The Coalition of Haliburton Property Owners’ Associations’ (CHA) Paul MacInnes said he was surprised by social media backlash to environmental rankings the organization issued to municipal election candidates last week, noting “probably 80 per cent of the feedback I’ve gotten has been positive.”
On Oct. 6, MacInnes emailed lists containing names of all 56 candidates seeking election this month, outlining the township and position they’re running for. Also included was a letter grade and a percentage score.
Some County residents questioned the lack of context included in the email, with concerns raised over how the rankings will be perceived. There were no questions or responses provided, only grades.
MacInnes said there were four questions asked: do you support keeping our lakes’ shorelines natural for 30 metres back from the water; would you support demanding that Lakelands Public Health inform people of current blue-green algae blooms; would you support action to protect our lakes from extreme wakes and if so, how; and do you support the continuation of septic reinspection programs across the County, and how would you strengthen them?
In total, 24 candidates received an ‘F’, which MacInnes said stood for “failed to reply” – three in Algonquin Highlands, nine in Dysart et al, seven in Highlands East and five in Minden Hills. Other scores ranged from Cs, with a low of 25 per cent (issued to two candidates), to A+, with three scoring 100 per cent.
Group wants environmental issues ‘top of mind’
“We started working on this months ago. We saw this election as being very important for lake health and our future,” MacInnes said. “Our biggest task was coming up with a rankings system that would be fair to everybody – the difficulty was, a number of us (scorers) know a lot of the candidates but there are some we don’t.”
MacInnes said he didn’t want pre-existing relationships to impact the ratings, so the only thing considered were answers to four questions CHA emailed out earlier this summer. MacInnes said he gave candidates more than a month to answer and followed up several times with those who didn’t respond.
“We based the scoring 100 per cent on the answers candidates sent to us. We had a system and that was it,” MacInnes said. “When answers came in, we looked at their responses and how closely it aligned with the principles of lake health – and that’s how the rankings were issued.”
He said results were shared with candidates and individual lake associations across Haliburton County Oct. 6. The Highlander asked how the notification was rolled out, with one candidate at an Oct. 5 Minden Hills all-candidates debate referencing the rankings, seemingly having access to them early.
“Results went out to everybody within a 24-hour period. There was a lot of emails to send and you can’t get them all in one day. But, what we did was, all of our member associations – the people who will use this information on day one [got it Oct. 5] and the candidates got it the next morning,” MacInnes said.
“The only way someone could have known about it on the night of the Minden debate is that a candidate found out from one of the local associations,” he added.
Minden Hills deputy mayor Lisa Schell, who isn’t seeking re-election, criticized CHA for the way they went about this.
“According to the CHA, the rating was done with a consistent system for all candidates and with no bias… here’s the problem, who decides what the ‘correct’ answers are? It wasn’t a yes/no or true/ false requirement,” Schell said. “Releasing this ‘report card’ days before the polls open could be seen as voter interference.”
There are strict rules around third-party advertising in the Municipal Elections Act. Any group looking to advertise something, such as a questionnaire, via broadcast, print, electronic or other medium that supports, promotes or opposes a candidate must register with a municipal clerk prior to releasing anything. However, that only applies if the group incurs a cost. MacInnes said the CHA didn’t spend anything during this process.
“We didn’t say ‘vote for this person’ or ‘don’t vote for them’. We were never intending for this to say ‘we support this candidate’. We just wanted the issue of lake health to be top of mind,” MacInnes said.
More issues
Ron Parkinson, representing Highlands East Lake Organizations (HELO), said he received the results from MacInnes last week and immediately asked for more context. His plan was to issue a more comprehensive package, which went out Oct. 13.
“We definitely didn’t want to just put those ratings out… when we saw those, we were all basically like ‘what the heck is that?’,” Parkinson said.
While the package HELO released did contain more information, including candidates’ answers to questions, there was an issue transferring responses for Highlands East mayoral candidates with some attributed to the incorrect source.
“We’re now in the process of fixing this before we send it back out,” Parkinson said. “We’re not putting anyone in a more favourable position than anyone else. All we want to put out is what people wrote, no grades.”
He said a corrected email blast would be issued to HELO members Oct. 14 or 15, though The Highlander could not confirm as of press time.
MacInnes said this is the first time CHA has gotten involved in an election by asking specific questions of candidates, though he likened it to someone like Haliburton farmer Godfrey Tyler asking Dysart et al candidates about agricultural issues at a recent all-candidates meeting.
“This is the same thing. We’re stepping up because we wanted the topics of lake health to be part of the conversation… there isn’t an organization or job in Haliburton County that wouldn’t be threatened if our lakes went to hell in a handbasket,” he said.
Asked if he, or other CHA members had any regrets, or wished they could do things differently, MacInnes said no.
“We have very clear consciences. We know exactly why we did it… and there’s nothing we would change,” MacInnes noted.
