It begins already

Today I got a lengthy e-mail from Darryl Lee, the City Clerk, detailing a range of activities and meetings for November and December. This went to all members of the incoming council. I began immediately to follow-up on the suggestions to make appointments with staff, and to create a calendar system that I could use to track everything.

We will be having briefing sessions, training sessions, and some one-on-one appointments. We will all receive a Council Orientation Reference Manual, that includes the city's strategic plan, committee structure, procedural by-law, conflict of interest act, council and committees meeting schedule, acting mayor schedule, and top 10 things every member of council should know.

Also the memo informed us about meetings with various department heads, informal session with key staff and advisory committee chairs, budget preparation sessions, and other activities and orientations. I've been through this before, and what came back to me was the importance of keeping my own priorities in mind and the feedback received from citizens during the campaign, so that these don't slip out of focus as the busy work of staff briefings - as important as they are - come to the fore.

The new, 11 member city council has only four members from the past council. Three Councillors are brand new, and four are like me, returning after a time away. None have been away as long as I have; it's been 23 years since I was on Brantford City Council. I was in the provincial parliament for one term, and after that returned to resume my career in eductaion.

Election night squeaker

Many of the campaign volunteers came to our home on election night to watch the results on TV and Internet. We thought the results would come in quickly with the new system, but it actually went very slowly. First, the results from the advance polls were released and it showed me in 4th place (the top 2 are elected in each ward). Everyone was quite positive, but I did advise that the this polling was done quite early: before the ward 5 debate on Rogers, before we started our 2nd leaflet, before we had canvassed the 3 polls in Eagle Place, before our newspaper ads had started, and before the coverage about my stand on Mohawk College had been covered in the 2 newspapers. In the last 10 days before voting day we had noted more and more positive responses at the doors. I urged everyone to be patient.

Finally the poll results from election day itself started to come in, and I had moved into 2nd place. It took what seemed a very long time, but when the 9th and final poll was announced, the total showed me in 2nd place, and as a winner by just over 100 votes. After some cheering and a quick toast, we headed off to the TV studio to make some comments on the program.