Regional chair recommends appointing Elizabeth Clarke to council

Regional council will decide on Wednesday whether to appoint Elizabeth Clarke as a replacement councillor for Kitchener, filling the vacancy created in June after the unexpected death of Wayne Wettlaufer.

• Wayne Wettlaufer, Waterloo Region councillor and former MPP, dead at 71
• Late Wayne Wettlaufer's council seat to be filled in 90 to 100 days

Clarke ran for regional council in Kitchener during the October 2014 election. She won 13.03 per cent of the vote, which put her less than one percentage point behind Geoff Lorentz, who now sits on council. 

According to the Municipal Act, regional council can either appoint Clarke to fill the vacancy, or hold a byelection.

Regional Chair Ken Seiling has written a report to council, recommending that Clarke be appointed based on the support she received during the last election and the prohibitive cost of another election. 

"I find it hard to support an option that would require a city-wide election...that would cost approximately $150,000.00 - $275,000.00," Seiling said in his report.

Seiling also mentioned that a byelection would likely occur at the same time as the federal general election, creating voter confusion and perhaps suffer from low turnout. 

Easy, but right?

Not everyone agrees with Seiling's recommendation. 

Peter Woolstencroft, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo, says filling the vacancy by appointment is an easy solution, but not necessarily the right solution. 

"Almost everything I've read or listened to is trying to find reasons to have an appointment," Woolstencroft said, "rather than dealing with the principal question of should people who make decisions on behalf of us be appointed or elected."

Woolstencroft plans to attend the regional council meeting to encourage councillors to vote against Seiling's recommendation.

Councillors will vote on whether to accept Seiling's recommendation during their Wednesday meeting.