The next civic elections are slated for October 28, 2020. As you’ve no doubt heard, that’s just 5 days before the next scheduled provincial election on November 2nd. Should we have provincial and municipal elections that close to each other? Absolutely not. Civic and regional issues would be mixed together to everyone’s detriment and there are areas of jurisdiction that some people are not aware whether they are the responsibility of the province or the municipality. People are busy. I’m busy. I always vote because it’s my duty as a citizen in a democracy, but I’d rather not have to worry about studying civic issues and choosing the right candidate for council in my ward at the same time as I need to choose a party and candidate for MLA in my constituency. It muddies things up. The province is thinking of moving the civic election back a year, to October, 2021, and they have the power to do so. That would stretch the municipal term to 5 years. It wasn’t that long ago, 2012, when terms went from 3 years to 4. The other option is to push back the next provincial election to spring, 2021, which is what may very well happen unless the government’s agenda, which trumps any civic agenda, is to move the municipal election in spite of any feedback to the contrary. One way or the other, one will be moving.

That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.