Dear editor:

By the time you read this, the municipal election will be over. I will have cast my ballot, and I can tell you that getting there involved more than reading the candidates’ platforms and considering their positions on the important issues facing our town.

There are some pretty important things to consider: development versus preservation, updating our infrastructure, amalgamation, transparency and the needs of our farming community.  Competing visions for the future of Niagara-on-the-Lake.  

Serious stuff.

Someone recently asked me whom I was voting for.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll have to ask my husband.”

My friends were aghast. I thought this was very funny.

Apparently, I was supposed to have an opinion of my own, carefully considered and ready for public consumption. Instead, I’d inadvertently suggested that my ballot required spousal authorization. I hadn’t realized the situation was quite that serious.

I’ve been to town hall meetings. I’ve listened to presentations. But when it came to choosing a candidate, I found myself considering things that wouldn’t appear in any campaign brochure.

One candidate seemed promising, until I heard something that made me reconsider. Another had qualities I liked, but then I heard something else that gave me pause.  

There are certain things that can complicate the decision.

For instance, there’s the fellow I’ve met at several town hall meetings.

I brought my home-baked cookies. He liked them. In fact, he liked them so much that he ate eight. Eight!

Now, I realize that eating eight cookies is not a municipal platform. It tells me nothing about his position on the issues.

But he certainly seemed to enjoy my cookies.

I have to admit that I remember him fondly. And I’m beginning to think I may have found my candidate.

Then there’s one candidate who took my parking space at the Sandtrap.

Of course, he may not have realized I was waiting for it. I was applying my lipstick in the visor mirror. But he took my parking space.

And then there was the councillor who was so kind to Dawn, one of the cashiers at our local grocery store. Dawn is older and very sweet. I was waiting in line and watched the exchange.

I remember thinking, “This person is wonderful.”

I was collecting evidence.

I also saw a councillor leaving “My Fair Lady” at the Shaw Festival Theatre, my favourite performance of the season, right in the middle of David Adams’ little “shimmy.” How can anyone leave during the best part?

I think it was him, anyway. He’d better have had a good reason. I mean, really. It was “My Fair Lady.”

Then there are the moments when you remember that candidates are people, too. They have bad days, difficult encounters and things going on in their lives that the rest of us know nothing about.

This can be a tough town.

So yes, I read the information available to me and consider the candidates’ positions. But I was also paying attention to things that wouldn’t appear in campaign literature.

You won’t find any of this in the newspapers.

I think I’ve done my due diligence.

Debra Rowe
NOTL