Jawed Anwar

Canadian citizens in several provinces are voting this month for mayor and city or town council. In Ontario, municipal election day is October 26. In British Columbia it is October 17. In Manitoba it is October 28. In the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife votes on October 19. On those same days, voters in Ontario, British Columbia, and Manitoba also elect school board trustees.

Choosing a candidate

Suppose you have a fruit garden and you need a full-time gardener. What do you look for first? You look for someone who knows the art and skill of gardening.

What next? Suppose the best-qualified applicant is morally unfit: a liar, untrustworthy, corrupt, careless about promises, lazy, a thief, or opposed to the human and family values you hold. You will not hire that person. You will take the candidate who is competent enough and morally sound, even if that person is not first in technical skill.

Only after that might you consider religious, ethnic, linguistic, or national background. That is a third criterion, not the first. You do not sacrifice the first two.

Now suppose every applicant is capable of destroying the garden rather than tending it. They would plant trees that bear poisonous fruit and ruin the soil so that it could not be restored. Any sane owner would hire no one. Better to leave the garden as it is, and do what you can yourself, than to hire the person who will destroy it.

Why not apply the same test to your vote?

If you vote for a candidate only because that person is Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, white, Black, European, English, French, African, Asian, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or from some other community, and you ignore competence and character, you are not helping your city, town, or school board. In that case it is better to stay away from the ballot.

One of our Haya movement friends asked a Muslim MP in Mississauga why, despite being Muslim, he supported Bill C-9, which curtails civic and religious rights. He answered directly: “I am a Liberal MP, not a Muslim MP.”

That means he is committed to liberal party values, not to Islamic values. Many Muslim voters are pleased that “their” community has elected Muslim MPs, and they expect those MPs to protect them. The record says otherwise.

A candidate may share your values at home. He or she may belong to an Islamic society, an Islamic organization, a community centre, or a masjid, and may even have been president of one. Politically and ideologically, if that person belongs to a party, the party line will come first, not the line of faith. You may find a few exceptions in the broader Christian community. Among Muslim immigrant community leaders seeking office, exceptions are rare. They often work hardest to prove that they are the best liberals and democrats and that their religious and family values will not guide their public decisions.

So the question is plain: do we still vote for people who are part of the team that has damaged society, education, family, and culture?

Is help with masjid zoning, or permission to extend a parking lot, enough to sell your conscience, heart, and soul?

Vote for your children and the generation coming after them, not for the founders and supporters of a fahish culture and society.

Role of city and municipal government

City hall is not a legislature like a provincial assembly or Parliament. Local responsibilities usually include local roads and sidewalks, fire services, parks and recreation, libraries, local planning and zoning, building permits, business licensing, bylaw enforcement, and often stormwater and local transit. Policing, public health, social housing, childcare, social assistance, and major water systems are also municipal or regional, but which body delivers them depends on the structure.

Municipalities exist because the province creates them. In Ontario, most are governed by the Municipal Act, 2001. Toronto is governed by the City of Toronto Act, 2006, which gives council broader authority over its own governance, finances, and local rules. Council sets the budget, passes bylaws, and hires the administration that delivers services. Property tax is the main local tax.

Toronto is a single-tier city: one council is responsible for almost all municipal services. Mississauga is a lower-tier city inside the Region of Peel, with Brampton and Caledon. Mississauga council runs city services such as local roads, fire, parks, libraries, and MiWay. Peel still handles wider services such as water and wastewater, policing, public health, and social services, even after some responsibilities have shifted back to the local cities. A town in a county is closer to Mississauga’s split than to Toronto’s.

Role of school board trustees

A board of trustees is meant to set direction for the district, watch how public money is spent, hire and oversee the board’s top administrator, and act as a link between families and the school system. Trustees sit in public meetings, hear from parents, and vote on board policy.

They generally do not set the curriculum, certify teachers, or negotiate the main provincial teacher contracts. Those remain with the province. Principals and board staff run the schools; trustees are the elected oversight layer.

In Ontario that role is now narrower than it used to be. Bill 101, the Putting Student Achievement First Act, shifted much of the budget and operational authority at English public and Catholic boards to a chief executive officer. Some boards, including the Toronto District School Board and the Peel District School Board, have also been placed under provincial supervision. French-language boards were largely left out of these changes. Even so, a trustee still speaks for families in a public forum, and that seat should not be filled by someone opposed to the moral formation of children.

Despite the limits, your mayor, your city councillor, and your school board trustee still matter in the daily life of your city.

Competence and Character first. Community label never ahead of either.

And if every serious candidate would help ruin the garden, do not hire the gardener. Don’t vote.

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