Last updated: October 19, 2026
Voting is already open across most of Grey and Bruce counties. Ballots — cast by internet and telephone, not at a polling station — have been available since October 16 in Owen Sound, Georgian Bluffs, Grey Highlands, Southgate and by mail in Chatsworth, and since October 19 in most Bruce County municipalities. Everything closes at 8 p.m. on Monday, October 26.
Seventeen municipalities are choosing mayors, deputy mayors, councillors and school board trustees. This is the election that decides who sets property tax rates, approves the subdivisions, says yes or no to shoreline development and pumped storage, signs off on physician recruitment incentives, and answers the phone when the region’s biggest problems land on a municipal desk.
To find out what the election is actually about — rather than what the campaign literature says — we went to the primary material: a standardized candidate questionnaire that Bayshore Broadcasting sent to every candidate in 16 municipalities and published through October. One hundred and seventy-six candidates answered it, producing 1,971 individual answers to identical questions about housing, taxes, infrastructure, transit, cost of living, healthcare, and one question nobody was expecting.
This is what they said.
The short answer: housing, roads and taxes — in that order
Every candidate was asked to name the single biggest issue facing their municipality. Here is how 174 answers broke down. Most candidates named a cluster rather than one item, and plenty named two or three linked problems — which is itself the story. Housing and infrastructure are not separate debates in these towns; they are the same debate about who pays.
| Issue named | Answers mentioning it (of 174) |
|---|---|
| Housing and affordability | 105 |
| Infrastructure — roads, bridges, water, wastewater, transit | 102 |
| Taxes and municipal spending | 96 |
| Growth and development | 78 |
| Economy and jobs | 75 |
| Governance and transparency | 56 |
| Climate and environment | 31 |
| Policing and safety | 28 |
| Healthcare | 18 |
| Homelessness and addiction | 14 |
Two things stand out. Healthcare, the issue that dominates provincial politics in this region, is named by only 18 candidates — because the things that most affect it, from hospital funding to physician billing to social assistance rates, sit with the province, and candidates know it. And the issue that scores highest, housing, is one the two-tier system splits awkwardly: in Grey County, land use planning is local but housing and homelessness programs are county responsibilities, and in Bruce the county plays a coordinating role that varies by municipality.
1. Housing: everyone agrees on the problem, nobody agrees on the lever
Housing is the closest thing to a regional consensus in this campaign. The disagreement is entirely about the tools.
Candidates’ answers on how a municipality can increase housing supply cluster around a handful of levers. Across 171 answers:
- Non-profit and affordable housing partnerships — 77 mentions
- Faster permitting and approvals — 67
- Working with the upper-tier county — 65
- Zoning reform and as-of-right approvals — 46
- Development charges — 28
- Additional residential units, secondary and garden suites — 24
Only two candidates volunteered a vacant-home tax. Exactly one municipality — Saugeen Shores — asked its candidates directly about a Community Planning Permit System.
“I don’t believe the solution to the housing crisis can be left to the private market. If we want housing across the affordability spectrum, the City needs to take an active role in creating and preserving public and non-profit housing.” — Tamara Sargent, Owen Sound council candidate
“Increasing housing supply across the affordability spectrum — specifically attainable housing for our workforce — is the single most urgent issue facing The Town of the Blue Mountains. Our local economy relies heavily on front-line workers.” — Sean McMurray, Blue Mountains council candidate
In Owen Sound, where 21 people are running for nine council seats and six for mayor, the housing debate is the mayor’s race. Andrii Zvorygin wants a vacant home tax and has proposed a low-cost home design he says would carry a mortgage of about $400 a month. Carol Merton is calling for an “affordable housing first” policy and a city target for deeply affordable units. Richard Thomas wants developers, non-profits and Grey County brought together on a local model using donated municipal land. Jodi King argues developers’ affordable housing promises should be legally enforceable.
The sharpest concrete disagreement in the region is over development charges — the levies municipalities collect on new construction. Thomas, running on his council record, points to a development charge holiday he introduced that he says adds about half a million dollars a year to the tax roll. Zvorygin says forgiving development charges “hasn’t been working,” noting that apartments at Harbour West start around $2,000 a month. Both are describing the same trade-off — forego revenue now to get units built later — and neither can yet prove the other’s approach is failing, because the units both are talking about are still finishing construction.
In Saugeen Shores, the pending Community Planning Permit System has become the defining planning question of the race. Council deferred the CPPS decision until after the election. Incumbent mayor Luke Charbonneau told Bayshore he does not support it as currently proposed but is “open to exploring regulatory reform.” Several challengers support exploring a CPPS for the downtowns of Port Elgin and Southampton, provided it preserves public input. Others want the town to define what problem it is solving first. Harry Mazmanian opposes it outright, arguing it “is designed to remove residents from having a voice in the development process.”
The pattern across the region: candidates in fast-growing communities argue about process, and candidates in slow-growing ones argue about money.
2. The bill: taxes, and the capital backlog underneath them
Ninety-six candidates put taxes and spending at the top of their list. The reason is in the budget documents.
Owen Sound is the clearest case, because it publishes the detail. The 2026 municipal levy is $39 million, up 5.2 per cent. With the county and education portions included, the total tax bill rose 4.72 per cent — about $214 a year, or $18 a month, on a home assessed at $230,000. Policing takes 32 cents of every City tax dollar and fire takes 13 cents; together, 45 cents. The city’s five-year capital plan lists $71.9 million in projects with funding identified, and 124 more projects worth $37.3 million with no funding at all. Its main capital reserve held $4.8 million at the end of 2025, and the reserve schedule notes the whole balance is already committed.
Two items on that unfunded list are already closed and visible: the Nine Bends Trail, shut after slope and drainage failures, with a repair listed at $2.94 million and no money attached; and Centennial Tower, closed since August 2024, with a $271,795 repair not scheduled until 2029 and the city’s own project sheet warning that estimate is based on a visual inspection only.
At committee this year, Owen Sound’s director of corporate services, Kate Allan, said rising tax penalty and interest revenue reflects an increased inability among ratepayers to pay their taxes.
Candidates are not pretending otherwise. Across the region, the honest ones say the same thing:
“I think we need to be honest that maintaining roads, bridges, water systems and municipal services costs money, and I don’t think it’s responsible to promise that we can do all of that with zero tax increases.” — Samantha Erin Parent, Southgate council candidate
“I have heard very clearly from residents that property taxes are a real concern. People understand that municipal services and infrastructure cost money, but 8% increases cannot become the expectation or the norm.” — Brandon Koebel, Hanover council candidate
“Our rate is lower than some neighbours’, but the trend concerns me. The municipal rate rose about 8.3% in 2024 and about 8.1% in 2025, and the levy has grown roughly 22% since 2023. Over the same period inflation ran around 2% to 4%.” — Paul Davidson, Northern Bruce Peninsula council candidate
Revenue tools candidates are proposing are mostly variations on the same three themes: get more from the province (Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund allocations, social assistance rates, provincial downloading), borrow or phase in over a longer horizon, and squeeze reserves. Rebecca Marie Hergert in West Grey wants 100 per cent of the township’s OCIF allocation dedicated to infrastructure. Andrii Zvorygin says his draft 2027 Owen Sound budget would come in more than $250,000 below 2026’s while improving services — a claim voters cannot test until after the election. Darcy Chapman in Meaford frames the whole question the way the more careful candidates do: not “is the rate high or low,” but “whether residents are receiving appropriate value for the taxes they pay.”
3. Growth: the Bruce Power dividend and its bill
Seventy-eight candidates named growth as their top issue. Nearly all of the loudest are in Saugeen Shores, where the nuclear refurbishment and the prospect of new construction at Bruce Power has rewritten the town’s housing and servicing math.
“Growth. Bruce Power is giving us the gift of prosperity but they are also giving us the challenge to absorb that growth properly.” — Jeff James, Saugeen Shores council candidate
“Managing growth. Growth itself is not the problem. Uncontrolled growth is.” — Don Matheson, Saugeen Shores council candidate
“Keeping infrastructure and services in step with growth. Growth itself isn’t the problem; constantly trying to catch up with it is. Water, wastewater, roads.” — Tamara McDonald, Saugeen Shores council candidate
“I am hesitant to call it an ‘issue’ because it’s the biggest economic opportunity we’ve had in a couple generations — but Bruce C looms large over our community.” — Jordan MacKinnon, Saugeen Shores council candidate
The counter-argument, from Brian Putman, is that the town’s problem is financial management: that council “has chosen to borrow” rather than pay as it goes, and that the bill lands on the next council regardless of who wins.
Elsewhere the growth debate looks different. In The Blue Mountains, every council seat is contested with 16 candidates running — unusual in a town where acclamations are common. In Chatsworth, nine candidates are competing for five seats with no incumbent mayor running.
4. Owen Sound’s downtown: the region’s sharpest fault line
Homelessness and addiction appear in only 14 of the 174 top-issue answers region-wide. Almost all of them are in Owen Sound, where it is not a secondary issue but the whole mayoral campaign.
At a two-hour debate on 89.3 CFOS FM’s Open Line on October 13, five of the six mayoral candidates took 12 questions each. Host Claire McCormack asked each to name the city’s biggest problem. Four pointed at downtown safety, homelessness or the pressures behind them. Ray Botten named the drug crisis.
Richard Thomas called the River District “job one” and pointed to a 10-point plan that includes a rapid-response cleanup team in public works and a one-stop action team for downtown businesses and residents. His framing: “not to abandon compassion, but it’s to restore balance.”
Jodi King said her family was homeless for almost a year about 20 years ago, and that the city cannot be fixed until homelessness is. She said she was attacked and nearly thrown through a window downtown this summer walking to work as a security guard. She wants more police presence and more cameras downtown.
Carol Merton called for immediate steps — public washrooms, more syringe drop-off boxes, and a faster encampment enforcement protocol rather than waiting until 2028 — and said the social service agencies working on the street cannot take on more without more funding. Merton also named transit as the city’s biggest service gap, calling for Sunday service, longer hours and family fares.
Andrii Zvorygin proposed mobile meals at scheduled locations outside downtown and a civilian dispatch pilot, capped at about $60,000, to send trained civilian responders to lower-risk calls. Botten, who uses a wheelchair, said taxis will not pick him up — a cost-of-living point he made when asked about bag tags.
On policing, the candidates split cleanly. Thomas said no to revisiting an OPP costing, arguing that winding down the city service and building an OPP station would cost more over 10 years; he moved the 2015 motion for the original costing. King wants the OPP, citing the local police budget against comparable OPP costs elsewhere. Zvorygin is open to a new costing, starting with a staff comparison and an outside review he estimated at about $8,000. Merton said council must first account for the revenue the city service generates — dispatch, records management — so any comparison is apples to apples. Botten said the question should be revisited.
Every one of the six certified mayoral candidates has said publicly that any decision on policing needs public consultation first; the sixth, Mike Seiler, did not attend the CFOS debate.
5. Healthcare: the recruitment fight is now a housing fight
Only 18 candidates named healthcare as their top issue. But the region’s response to the physician shortage shows up in the housing answers instead — because housing has become the recruitment tool.
Owen Sound is extending a partnership with Grey County and the Rural Ontario Medical Program that provides furnished housing for medical students and residents doing placements in Grey-Bruce. A staff report says suitable short-term accommodation had previously limited the region’s ability to take advantage of available placements at Brightshores Health System. The property can hold up to four residents at once. Over the past two years, 49 doctors or future doctors have stayed there, in placements lasting four to 14 weeks. The Rural Ontario Medical Program told the city that 93 per cent of learners who remain or return to practise in the Owen Sound area establish practices locally.
Brightshores announced in September that 14 new physicians are joining in 2026, in family medicine, emergency medicine, internal medicine, surgery and psychiatry, with 12 already started. The health system supports seven rural family medicine residents each year and averages about 30 students or residents per month across six hospitals.
Hanover has been at this longer: about a decade ago, the Hanover and District Hospital Foundation bought a house specifically for physicians completing residency placements, and the town committed another $90,000 toward recruitment in 2025. It also partners with Queen’s University to host third-year medical students for full clerkship years, bringing six prospective doctors into the community annually.
Farther west, Huron Health System has proposed a $50,000 interest-free housing loan to attract family doctors, warning council that “unless we adopt similarly compelling strategies, we risk being outpaced by neighbouring communities.” That proposal went to a mayoral task force for review.
The municipal role, in other words, is not to deliver healthcare. It is to make the community liveable enough that a doctor chooses it — and the candidates who understand that are answering the healthcare question inside the housing one.
6. The economy: a tariff election nobody is calling a tariff election
Seventy-five candidates named the economy or jobs as their top issue. The trade war is the reason, even though it barely appears in campaign speeches — because a municipality’s tools against tariffs are limited to procurement, advocacy and marketing.
A Bruce County Economic Development survey, included in the county’s 2025 annual report and drawn from more than 80 business responses, found 79.27 per cent of businesses had experienced or anticipated supply chain disruptions because of tariffs, 59.76 per cent had seen increased costs for imported goods or materials, and 35.72 per cent rely on U.S. trade for more than a quarter of their revenue. Businesses told the county their top asks were grants and funding (58.75 per cent), marketing and trade promotion help (46.25 per cent) and networking (32.5 per cent).
Both counties have leaned into “Shop Local” and “Buy Canadian” campaigns, and the region’s largest employer has been organizing its own supply chain response. How much of that anyone can do from a council seat is the open question — and it is the subject of a separate Brief feature, Trade Under Pressure, on the tariff effect across this economy.
7. New on the ballot: AI data centres
Here is the question nobody expected to appear in a rural municipal campaign, and it was asked in all 16 municipalities: How can a municipality prepare for the possibility of artificial intelligence data centre developments in the coming years?
One hundred and seventy-two candidates answered it. The answers are remarkably consistent in shape — get the policy in place before the application arrives — and startling in their specificity about risk.
“An AI data centre can consume as much electricity as 100,000 homes and millions of litres of water for cooling. Those are real numbers.” — Jeff James, Saugeen Shores council candidate
“Prepare before a proposal arrives. Data centres use large amounts of electricity and water, can bring noise and traffic, and often create few permanent jobs. The Bruce Peninsula’s groundwater, shoreline, dark skies and tourism economy are all exposed.” — Paul Davidson, Northern Bruce Peninsula council candidate
“I won’t be surprised if we have data centres knocking on Southgate’s doors — we have land and proximity to the GTA. There can be benefits, but I am way more concerned about the risks to our water systems, precious farmlands, health risks.” — Samantha Erin Parent, Southgate council candidate
Barb Fisher in Kincardine promised a “stringent, evidence-based analysis” of every data centre inquiry and early engagement with other municipalities and the province. Christine Robinson in Brockton noted that council already supported Kincardine’s recommendation for stronger municipal protections in Ontario’s data centre policy framework. Mandie Malott in Hanover was the outlier in tone: “the possibility of one coming to our community in the near future is, let’s be honest, pretty remote” — though she still said any proposal would need scrutiny. Kimberley Anne Peeters in West Grey wants the municipal planner to review the zoning bylaw and report on whether data centres are permitted in any zone at all.
That last point is the practical one. Many rural Ontario zoning bylaws simply do not contemplate a facility that draws industrial-scale power and water, and no municipality in Bruce or Grey has a data centre policy on the books. Whoever wins on October 26 will likely be the council that writes one.
8. Regional transit: the quiet consensus
There is one issue where the region’s candidates agree almost without argument: rural transit should exist, and it should not look like a city bus network.
One hundred and seventy candidates answered a question about the regional transit study underway involving Bruce, Grey, Dufferin and Wellington counties. The September 2026 draft Unified Regional Transit Network Study gives candidates their first concrete proposal. The near-universal answer is hub-and-spoke — fixed routes along major corridors, on-demand service feeding them.
“For a rural, spread-out area like ours, transit should be practical and right-sized, not a copy of an urban system. That likely means on-demand or scheduled shuttle service connecting Tobermory, Lion’s Head, Wiarton and Owen Sound.” — Paul Davidson, Northern Bruce Peninsula council candidate
“A regional transit system should be practical, affordable and designed for rural travel patterns rather than modelled on an urban network.” — Barb Fisher, Kincardine mayoral candidate
The dissenters are useful. Mark Goetz in South Bruce said he supports better transportation but has “serious concerns about whether the proposed regional transit model is practical or financially sustainable for rural communities.” Mandie Malott in Hanover wants the problem defined before the system is designed. Tracy Irwin in Huron-Kinloss was the most candid of all: “the regional transit study is an area where I don’t have a great deal of background and only recently came across some media coverage” — a reminder that for many candidates, four counties of transit planning is brand new.
In the south, Caleb Hull in South Bruce Peninsula points to a council that funded service along Highway 6 when Grey County’s commitment was uncertain, and celebrates the return of the Grey Transit Route.
9. Governance: where the vote actually decides something
Seventeen municipalities, seventeen mayors’ chairs. Thirteen of them are contested.
| Municipality | Mayor candidates | |
|---|---|---|
| Owen Sound | 6 | open seat — Mayor Ian Boddy is not on the ballot |
| South Bruce Peninsula | 4 | incumbent Jay Kirkland vs three challengers |
| Kincardine | 3 | incumbent Kenneth Craig vs Barb Fisher and Bill Stewart |
| Saugeen Shores | 3 | incumbent Luke Charbonneau vs Brian Putman and Jeff James |
| The Blue Mountains | 3 | every council seat in the town is contested |
| Grey Highlands | 3 | Dane Nielsen, Paul McQueen, Mark Brown |
| Meaford | 3 on the ballot, 2 active | Colman withdrew but remains on the ballot |
| Chatsworth | 2 | both sitting councillors; no incumbent mayor running |
| Hanover | 2 | incumbent mayor Sue Paterson vs incumbent deputy mayor Warren Dickert |
| Huron-Kinloss | 2 | Don Murray vs Shawn Plante |
| Northern Bruce Peninsula | 2 | incumbent Milt McIver vs Brad Gesinghaus |
| South Bruce | 2 | incumbent Mark Goetz vs Mike Niesen |
| Southgate | 2 | incumbent Brian Milne vs Jason Rice |
The council races are more crowded than the mayoral ones. Owen Sound has 21 candidates for nine seats. Grey Highlands has 14 for five. Brockton has 10 for five. Meaford, Georgian Bluffs and Chatsworth each have nine candidates for five seats. In Huron-Kinloss, six candidates are competing for five seats — a single seat separating five people from a term in office.
And then there is the part of the ballot nobody is contesting. Four of the region’s 17 mayor’s chairs and seven of its 17 deputy mayor positions were filled by acclamation before a single ballot was printed:
- Mayors acclaimed: Kevin Eccles (West Grey), Sue Carleton (Georgian Bluffs), Chris Peabody (Brockton), Steve Hammell (Arran-Elderslie)
- Deputy mayors acclaimed: Scott Greig (Owen Sound), Grant Pringle (Georgian Bluffs), Jennifer Shaw (Arran-Elderslie), Barbara Dobreen (Southgate), James Hanna (Huron-Kinloss), Robert Uhrig (Meaford), Rory Cavanagh (Kincardine)
- Council seats acclaimed: at least six, including three Kincardine council seats, two seats in South Bruce’s Mildmay-Carrick ward, and the Arran ward in Arran-Elderslie
That is at least 17 local government positions decided with no vote at all — and most school board seats across the region were acclaimed too. In Brockton, West Grey and Georgian Bluffs, the mayor’s job comes with four years and no electoral moment of accountability. Nominations closed on August 21; in each of those three, nobody filed to challenge the incumbent.
Read that as a deficit, because it is one. Nearly a quarter of the region’s mayors and more than a third of its deputy mayors will take office without ever having to explain a decision to a voter. Whether that reflects satisfaction with the people already in the chairs, the cost and exposure of running a modern campaign, or simple lack of interest in contesting them, the outcome is the same: in those municipalities the position is decided, and the voters have no say in it. The contrast with Owen Sound is instructive — the most crowded mayoral race in the region is in the city where the mayor holds the most power, and the three races with no challenger at all are in its smallest municipalities.
Those powers are part of what is on the ballot. The province designated Owen Sound a strong mayor municipality in May 2025, and the 2026 budget was the first prepared under those rules: Mayor Ian Boddy proposed it himself in December 2025 and it was deemed adopted in January without a council amendment. Richard Thomas says he would hand back the mayor’s budget powers and return to a public budget process. Carol Merton said she voted against council’s new committee structure because the committee that will review the budget has no public members. In West Grey, Geoffrey Shea frames it as an adjustment every council is now making: tax increases “must be strictly managed, especially as we adapt to the provincial shift toward Strong Mayor Powers.” Fifty-six candidates across the region named governance or transparency as their top issue — the fifth-largest cluster, and one that did not exist as a campaign theme a decade ago.
Meaford is the cleanest example of a contested race turning on a single decision. TC Energy is proposing a 1,000-megawatt pumped storage facility on the 4th Canadian Division Training Centre lands near the town, in partnership with Saugeen Ojibway Nation. The municipality’s project page says a proposed pre-development agreement could bring up to $1.355 million a year to the municipality and community groups. The project is in a federal impact assessment, with a final investment decision targeted for 2028 and an in-service date in the mid-2030s. Whether the town should sign agreements with TC Energy — and on what terms — is now the central question before Meaford’s voters, which is why Caryn Colman ended her campaign on October 16 rather than split the vote against it. Under Ontario’s Municipal Elections Act the withdrawal deadline passed on August 21, so her name stays on the ballot and votes for her will still be counted; Justin Perks and Shirley Keaveney are the active candidates.
How and when to vote
Every municipality in Bruce and Grey is using internet and telephone voting. There are no traditional polling stations and, in most municipalities, no paper ballots.
- Voting periods opened October 16 in Owen Sound, Georgian Bluffs, Grey Highlands and Southgate, and October 19 in most Bruce County municipalities and the rest of Grey. Chatsworth votes entirely by mail, with kits sent in late September.
- Voting closes at 8 p.m. on Monday, October 26 in every municipality.
- You need your voter information letter, which contains a unique PIN. If you did not receive one, or you are not on the voters’ list, you can be added by completing form EL15 in person at your municipal office or a voter assistance centre with identification.
- Help is available: every municipality operates voter help centres during the voting period, and free internet access for voters is available at Bruce County Public Library branches.
- Election results will be available the evening of October 26; Owen Sound residents are invited to watch results together at the Harmony Centre.
To vote in an Ontario municipal election you must be a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years old on election day, and a resident of the municipality — or a non-resident owner or tenant of land in it, or the spouse of one.
This analysis draws on a standardized candidate questionnaire published by Bayshore Broadcasting across 16 municipalities, the Owen Sound Current’s 2026 election coverage and municipal guide, CKNX News Today, Saugeen Times, The Meaford Independent, Bruce County Economic Development’s 2025 annual report, and the municipalities’ own election and budget documents. Figures are as published by those sources. Where a candidate’s claim could not be independently verified, we say so.