Collingwood’s 2026 Municipal Election, Part 3

Local resident Ron Shulman has been writing about municipal issues in Collingwood and the Town of the Blue Mountains for the past several months. His Substack blog is called Two Towns, One Failure, and subtitled Governance, waste, and the case for change in Collingwood and The Blue Mountains. While I don’t agree with everything Ron proposes or advocates, and we are mostly on opposite sides of the political spectrum, I admire and respect his passion for municipal politics and issues and his willingness to fight for what he believes in. I highly recommend that readers here visit his blog site and read his posts. His arguments are worth being openly discussed and debated. That’s called democracy.

This post is about the responses he received from municipal mayoral candidates to his questionnaires. These questions were sent to all seven mayoral candidates in both municipalities. We should look at one of our Collingwood mayoral candidates’ arrogant refusal to respond. Did I mention it was Yvonne Hamlin? Did you guess that?

Now I realize that, like me, Ron has no media credentials to back up his requests for comments. Still, what he has asked is not frivolous, insulting, or ideologically tainted. His are questions about important issues that affect all of us: infrastructure, a new hospital, taxes, our wastewater treatment plant, strong mayoral powers, staff overtime expenses, governance, capital cost control, development charges, housing, and so on. These are things that should concern every voter.

Candidates often get similar questions from a variety of non-media associations, organizations, and individuals. How candidates respond is a measure of how they will treat the public if elected. And, frankly, when the answers are going to be shared and published online, it seems shortsighted for any candidate to pass on the opportunity to have their views and platform given free exposure and publicity.

Ron also asked something every voter should know: what are the candidate’s “top three priorities for the 2026–2030 term” and then to “outline what you would actually do, and by when.” Hardly controversial: these are usually the basic planks in every campaign platform.

But, as Ron notes, Mayor Hamlin didn’t even have the common courtesy to respond with a “no thank you,” let alone provide a plausible reason for refusing.

Surprised by such arrogance? Me, either. Hamlin was a solid supporter of the arrogant Brian Saunderson when he was on our council (he was arguably the worst and most secretive mayor in the town’s recent history). Saunderson’s council sold both our publicly-owned electricity utility and publicly-owned airport to private, for-profit corporations without even the pretense of asking for public input (incumbents Jeffrey and Doherty supported this undemocratic action, as did returning candidate Ecclestone). And then there’s Saunderson’s lengthy role in blocking our hospital’s redevelopment plans. When anointed to run for MPP by Doug Ford, Saunderson would not participate in debates with other candidates during the last provincial election. And then there’s the time Saunderson publicly told a female MPP to “shut your mouth” in a Queen’s Park session.*

Seems Hamlin learned to mimic his style quite well. Is this the sort of person Collingwood deserves as mayor? Methinks not. Ron continues:

She was sent the questionnaire on 30 August, the same day, in the same terms and with the same deadline as the other three candidates. She did not answer by the deadline of 18 September.
On 20 September I wrote to her again. I told her the deadline had passed, and I offered to hold publication if she would tell me her answers were coming. She did not reply to that either.
During the same three weeks she answered two other emails from me. One of them within twelve hours.

Incumbents also have to defend their record and their accomplishments. Certainly there is little if anything for incumbents to trumpet on the hustings. Aside from raising taxes and voting themselves a raise every year, I can’t think of much our current council has accomplished that has benefitted the community as a whole.

The water treatment plant upgrade went from $60 million when first proposed in 2014 to almost $300 million by the time council got around to deciding we needed the upgrade (a decade of laziness and deliberate avoidance). Its costs continue to rise. Collingwood residents are on the hook for almost $45 million, an amount initially promised to be paid from development charges, but as Ron notes, this money seems to have “disappeared.”

Yet some incumbents, Hamlin among them, are promising even more expenditures to burden taxpayers here, including a multi-use facility estimated to cost about $100 million, and an arts centre at almost $70 million. Taxes are predicted to rise at least 4.8% per year for at least another eight years, amounting to an overall increase of 45% or potentially much more in that time. But don’t worry about council: as it has done the past dozen years, council will continue to vote itself a pay raise every one of those years. Which, of course, you, the taxpayer, will actually pay for. You have a money tree in your backyard, don’t you?

So perhaps Hamlin didn’t respond because she has no substantial answer to such serious and important questions, just her campaign promises of palatial gifts (grifts) for which there is no money to pay.

And once again, when writing about local politics, I am reminded of this verse from the Tao Te Ching:

Blowhards have no standing,
The self-promoting are not distinguished,
Show-offs do not shine,
Braggarts have nothing to show,
The self-important are here and gone.
(The Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation, trans. Roger Ames & David Hall, Ballantine Books, Jan. 2003)**

Collingwood deserves better.

Notes:

* The female MPP was Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky. Ontario NDP put out this statement in response:

Simcoe—Grey MPP Brian Saunderson told Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky to “shut your mouth” while debating a bill about women’s safety. You can’t claim to take women’s safety seriously while dismissing women when they speak.
This kind of behaviour is part of the problem women continue to face every day in workplaces, in politics, and in their communities. It’s unacceptable from anyone, let alone an elected representative. Brian Saunderson must apologize now.

** The second half of Chapter 24 of the Tao Te Ching continues with more wisdom:

According to followers of the Tao,
“These are extra food and unnecessary luggage.”
They do not bring happiness.
Therefore followers of the Tao avoid them.
(translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English)

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