Quote:
Originally Posted by drpgq
It is pretty hard to beat an incumbent in the city. I kind of wish that there was provincial legislation so that whoever placed second automatically becomes councillor if the first one resigns even it was within the first month, so that there would be at least some incentive for running against an incumbent.
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Municipal by-laws can determine this. My city had this policy until the last election, when a racist came in 6th in an at-large race for 5 positions, and they eliminated the policy
to prevent her from automatically being appointed if one of the at-large councillors died/resigned because they thought by-elections are better.
The only thing that can really clear out incumbents is term limits, and as far as I know our laws
don't allow for that. Now that I think of it, the municipal elections act was changed last year to eliminate residency requirements (anyone can now run in any ward whether they live there or not, as long as they live in the municipality) so it might have changed the policy for replacing councillors who step down or die.