Hello, citizens of London, Ontario and readers of London Ontario Online News. It’s that time of the week again, so here’s your guide to local government news in our city over the last week-or-so of summertime shenanigans.
You know, and I’ll reiterate, that I’m happy to encourage good decision-making among engaged citizens, who lead our city forward. I want to spread useful, accurate information in the form of these columns: it’s a little bit of journalism and some impact, in the public interest. It keeps my brain fizzing nicely and I hope you get something from it.
Thanks for following along, and for subscribing, especially if you’re one of those highly-attractive people who’s a Paid subscriber, because you are supporting our endeavour to create a local journalism start-up based on community-minded values. Thank you. I hope more of you will consider sending us this small donation. We appreciate you all.
Now, how’s the week been? In local government news, it’s been sleepy, with many folks in that sector out of town for a conference. And, there is a real sense that everyone’s getting ready for a busy fall.
Buckle, as we say around here, up.
Let’s start in the obvious place…
Election 2026
It’s an exciting week as the deadline for nominations approaches. As of Friday at 2 p.m., when the doors slam shut like the Black Gate of Mordor1, we will know everyone who’s running for office - that’s mayor, city council and the four school boards. Will anyone else pop up now? Is it already too late to seem credible?
Craig Needles says so, on this podcast. He and I had a fun time chatting through the various races, one by one, and providing our opinions, for whatever they may be worth. My list of safe seats feels like it’s getting shorter all the time.
Here it is again in even-more-clickable form, and it’s one hour and 19 minutes long, somehow:
We’re grateful to Craig for the partnership and for including a link to The Loon in his shownotes.
Some races seem overwhelming while others are underwhelming and some are just whelming. I’m noting some considered analysis of this among the media, such as this excellent London Free Press guide to the races from Jack Moulton, which suggests our current candidate total is much the same as before, and even lower than recent elections. That’s interesting, and I think it’s still a lot of people, a lot of engagement and a lot of frustration all over the city.
This is about more than the total number of candidates, I would hazard, though it has been interesting to watch that number climb. There are hotspots in the ward races, and it’s obviously extreme to have nine candidates competing in each of two wards.
The full list is here and will update three more times: at 4 p.m. today and tomorrow, and then after the noms close at 2 on Friday afternoon.
Time for too much detail
This part has no basis whatsoever in the scientific method and represents idle thoughts from someone (me) who thinks about this stuff too much. I bet there are dozens of studies out there, many from Western, that do this better. Still…
I had fun making some graphs, despite not really having any data. Here’s how it looks across the city for the total number of candidates who registered in each ward2, with three days left. Of course, as we have so often discussed on our Tuesday podcast, the ward numbers are simply labels and don’t tend to mean much.
So that led me to wonder about areas of the city. I’ve applied my own spurious thinking in the past as I’ve grouped wards by area, and I’ve kept that consistent for this graph, which asks if there’s a geographical element.
Answer: probably not, although South London seems pretty quiet.
So I started thinking about incumbents and lookee here at the effect that planned change can have on the number of candidates:
That’s far from conclusive, and any actual researchers out there will be muttering words like “codswallop” and “poppycock”, but I think we’re seeing another indication that people have something to say. In two wards where there was no sitting councillor, at least nine people have thought “This is my chance”. There are random elements and all kinds of interesting things going on here, as I discussed with Craig, and it’s always massively complex, and I also feel a Spidey sense tingling3. But… hmmm.
Thanks for tolerating my idle thoughts and please express yours, if you have any. I love to talk about this stuff - evidently, from that bloody podcast.
A last note on the election: mayoral candidate Kirsten Krose told Daryl Newcombe at CTV London about questions she has for the City Clerk’s office. The story is here and seems to be about an error in the paperwork.
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Massive thanks to the five local orgs that sponsor The Loon - see the lineup at the end.
The 14 Wards of London Ontario
Here’s our tour of the city, which returns on Tuesday after a wee break filled by this excellent piece about Cedric’s walk around Downtown.
We’re nearing the final straight, with four more to go and lots of plans to connect with our city. Please take a look if you like - they all come with podcasts and the Masonville one is still the wettest.
East London
Ward 1 - Where The Wooden Things Are
Ward 2 - With More Than A Commercial Corridor
Ward 3 - Coming soon
Ward 4 - All About Neighbourhoods Now
South London
Ward 12 - COMING NEXT
Ward 14 - With All The Rural Areas Now
West London
Ward 8 - With A Bog and Many Beds
Ward 10 - Coming soon
North London
Ward 5 - With The Mall and So Much More
Ward 7 - With The Mayors
Central London
Ward 11 - With The Village
Ward 13 - Downtown. This will be our final stop. Coming in September.
Moving on to some more local government news, we have…
Mayors and more in Ottawa
This week, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) held its conference in Ottawa, and it’s always well-attended by municipal leaders, including many from London. Here are a couple of stories that emerged:
Big city mayors. CBC coverage from Ottawa shows how mayors combined to ask for more homelessness services funding from the feds.
Ford’s data centres pitch. This is interesting - Doug Ford, who finds himself in the role of loudest opposition to Donald Trump, says we cannot let Trump ‘control our data’ and wants munis to accept data centres, under guidelines. Here’s the story.
Trustee races
I love to boost the signal of any stories about the education sector, and here’s one about a trustee candidate who just filed. That’s CTV London interviewing David Ross, who wants to emulate his father Charlie’s political career.
And a related Canadian Press story, available across the media and running here on CTV:
Fewer people running for trustee in some of Ontario’s supervised school boards
The Local Government Lightning Round
That’s not very snappy, is it? The Muni Menu? The Wonky List? I don’t know what it is, other than a wee collection of stories you might also look at. Herewith just two:
In homelessness services, CTV London’s Daryl Newcombe was there for the story from Ark Aid Mission, where hours had been cut due to funding challenges.
And a figure from London’s political past, former mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best, was interviewed by the London Free Press’s Norman De Bono in this Q&A.
Enough
I think that’s a good-sized parcel of learnings about our part of the world, so we will leave it there for now. Thanks again for following along - please engage in any way you can. Even clicking ‘like’ on our posts does some weird algorithmic thing.
I’m back on Friday with a ROUNDUP, likely with some kind of deadline day update, and everybody else at The Loon continues to do their thing. Version two, including new branding, will arrive at some point before the snow does, and we continue to be excited, and patient, and part-time. We’re looking for partners in our community, especially guest writers, so don’t be a stranger.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, and please consider supporting The Great Gatsby at the Palace Theatre, which is coming soon and directed by my incredible fiancee, Andrea Bennett4. You can find out more here.
By the way, the zucchini became fritters and, later, fishcakes. That was Andrea, too.
- Mike
The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup
New content every day!
We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:
Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown - SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA
Tuesday - Ward Tours with Cedric Richards - SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ
Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie - SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW
Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn - SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON
Friday - Reflecting, with Steve Cordes - SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA
And free on Fridays: the ROUNDUP, briefing you on the stories you need to know, gathered in one place. Regular analysis of the issues affecting London and the region.
That’s metaphorical. Nobody’s closing doors in anyone’s faces, although it would make a good photo op, if anybody fancies it. It’s an office with a window. They’ll probably just put up a sign.
I understand one or more may have withdrawn, but don’t have that information from the City website yet.
My review of the latest: I liked the Punisher, not much else. Tired of Peter’s relationship.
I have no shame. Exercising admin privilege, at least until we formalize things with ad policies, etc. - coming soon.