(Illustration: Carmen Cumming)
This October, the people of Lunenburg County – you! – will cast votes for 39 municipal officials. These votes will determine the leadership and priorities of our municipalities for the next four years.
Who will lead Lunenburg? Who will be the brains behind Bridgewater? And who will rise as our Next Top MODLs?
With our new webpage, Barnacle Election Central, we’re your essential guide to staying engaged with every update, announcement, and discussion shaping the October 19 municipal election – connecting Bridgewavians, Chesterites, Mahone Bayers, MODLers, and Lunenburgers like never before.
This page tracks every current Councillor and Mayor as they announce whether they will reoffer and shares information on all new potential candidates announcing their intent to run.
We are also aggregating all news we produce and discover on this page and publishing all letters to the editor that you – our readers – wish to submit on the topics that matter most to you in this election.
This is not just about becoming informed – it’s about getting engaged. If you’re eligible to vote or run in this election, you hold power to influence the policy, culture and future of our communities.
Regardless of which municipality you live in, all of these elections are important.
Our municipalities work together through initiatives like the Lunenburg County Accessibility Advisory Committee, the Regional Emergency Management Advisory Committee, efforts to standardize legislation for coastal protection, and much more.
So – what matters to you? Housing? Transportation? Accountability in government?
If you’ve never written a Letter To The Editor before, now is the perfect time. Send us your thoughts – in 300 words or fewer to be considered for print, or longer for online. We’ll share your views, concerns and dreams with our thousands of readers across the entire County.
Let us know what’s on your mind – email us at editor@thebarnacle.ca and we look forward to following up with you.
Municipal government is local government where people have the greatest opportunity to participate in decision making. This October it will be thirty-six years since I first offered my name as a candidate in a Nova Scotia municipal election. Since that beginning I have been a candidate in every municipal election in Nova Scotia but one.
In 1988 it was clear to me there was a growing public demand for more ways to participate in the decisions of government. Simply put, rather than elected representatives making decisions in a vacuum without public input, elected politicians should become facilitators of a process opening up more ways for the public to meaningfully participate in decision making. Thirty-six years ago, and still today, that translated for me into the need for more openness, transparency, and accountability in our government.
Municipal politics is community government closest to the people where citizens are more likely to be able to participate in the decision-making process. But the majority of politicians are not well schooled in opening up more ways for people to participate in government decisions. And it does involve more time and effort, for both politicians and the participating public.
We should all call for more openness, transparency, and accountability in every level of government. Ask our local municipal candidates what they might do to support greater participatory democracy. We can all benefit from more candidates who have this as part of their agenda.
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Change, driven by public demands, is slowly coming. Margaret Mead long ago said it well, “Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.”
Greater openness, transparency, and accountability remains my passion.
FRANK FAWSON
Dayspring