ALL CANDIDATES MEETING

All sixteen candidates involved in the 2026 Renfrew municipal election gathered at Ma-Te-Way on October 6th for an all-candidates meeting sponsored by the University Womens’ Club.

The event was literally standing room only as the venue had every one of the previously set-up chairs filled by audience members, with a healthy cohort of residents standing along the periphery and up on the room’s stage.

That means something.

When there is this level of voter engagement for an event like this, some twenty days before the election proper, it’s usually a signal of one of two things. First, there may be a dynamic new candidate that completely energizes and electrifies the audience, and they will drive miles and hours to be in the same room with that candidate. Think Barak Obama and the two Trudeaus, although probably not the example best suited for a place deeply embedded in the 613 culture. So sure, if you really have to, think Donald Trump and his red-hatted rallies.

The other possible reason for such a turnout is the fact that there may be discontent in the land. And folks are mad.

There might have been a bit of both of those two things, although not so much the former. Not counting the school board races, there are sixteen candidates competing for one mayor spot and six council positions, so such a large candidate pool can lead to the presence of friends, family, and well-wishers in the audience. And that can help fill a room of course.

But there were plenty of people who didn’t appear to have any affiliation with any particular candidate and they, along with that first group, filled the room and left many of the incumbent councillors wondering where everyone was back in 2022. That was the year, and the election, where Renfrew managed to catch the attention of some 45% of eligible voters, a completely dismal happenstance for our local democracy.

If this all-candidates meeting is any indication, then we might just be looking at a bigger turnout this time around, something that’s obviously helpful for the entire electoral process. It’s important to unsderstand that every time we don’t vote, we actually do vote: for the diminishment of our democracy, one lost vote at a time.

An increase in voter turnout usually indicates that something’s up, and while I’m not smart enough to tell you exactly what that is, anger is definitely right up there as a possibility. And that’s the kind of thing that can keep incumbents awake at night. Because dramatic changes in turnout usually mean, as I said, that voters are either energized by something new or extremely angry at the status quo, neither of which is particularly appealing if you’re an incumbent, or even a former incumbent.

The room was packed, but it was also awfully dark, and the microphone/speaker combination didn’t quite do the heavy lifting that was required.

Right off the bat it was announced that the Ma-Te-Way issue was not to be talked about, because as the explanation went, it was a done deal. I got the sense that there was more than a few people in attendance who weren’t totally done with Ma-Te-Way as an issue. And to be honest, Ma-Te-Way is a huge deal, maybe the biggest deal. To arbitrarily remove it from the discussion was a pretty brazen decision in my mind. I’m actually surprised that the assembled crowd didn’t react more negatively, but good on them, I suppose.

All financial considerations moving forward are tied to Ma-Te-Way debt sure as hell, and yet we’re not allowed to talk about it, so that decision kind of rankled me. It’s not because I was looking for blood on the floor and a pound of flesh, but holy smokes, it was our only opportunity to have people speak to that, to their possible association with that, and to make any effort to clear things up. Instead, the University Women felt otherwise, probably thinking it would dominate the entire evening’s discussion.

Yes, democracy can be messy and imperfect, but as Winston Churchill once said, it beats the shit out of all the other systems of government. Not being able to question and discuss what many consider to be THE issue was unfortunate, but I guess if you’re the one hosting the meeting, then you’re the one who gets to call the shots.

I think that was a missed shot.

I don’t know how one gets into position for hosting such an event, but it’s something I may actively consider getting into myself. So if I’m alive in 2030, watch for me and my all-candidates meeting.

I’ve assembled each candidates opening remarks, so there’s something. I do not have any coverage of the question and answer segment, mostly because I was running out of battery and trying to conserve power for a magic moment. Aside from Andrew Dick not being happy with some candidate commentary around a proposed housing development near the Dragonfly Golf Course, it was a spotty kind of Q and A that didn’t get to all the questions posed, in writing, by audience members.

For the life of me, I have no idea why my videos of the evening all have a pesky Cal Scott appearing out of nowhere at the very end. I was troubleshooting for an extended period time, but I’ve failed, and I’m now giving up.

But maybe it might work out.

Voters can now watch my videos of the candidates making remarks, but then right at the very end of each one, an image of Cal Scott comes up, sending a shiver up the spine of voters, almost reminding them of the possibilities if they fail to make good choices.

In closing, I’d like to register my disappointment at the current trustee being once again acclaimed as a trustee for the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board. That’s three consecutive acclamations, totalling twelve years. That means that for a period of twelve years, not a single vote from a resident of Renfrew contributed to her placement on that board.

And I guess she felt she didn’t need to show up. But I guess school board trustees are kind of living on borrowed time anyways, since the education minister is out to get rid of them altogether, aside from some exceptions for Catholic boards because, well, they’re Catholic, and maybe French boards, because they’re, well, French. But still, so long as the Tories remain in power , the position of trustee appears to be on borrowed time.

The public board trustee candidates showed up.

FOR MAYOR

MICHAEL COULAS