Published in the Pontiac Journal on September 24, 2025.
What inspires someone to run for municipal office? The last edition of the Journal advised of forthcoming elections in Bristol, Otter Lake, Shawville, Sheenboro, Clarendon, and Chichester. These municipalities are taking real-world action to ensure high voter turnout. Advertising the nomination period for mayor and councillor positions is a key step.
In the midst of the crisis in municipal politics, it is refreshing that these municipalities are using newspapers to promote the elections. People run for political office with different goals. Most just want to improve their community. These candidates aim to contribute to society and often volunteer with other organizations as well.
Others run for office based on a particular issue. These candidates see a change they deem necessary and want to make it happen. They also run when a community project has begun and requires additional effort to be fully realized. Pontiac is currently facing a few such issues. For example, waste pickup is changing for many municipalities. This issue can motivate people to run for council. Read some of the details of the proposed compost pickup plans on page 17 of this edition.
Folks in Otter Lake: are the changes going far enough? Or are they right on
track? Will residents in any of the municipalities, or even the wider MRC, be motivated enough to run for office? Will voters be more motivated?
Running for council, and staying for the whole four years, is a true act of service. Councillors and mayors make decisions that impact municipalities in the long term, such as improving waste management. Literally creating dumps for future generations to clean up is the topic at hand.
Acclamations happen when there is only one person running for office – this means there is no voting on who will be mayor or councillor. Do these politicians have the public authority to decide the future of Pontiac if they simply put their names forward without any debate about their views? If no one knows an acclaimed politician’s plans because there was no election, is this really democratic?
Dear reader: for this reason alone, encourage the smart ones in the room to run for office! Is there someone in your friend group who is always talking about how to improve the system or fix the way a municipality operates? They should run for office! Even if they don’t win, participating in the electoral process is helpful.
The MRC and municipalities are holding elections on November 2. Make the election count by encouraging folks to run for councillor! Everyone has their own reason, and each reason is valid. Most municipalities accept nominations until October 3, so contact your town office ahead of time to learn more.