All members of Frontenac County to be eligible to run for Warden

Jeff Green | Jul 27, 2022

Prior to 1998, Frontenac County Council had 29 members, and each year an election was held from among those people to elect a county warden.

As part of the 1998 amalgamation which created 4 Frontenac County Townships (North, South, Central, and Frontenac Islands) Frontenac County ceased to exist, replaced by a management board with the 4 Frontenac Mayors serving as Board members.

That system, which was unique in the province, did not last and Frontenac County was re-established in 2004.

In 2009, a second member of Frontenac County Council from each township was added, establishing an 8 member Frontenac County Council.

While all 8 members of Frontenac County Council have the same rights and responsibilities, it was decided at the time that only the 4 Mayors would be eligible for the warden position. The stated reason for this was that the Mayors are elected 'at large' in their respective townships, meaning that each voter in the township has a chance to vote for them. The second member is appointed by council, from a pool of councillors who are elected only within their own ward.

Frontenac County elects a warden each year, from the 4 Mayors, and since municipal amalgamation the annual election for Warden has been a purely formal exercise. At the beginning of each term, the 4 Mayors agree among themselves which year they will each serve as warden, and the job is passed around for the four years.

But that will all change when the next Frontenac County Council takes office at the end of November.

As part of a change to the Frontenac County Procedural bylaw that was approved at the July meeting of the council (Wednesday, July 20) all members of Council, including the appointed member from each township, will be eligible to run for Warden each year of the 4-year term. With 8 members and 4 years, contested elections for Frontenac County Warden will return for the first time in almost 25 years.

The debate over making the change was debated as part of the discussion around the passage of the comprehensive procedural bylaw.

Warden Dennis Doyle, Mayor of Frontenac Islands, proposed an amendment which would have retained the status quo.

“The Mayors are the only members of Council who are elected by all of the residents of their township, so I think they are the only ones who should be eligible to represent the entire county as warden.” he said, “unless the townships decided to elect their second representative 'at large', in which case I would not have a problem with them being eligible to be warden.”

Bill Macdonald, the council appointee from Central Frontenac, was one of the members of the sub-committee which worked with county staff on the procedural bylaw.

“We had a lot of discussion around this at the committee,” he said, “and we concluded that every member of this council is equal except in the ability to run for Warden, and since the second representative, along with Mayor, is elected by a council that is chosen from the entire township they are also representing the township as a whole.”

MacDonald pointed out that he served as Frontenac County Warden before and after amalgamation, and is not planning to seek the position in the future, if he returns to County Council after the upcoming election.

The three other 'second' members of the council all supported Macdonald's position, and South Frontenac Mayor Vandewal as well as North Frontenac Mayor Higgins (the two Ron's) supported Dennis Doyle's position.

But Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith sided with the second members.

“I don't have a problem with anyone being able to put their name in the hat. I don't think anyone of us is any smarter or wiser than anyone else. We are all at the table to do a job, I think being able to choose from the whole group, actually goes back to the democratic process of an election that we had before amalgamation, instead of passing the hat each year the way we do now. I think it is actually less democratic right now.”

Dennis Doyle's amendment to the procedural bylaw, which would have eliminated the section of they bylaw making all members of council eligible to run for warden, was defeated in a 5-3 vote, with Mayor's Doyle, Vanewal and Higgins supporting it. Mayor Smith and councillors Gerry Martin (North Frontenac) Bruce Higgs (Frontenac Islands) Bill Macdonald (Central Frontenac) and Allan Revill (South Frontenac) supported the change.