elections

Why Barrie needs you to run

​

There are still 2 incumbent councillors and 1 school trustee who are set to be acclaimed, and 2 races are between only two candidates.  With no challengers, those set to be acclaimed don’t have to defend their positions (or even state their positions) or try hard at all to show they'd be good at the job.

 

Simply having two candidates in each race makes everyone at least put their policies together and communicate them clearly.

 

Three or more candidates, and it can produce a great conversation of what the City needs!

​

If only one candidate runs, they have a 100% chance of winning,
and the public has a 0% chance of having their say
or being listened to as part of the election process.

​

If you're unhappy with the choices our current and previous Councils have been making, it's important to get different people – and more diversity – on Council, so that all residents' voices can be properly represented.

 

Mythbusting the obstacles

(updated August 12)

​

I don’t think I could beat the person registered

• If only one candidate runs, they have a 100% chance of winning!  (This happened in Ward 9 last term, and is set to happen in Wards 5 & 7 if nobody else steps up.)

• If two candidates run, the winner would need 51% of the vote to win – sure, that’s steep, but not as steep as 100%, and the more candidates run, the less votes you need to win (34%, 26%, 21%, etc.)

• Last term, Ward 8 was won by only NINE votes!  And there were other very close races, too – you could be one of them.

 

I don’t think I could win

• Okay, maybe you can’t.  But just putting your name and ideas forward shifts the conversation, and the balance of power!

• You may not win the position, but you can win attention for the ideas that mean the most to you and the community.

 

I don’t have the “Big Bucks” in my corner

• Sure, campaign donations are always nice, but even the people with the "big bucks" only have one vote.  Good ideas and the support of the community are what get you over the finish line.

• For example, in Ward 2 last term, the winning candidate raised only 36% of the top fundraiser (who’d received a whopping $14,000 in contributions, but still received less than 1/3 of the vote).

 

I don’t like the current atmosphere at Council

• The atmosphere will stay the same if the people stay the same, let's shake it up!

• A new makeup on Council will change that atmosphere – it only takes one new face to shake it up, but many new faces will change it entirely

 

***NEW***  How can I be a good leader when I don't know everything there is to know about issues X,Y&Z?

• Good leadership isn't about knowing everything there is to know about everything – it's about being self-aware enough to realize what you know and don't know, recognizing your own blind spots, and consulting with and learning from those who do have expertise in the areas where you're inexperienced (or, often, even in the areas where you have experience, because everyone has their own way of approaching issues!).

​

I haven’t taken any political science or economics courses

• Good!  We need people with REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE to represent us in Council, not textbooks.

• Your real life experience as a resident of this city has far more relevance in Council than abstract theories written by people far away.

​

***NEW***  I don't know much about City planning or management

• That's okay, that's what City Staff is for – Council sets policy, with advice from staff (and hopefully seeking input from others in the community), and the staff determines the best ways to implement policy.

 

I’m not really an expert in all the issues / I don’t have all the answers

• Heck, do you think the current Council knows everything?  Some of them don’t even read the staff reports!

• Good leadership is knowing what you don’t know, and learning from the people who ARE the experts.  (And a little humility would be a lovely thing to see on Council, don't you think?)

​

​

Need more help to decide?

We've got a lot of resources, including links to workshops and videos to help you put your campaign together.

Just visit our Candidate Info page to learn more!

​