The people of Renfrew spoke and they did so in a relatively decisive manner and perhaps with more eligible voters voting.
Jason Legris came out on top of the mayor’;s race, which turns out to not to have not been much of a race at all, with Legris nearly lapping all the other candidates’ vote totals combined.
While not knowing the voter turnout, looking at the numbers suggests to me that more people voted this time out, but I don’t get the sense of a tsunami or anything. In fact, I’d be surprised if it even got to 50% of the eligibles.
That’s a huge civic problem.
I can’t allow for many other factors other than abject voter apathy for this, as much as I hate to say that. There just seems to be a very large disengagement between a municipal government and the residents of the municipality it governs. And it’s not something exclusive to us here in Renfrew, as other jurisdictions are experiencing the same thing.
Another thing I might consider is an aging population that may perhaps be intimidated by the voting process itself. Many of these folks have limited technical experience and capability, so the whole idea of voting online can be intimidating enough to not vote at all. And if they have any health/mobility/transportation issues, those issues may also keep a demographic like that at home on election day.
Political cynicism may have factored into it. We’ve heard for years the political slop coming out of the United States, what with stolen election claims, ballot counting machines, armed individuals at polling stations, and the like. Democracy has been attacked by our American friends and what was something just ten years ago is something completely different today. This cynicism may have had an impact as well, even at this level. People may have become, quite simply, fed up with politics and politicians altogether
But I’ll put my money on apathy and disengagement.
As mentioned, it was Mr. Legris who ran away from the field in the contest for mayor, almost a full thousand votes ahead of his nearest rival in former reeve Peter Emon. At the outset, I considered Mr. Emon to be one of the favourites, mostly owing to experience, institutional memory, and an impressive political résumé. Looking at the results, none of those factors appear to have been in play. I talked about how Emon, Tom Sidney, Mike Coulas and Legris were my so-called Big Four. As you can see, there was no Big Four. Voters stampeded to the one candidate, Mr. Legris, leaving the others distant in the rear-view mirror.
A very impressive election night result indeed.
So what happened here? In 2022, the top two contenders for mayor were within a dozen votes of each other, with the third-place candidate just another handful of votes back. This time we get a decisive juggernaut, surely a reflection of Mr. Legris’ campaigning savvy and his impressive popularity within the Renfrew population.
So, four things at work here.
First, the other serious contenders for mayor were all tainted by the Ma-Te-Way mess mostly attributed to the 2018-2022 council. All three of Perter Emon, Tom Sidney, and Mike Coulas were on that council, with Sidney even chairing the Parks and Recreation committee that oversaw the Ma-Te-Way expansion. Jason Legris was not, although he served as that same committee chair when elected for the first time in 2022. Most people feel that the damage had already been done prior to Legris chairing the committee, so he got a pass from receiving the scarlet letter the others did over Ma-Te-Way. That, by no means, is an illegitimate argument to make. It’s perceived that Legris inherited a mess not of his own making, something I can accept as well.
Second, when the winds of change begin to blow, it’s a son-of-a-gun-of-a-thing to do anything about it. And if you’re on the wrong side of things, or on the wrong side of the political curve, your chances might just get blown to hell in the gale. Mr. Legris had full sheets of wind on Monday, and it might be for the simple reason of people just wanting change.
Third, Mr. Legris ran a campaign right out of a campaign textbook, and it was he and Peter Emon who had the most polish among the contenders, what with signs, ads, effective websites, community outreach, literature, door-knocking and all the rest of it. I believe they both had booths at the Renfrew Fair.
Finally, I mentioned Mr. Legris’ popularity within the community, something that directly translated to votes. He’s not viewed as any kind of elitist or anything, and is regarded by most as a benevolent populist with an eye on the bottom line. He now takes over the job at one of the most turbulent times in Renfrew’s history. We’ll have to see what, if anything, that might do to a benevolent populist.
Cal Scott getting more votes than Mayor Tom Sidney says a lot about something, but I’ll have to leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
On the other side, the council side, there was all kinds of action, with all ten candidates reaching the 1,000 vote milestone.
Incumbent councillor John McDonald topped the polls, securing more votes than any other candidate in either race. His 2074 votes gave him a cushion over hard-charging newcomer Bruce Rozycki, sitting just 93 points back.
No surprise to me to see Mr. McDonald do so well here by topping the council polls. He’s solid, steady, tenacious and gracious, and has also ran a solid campaign, the only candidate to fashion three different lawn sign looks and engage his mobile command post — his Ford F-150 or his side-by-side — to help keep his visibility as high as anyone else’s.
Bruce Rozycki was a bit of a no-brainer. Plenty of experience in serious things, both as a career and by virtue of board memberships like at Renfrew Hydro, where he served as chair. If there’s such a thing as a minimalist lawn sign, Bruce employed them to maximum effect.
What caught me a bit by surprise was Sandi Heins cruising near the top of the charts, just 71 shy of Rozycki. I was wondering how voters would receive Heins this time out, primarily because of her participation on that Council of 2018-2022 and the Ma-Te-Way overrun. But in a previous article, I talked about degrees of culpability, and Ms. Heins may have benefited from this notion. Of all the other candidates associated with Ma-Te-Way in the public eye, it was Heins who was singled out as having expressed the greatest degree of concern around the protocols that should have been observed more correctly, or observed at all. So it may be that Ms. Heins is not as clearly associated with that imbroglio, and as a result, she may well have escaped those winds of change that blew others to the curb.
I would also suggest that Ms. Heins has a base of sorts within the community, a core group that would support her in any election, a product of her time and experience within Renfrew, both in and out of government.
The final three successful candidates were incumbent Kyle Cybulski, newcomer Scott Miller, and incumbent Andrew Dick, taking the last three council spots with totals of 1,844, 1.802, and 1765 respectively. As with McDonald, I wasn’t surprised to see the incumbents be returned and I found Miller to be solid candidate.
My biggest surprise involves incumbent councillor Clint McWhirter.
McWhirter seems to be the male version of Kate Windle, both living the political credo of “you win some you lose some.” Mr. McWhirter is a sold council member, and I really don’t understand why his support seems to wax and wane the way it does. All the other incumbents increased their vote totals compared to the 2022 election, but McWhirter dropped by 242 votes. After covering council for the past many months, I honestly fail to see how 242 people could just disappear from an effective and experienced candidate with no political stains to speak of while his fellow incumbents actually increase their totals dramatically. Last time out, Mr. McWhirter finished second among all councillors just four votes back of Jason Legris. But now, once again, he’s on the outside looking in.
As to the other three, Hayley Heaslip, Kate Windle, and Guy Longtin, all three topped 1,000 votes, which is impressive albeit the low voter turnout. Heaslip’s invigoration and youth seemed to catch the attention of voters, finishing seventh behind Andrew Dick and even posting a 66 vote margin over the aforementioned incumbent McWhirter.
Kate Windle, to her credit, tried again and came up short, demonstrating her commitment to the Town of Renfrew. And former Fire Chief Guy Longtin finished behind Windle, but again, the 1129 votes is still impressive.
FOR MAYOR
| CANDIDATE | VOTE TOTAL |
| JASON LEGRIS | 1653 |
| PETER EMON | 659 |
| MICHAEL COULAS | 581 |
| CALLUM SCOTT | 240 |
| TOM SIDNEY | 156 |
| JOSH MARQUARDT | 113 |
FOR COUNCIL
| CANDIDATE | VOTE TOTAL |
| JOHN McDONALD | 2074 |
| BRUCE ROZYCKI | 1981 |
| SANDI HEINS | 1910 |
| KYLE CYBULSKI | 1844 |
| SCOTT MILLER | 1802 |
| ANDREW DICK | 1765 |
| HAYLEY HEASLIP | 1439 |
| CLINT McWHIRTER | 1373 |
| KATE WINDLE | 1190 |
| GUY LONGTIN | 1129 |
We now have a council led by a mayor who was a rookie councillor four years ago. He is joined by three councillors who are now the seasoned vets in the room, but they too were rookies four years back. We have two legitimate rookies In Rozycki and Miller, but I don’t know it the title rookie really applies to these two despite being newcomers. And we have Sandi Heins, former mayor and councillor, the most seasoned veteran of them all and the new institutional memory around the table.
As I said, there are tough times and difficult decisions ahead, and these seven people will be the ones tasked with that.
My thanks to all who voted.
