who wears the chain of office? And if it’s not, how much salary would be enough?
It would rankle me somewhat to be sitting in the Council chambers surrounded by a bunch of staffers all making three or four times the money I make. There’s even talk out there about how the treasurer makes six times that salary, but I can’t confirm that without a Freedom of Information request, and the annual Sunshine List doesn’t seem to be be too good at getting down to the brass tacks, so I don’t know for sure. I also hear the CAO gets paid a bonus for each person working under her supervision, which makes me want to know how many people have been hired by Renfrew’s CAOs in recent history, and for how much.
No matter. a lot of these people act like they make three times the mayor’s salary. Almost like they view the mayor as some clown who gets to wear the chain they can then use to yank him into shape for following their directives to him, and not his to them. You would need a stronger mayor to have it otherwise. What we have currently is a hoody and a pair of shorts short of American Senator John Fetterman, who just can’t seem to get untracked from the wardrobe he rocked when he was living in his mom’s basement all those years ago. Not that he did, mind you, it’s just that he dresses like it. Fetterman, that is, although Tom can capture it perfectly depending on the event.
Speaking of Tom, the current mayor was asked for his resignation in the wake of the Ma-Te-Way scandal.
He said no.
But still, nothing screams a really good work environment more than having your co-workers express non-confidence in you, and that’s from the egregiously poorly-paid councillors who make the least amount of money in the room. maybe they were just pissed more at the wage disparity.
So where’s the benefit? Money? Power? Prestige? The potential for malfeasance and corruption?
I just don’t see it, I really don’t.
But from what I’m hearing, there may be as many as six individuals intending to run for mayor in 2026, or who are putting out their “feelers” to get a sense of their potential chances. And that’s six people not named Cal Scott or Kate Windle, who always seem to play the role of electoral kitty litter at the bottom of the ballot box.
From the current Council roster, there’s a possibility that no fewer than Peter Emon, Clint McWhirter, Jason Legris, and Andrew Dick are assessing their potential for taking a run at the chair that comes with the chain, and the right to be addressed as “Your Worship,” although the real “your worships” sit on either side of the mayor, with the treasurer thrown in for good measure. If there are boots that need licking in this crowd, it’s the three staffers, not anyone running for mayor.
What about former mayor and councillor Sandi Heins? She finished a scant thirteen votes behind the current fellow, and had it been just the two of them, she probably would have tobogganed right into the job no problem. I see her at Council meetings from time to time, ominously taking notes, periodically mumbling under her breath, I believe in frustration. I’d have to say there’s something there with Ms. Heins.
What about Mike Coulas, another candidate back in 2022, someone who scored the support of some 25% of the people who bothered to show up and cast a ballot? Mr. Coulas is a former councillor as well, and for a long time a major business owner in the community. He carries some built-in gravitas, and depending on vote-splits, could see a way to navigate up the middle to claim the chain.
What about current mayor Tom Sidney? I mean, he did win last time out after all, albeit by a whisker. But that was before his fellow politicians tried to run him out of the chamber with their resignation request. Would he entertain the idea of running again, even though his campaign would have the flavour of a bowl of chick-a-dee soup? Or would he seek his electoral revenge on his tormenters by running as a “spoiler” to the campaigns of the other candidates? It’s hard to determine whose campaign he would hurt the most, because it’s not like all of his supporters from last time are going to stampede over to Cal Scott. But then, after having just said that, I realize I may have stumbled upon the perfect revenge recipe for a guy who may be interested in burning as many bridges as there are bridges out there to be burned. Imagine four years worth of Cal Scott shaking his fist at everyone?
It can leave a person breathless.
And what about somebody else? Is there a somebody else out there? A number of somebody elses? Maybe somebody tired of the whole thing and intent on bringing some sanity to all levels of what goes on at that place on the corner of Raglan and Railway? A person of strength, principle, integrity, and oomph? Somebody who’d want to re-draw the roadmap so that everyone could know their lane, their place, and maybe how to do their jobs without letting personal considerations factor into it?
Do such people even exist?
In 2022, 2,746 people voted for mayor out of a total eligibility 6,459. That’s a whopping 42.5% of eligible voters making an X beside someone running for mayor.
If someone were to tell me that I could run for mayor and win with 873 votes out of an eligible pool of 6,459, I’d say they were presenting me with an electoral opportunity.
Could you imaging a six-candidate race? Could you imagine the vote split? Please, Cal and Kate, just stay home and watch some television. Maybe throw the OPP logo up on a dartboard or knit a media sock. it’s in everyone’s best interest.
Imagine if somebody who knew what they were doing could energize that unclaimed vote, that stagnant vote? Identify them, work with them, and get them out to vote on election day? Somebody with the time and resources to go get those voters. Someone who can speak with them, not at them, someone indefatigable? Someone who can connect with people of all types?
If there were to be somebody like that kicking around, they could be a significant handful for the other candidates to deal with.
One thing I know for certain.
If Legris, Dick, McWhirter, Emon, Sidney, Heins, Coulas, or anybody else runs for mayor, only the winner will be on Renfrew Town Council when the sun comes up the next morning. You can only be mayor or a councillor, and you can only run for a single job. Being unsuccessful at either precludes you from the other.
A crowded mayors race means a brand new council, dependant upon the intentions of Councillors Cybulski and McDonald, who would then become the godfathers, despite being rookie councillors not long ago. I’ve not heard anything regarding the political intentions of these two, so they’re either playing things close to the vest or just have more sense than the other four.
At any rate, the political season is soon to be upon us, not counting the provincial and federal political scenes. The next municipal election is less than 22 months off, and so the posturing will be beginning soon if it hasn’t started already.
Keep your ear to the ground.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 