Niagara Council vacancies update: strong interest in West Lincoln by-election; Niagara Falls formally appoints runner-up to fill seat; Niagara-on-the-Lake yet to make a decision

Niagara Democracy Watch is The Pointer’s weekly feature aimed at increasing the public’s awareness and political involvement in the Niagara Region by highlighting key agenda items, motions and decisions. This week a look at the status of three recent council vacancies in Niagara.

Nominations closed for November 4th by-election. Five candidates vie for Smithville ward seat.

Nominations for the vacant Ward 3 (Smithville) seat on West Lincoln Council closed Friday, September 20 at 2:00 p.m. After a slow start that did not see the first nominee filing until two weeks after nominations opened, the last week of nominations saw a flurry of activity. Three more candidates (Heather Gill, Gord MacCharles and Doug Joyner) filed, joining the two other nominees, who had already filed, Greg Maychak and Stefanie Bonazza.

The Ward 3 vacancy came about after Councillor Terry Bell had been absent, without authorization, from the meetings of Council for three successive months due to health reasons.

By the Monday (September 23) after nominations closed, Township Clerk/Returning Officer Justin Paylove had certified all five nominees as being eligible to run for the position. To qualify, a nominee has to be over 18 years of age, a Canadian citizen, a resident or property owner (or spouse, thereof) in the Township of West Lincoln and not prohibited or disqualified from voting or holding office.

A Nominee is required to submit a filing fee of $100, which is refundable after filing an election financial statement by January 20, 2025 and collecting at least 25 declaration of endorsements from eligible voters.

After the Clerk’s certification, the sitting Ward 3 Councillor, William Reilly, took to his social media:

“It’s incredibly encouraging to see so many people put their names forward to join me in proudly representing all of the amazing residents in Ward 3 for the remainder of the term!”

As has been the case with the first two candidates to file, The Pointer has reached out to the three most recent nominees:

Heather Gill

Heather Gill is certainly not superstitious filing her papers on Friday, September 13th, a week before nominations closed.

Gill and her husband have lived in West Lincoln for a little more than ten years. They were familiar with the municipality, as Gill’s father had resided at Legion Villa, the seniors living complex, during the 1990’s. She explained to the Pointer:

“We were living in Oakville, and we were coming up to the age of thinking about a retirement home. We came back here on a Saturday to visit and saw the new communities and housing going in and by Monday, we had a place.”

Although Gill has no previous political experience, she feels that her work in the healthcare field, at Princess Margaret Hospital and currently at McMaster places her in good stead. “I have managed budgets and grants of upwards of $39 million. Being a town councillor is about managing the $20 million operating budget and understanding how it affects individuals and families.” 

Asked why she decided to seek the Council position, she states, “This is my ward. When I heard that Terry Bell was stepping down, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for me to be able to do something new. A new chapter in my life.”

Gill became the first of the local candidates to launch an election website, with her site going live on Monday, though she also indicates that she will also be campaigning. door-to-door throughout the ward.

She says that listening will be her top priority, whether it be hearing from residents, who tell her taxes are too high and the municipality needs to attract commercial and industrial businesses to reduce the burden, or from the other councillors, if she’s fortunate enough to be elected:

“They (West Lincoln Council) have years of experience, so listening to them first is my priority. Obviously, getting my point across of what I want, as well. But I think working with them is of major importance.”

Gord MacCharles

Four of the five nominees for the vacancy on West Lincoln Township Council moved to the community from elsewhere. Gord MacCharles came to Smithville from Hamilton in 2020.

“[W]e looked around. Smithville was a place that we kept coming back to. Something about the town just kept reaching out.”

Today, he has three children under five years old and is active in his church, recently being elected chair of the board of managers and having served on its heritage committee.   

Currently training to be a bus driver, MacCharles background is in logistics in food, manufacturing and distribution. He feels the experience lends itself to the council environment

“[I] spent a lot of years in logistics, managing people, products, and time. I am hoping to bring that sort of experience of keeping things on track any way that I can. Also, making sure that Council is not wasting any money and ensuring that we get the most bang for our buck.”

When asked by the Pointer why he was running for West Lincoln Council, MacCharles prefaced his comments by indicating he appreciates that being a councillor is a tough position but alluded to some recent local road work that he described as being “stalled” and a “patchwork”, as a galvanizing factor. He said he is seeking out information and wanting to get a better understanding on how decisions are made in the municipality. 

“[I] came to realize that I have never met anyone on (West Lincoln) Council and neither had my friends and neighbors in the area. They didn’t know who to turn to. I thought I might be able to be a friendly face that folks around here would feel comfortable coming to, to speak to about their issues.”    

MacCharles filed his nomination papers two days before the deadline. He plans on knocking on every door in the Smithville ward.

Doug Joyner

The last individual to file nomination papers, on the day of the deadline, is a familiar face to West Lincoln politics.

Doug Joyner was the Township’s Mayor for two terms, serving from December 2010 to November 2018. He was defeated in the 2018 election by David Bylsma, who nearly doubled the incumbent Mayor’s vote total.

After serving two years as an adjudicator on the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal, Joyner was the Liberal candidate in the Niagara West riding for the 2022 Provincial election. He finished third behind winner and incumbent, Sam Oosterhoff (Progressive Conservative) and former Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn (New Democratic Party), though Joyner did increase the Liberal vote in the riding by 8.65 percent. Less than five months later, Mr. Joyner successfully won election as a trustee with the Niagara Catholic District School Board, with 21 votes more than runner-up and incumbent, Leanne Prince.

If Joyner were to win the vacant seat on November 4th, he would be coming full circle in his political career, having served as a Ward 3 alderman from 2006 to 2010. If he did win, he would trigger a vacancy on the Niagara Catholic District School Board. The school board seat covers Grimsby, Lincoln and West Lincoln.

The Pointer has made repeated attempts to reach out to Mr. Joyner to discuss his candidacy for Township Council, but he did not agree to an interview request. Despite having an active presence on social media, Joyner has not indicated his candidacy, to date, on any of his sites.

West Lincoln’s By-Election page can be found here. 

Decision on whether to appoint or call a by-election to take longer

As expected, Niagara-on-the-Lake formally declared the Council seat held by Nick Ruller vacant at a Special Council meeting on September 17th. Mr. Ruller stepped down from Town Council after accepting the position of Fire Chief at the City of Brampton, noting in his resignation letter that, “the role of a municipal councillor is incredibly demanding, and with recent changes in my professional life, I will no longer be able to continue in this role.” 

The decision on whether to appoint someone or call a by-election, the two options available to municipal councils, is going to take longer than anticipated. 

The Town Clerk had indicated that a report would be prepared “for the next regularly scheduled Council meeting on September 24th”; however, at the meeting on the 17th, (Interim) Chief Administrative Bruce Zvaniga announced that the matter would be the subject of another specially called Council meeting, to ensure “that everyone’s able to be in attendance.”

Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa was absent for the regularly scheduled Council meeting on September 24th.

Niagara-on-the-Lake Council has 60 days from declaring the seat vacant on September 17th, to decide on the method of filling the vacancy. 

The Town’s most recent experience with a Council vacancy happened during the 2018 to 2022 Council term, when Councillor Stuart McCormack resigned on July 1, 2020. Sandra O’Connor, who had missed out on 8th place in the 2018 election by a mere 37 votes, was appointed in August of that year to fill the vacancy. Councillor O’Connor continues to sit on Town Council.

The runner up in the 2022 municipal election was Allan Bisback, who finished with 2,831 votes, 66 votes behind eighth place finisher Maria Mavridis, Bisback served on Town Council from 2018 to 2022.

Council Meeting

Date: October 1 - 4:00 p.m. | Delegate | Full agenda | Watch live 

As Expected, Dabrowski to fill Council Vacancy

Niagara Falls City Council meets on Tuesday, October 1st. On the agenda is a resolution filling the Council vacancy left by the resignation of long-time Niagara Falls politician, Wayne Thomson.

At Council’s September 10th meeting, Mayor Jim Diodati announced Thomson’s resignation. Mr. Thomson turned 85 years old this past week and had served on Council for 44 years, 17 of them as Mayor. 

After declaring the position vacant, Council passed a motion directing staff to reach out to the runner-up from the 2022 election, Chris Dabrowski, to see if he was interested in filling the vacancy. Tuesday’s resolution confirms his consent and formalizes the appointment.

Dabrowski served on Niagara Falls Council from 2018 to 2022 but finished less than 400 votes behind Thomson for the eighth position in the last election, with 5,896 votes. Mr. Dabrowski appointment is for the remainder of the Council term. He will be formally sworn in at Tuesday’s meeting.

The next municipal election is scheduled for Monday, October 26, 2026.

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