Election fever in North Frontenac? Only among Catholics

Craig Bakay | Aug 15, 2018

Since all of the positions for North Frontenac Council (Mayor Ron Higgins, Coun. Fred Perry, Wayne Good, Gerry Martin, Vernon Hermer, John Inglis and Fred Fowler) have been acclaimed, as well as Limestone District School Board trustee Karen McGregor and French Language Public School Board (Le Conseil des Ecoles Publiques de L’Est de L’Ontario) trustee Rachel Laforest, you might think there’s no election coming to North Frontenac Township this October.

Not so fast.

In the Algonquin & Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, Leslie Ford is challenging incumbent Wendy Procter and, in Le Conseil des Ecoles Catholiques de Langue Francaise du Centre-Est, Michel Charron is challenging incumbent Diane Burns.

What that means is Clerk/Planning Manager Tara Mieske still has to go through the election planning exercise, albeit at a somewhat reduced scale.

“Only the people who support (ie have indicated that’s where they want the school portion of their municipal taxes to go) the two contested school boards will be voting in this election,” Mieske said.

Of the 6,000 or so electors in the Township, about 800 have indicated their support for the two contested school boards.

“I was a bit surprised we have that many, and that figure is based on 2014,” Mieske said. “We’ll have a more accurate figure when we get the voters list.”

Like most municipalities, North Frontenac uses Intellivote to enumerate and tabulate results.

As such, there are no more polling stations and people will vote over the telephone or internet (there will be a help centre at the municipal offices in Plevna). This is the same procedure as the 2014 election.

“People who are eligible to vote will be receiving voting packages in the mail,” Mieske said.

And, just like every other election, the Township will incur expenses.

“In our contract (with Intellivote), we pay $1.25 for each elector letter sent out,” Mieske said. “but obviously, it will cost us less than in previous years (about $1,000) because we have a lot fewer letters to be sent out.”