Since the introduction of strong mayor powers by the provincial government in 2022 to spur housing development, no less than 20 Ontario municipalities have rejected the use of them as undemocratic — including Stratford, which went so far as launching a court action to have them declared unconstitutional.

The essential problem with strong mayor powers in Niagara-on-the-Lake is that they will allow the lord mayor to override the majority decisions of council by convincing two of the six councillors to support his/her position in overturning the majority decision of council which is simply undemocratic and unacceptable under any circumstances.

It is understood there are some benefits to administrative streamlining of staffing and budgeting, but when it comes to policy decisions on planning and bylaws, our lord mayor and councillors cannot resort to using this ill-conceived tool.

That is why we need a specific pledge from each lord mayor candidate stating that he/she firmly promises to never use strong mayor powers to defeat a majority vote of our elected council.

Furthermore, we need a specific pledge from each of our council candidates that he/she will never support the lord mayor in using strong mayor powers to defeat a majority vote of council.

Anything like, “I’ll only use it as a last resort, or to overturn unacceptable development or some other circumstance” is still undemocratic and wrong.

Oh, and anyone who points to the lord mayor’s completely egregious attempt to veto the cold-storage commercial project at the end of May as to how the current system works satisfactorily is simply throwing shade (“Council kills St. Davids farm storage proposal — again,” May 28).