Candidates pitch ideas for changing how local government is chosen

Frank Mazzuca was a giant of Sudbury politics and reigned as mayor of the Town of Capreol for 22 years.

His last post was as the final regional chairman before Capreol, Sudbury and five other municipalities were amalgamated into the City of Greater Sudbury in 2001.

"He's probably rolled over so many times from the cemetery that he's in ValCaronright now," says his son Frank Jr.

The younger Mazzucais now running to be the city councillor for Greater Sudbury's Ward 7, which includes Capreol, Garson, Falconbridge and Skead.

'Plucking the chicken one feather at a time'

He says he was in favour of some kind of amalgamation, but feels the outlying communities like his have only been hurt by being lumped in with Sudbury.

"The trick was we were all supposed to end up ascousins," says Mazzuca.

"And that's not the way it turned out. Everybody's grabbing what they can get a hold for their community and it's struggle. Because at the end of the day,there's not enough funding to get everybody pacified."

He is running in the hopes of preserving more municipal services in Capreol and if elected will argue that it and the other former municipalities should each get their own seat on city council.

"They're plucking the chicken one feather at a time and we're going to end up with a bedroom community and no services," says Mazzuca.

Many in Sudbury have long argued that the city would be better off without wards and should instead elect at least some councillors at-large, as North Bay does.

But in this election, two of the leading mayoral contenders are promising to look at splitting North Bay up into wards.

One of them is two-term incumbent Al McDonald, who says his mind was changed on this issue this term, seeing constituents confused about who they should call to champion local issues.

He says this electionis also showing him the perils of having 26 council candidates campaigning across the city.

"I don't know if there's a thousand signs in our city, but it must be close to that. It makes it very difficult for our citizens to make an informed decision," says McDonald.

'You shouldn't be holding back for fear of losing votes'

Jessica Trudel, who is running for city council in Ward 4 in Timmins, would like to see a lot of changes to how the city is governed.

She feels the ward map needs to be re-drawn, feels councillors should be required to live in the ward they represent and thinks the city should look at setting term limits for mayor and council.

"They're more concerned about getting elected next term than they are about doing what's best for the community, right now, this term," says Trudel, who is running for council for a second time.

"You shouldn't be holding back for fear of losing votes."

Alexandra Flynn, a professor in the city studies program at the University of Toronto,says these big democratic questions always come up in an election, since there isn't much time for big picture thinking during a four-year term.

"You know, there's definitely more of a conversation at election time around governance issues," she says.

"I think people would rather be talking about transit and roads and arenas."