For most of this year, I put my bin out at the curb before 7 a.m., exactly the way I was supposed to, and watched it sit there. I emailed. I called. I was told I had the wrong day, then told I had the right day and it still wasn’t picked up. I was passed back and forth between a contractor and City Hall like a hot potato.
It’s sorted now. But it took seven months, a paper trail and more persistence than any resident should need for something that basic. And that’s my point: it got fixed because I would not let it go. What about everybody who doesn’t have the time, the energy, or a newspaper to write about it?
It’s recycling. It’s not war and peace. But it’s MY recycling, I pay for it, and I can tell you exactly how it feels to be a taxpayer who can’t get a straight answer out of her own city.
Here’s the thing. The people who decide how that contract gets written, what it costs us, and whether anybody checks that the job gets done… those people are on a ballot on Monday, October 26th. Not in Ottawa. Not at Queen’s Park. HERE IN CORNWALL.
In 2022, 10,166 people in Cornwall cast a ballot. Turnout was 28.6%, down from 38% four years earlier. Our mayor was elected with 5,169 votes. Five thousand people chose the person running this city.
Now think about what your one vote is worth federally, where millions of ballots are cast and your riding is one of 343. Then think about what it’s worth in a race decided by a few thousand. This is the one election where you are not a rounding error.
It’s also the one that touches you most. Ottawa doesn’t fill your potholes. Queen’s Park doesn’t decide whether your street gets plowed before you leave for work or after. Council sets your property taxes and your water bill. Council sets the transit schedule that decides whether someone without a car can hold a job. Council decides ice time at the Benson Centre, library hours, what gets built downtown, what we do about the housing crisis everyone in this city can see with their own eyes. Council decides whether the recycling gets picked up, and how long you wait when it doesn’t.
These are the things we complain about in the Facebook groups every day of the year. And every four years, seven out of ten of us leave the one piece of paper that could change them sitting on the table.
“But Julia, I don’t know who any of these people are.” Fair. And it’s fixable, which is the best argument for municipal politics there is. You can’t call the Prime Minister. You CAN call your councillor. You’ll run into these people at Walmart, at the Legion, at the farmers market. And in Ontario, municipal candidates have no parties. No logo to hide behind, no leader to blame. You’re voting for PEOPLE, one by one. That’s harder. It’s also the point.
So let’s be honest with each other: there’s no excuse this time. You can vote ONLINE. From your couch, in your pyjamas, with the hockey game on. No parking, no lineup, no standing outside in the October cold waiting for a poll to free up. If that’s still too much effort, then the problem was never the lineup.
Check that you’re on the voters’ list, that takes two minutes. Then, if you don’t know who to vote for yet, that’s not a reason to skip it, it’s a reason to start asking questions NOW. We’ll be bringing candidates onto our live podcast over the next few weeks so you can hear them answer for themselves. And the following pages are FULL of answers to tough questions we’ve asked the candidates.
Monday, October 26th. Polls close at 8 p.m.
Your vote will never be worth more than it is that day. Seven months of emails and phone calls got my bin emptied. One ballot, in an election this small, goes a lot further than that.
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