While there are as yet no general elections in the offing for Ontarians at the federal or provincial level, a couple of votes of great consequence are much in the news this week.
Residents of South Bruce wrapped up voting on Oct. 28 on a referendum to decide if the municipality could be considered a “willing host” for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s Deep Geological Repository.
The answer, delivered shortly after the polls closed on Monday night appears to be yes, with slightly over 51 per cent of ballots case in favor of hosting the project.
With 69 per cent of eligible voters casting ballots, the vote, an official referendum under Ontario’s election’s act, is binding on South Bruce Council, which will meet Nov. 12 to review the results.
The margin, while reaching the binding threshold, is hardly unanimous and makes clear there remains a divide in the community about the project.
There are more chapters to be written in this story, as the NWMO now has two willing host municipalities to choose from – the other is Ignance in northern Ontario – and the organization has said local Indiginous communities must also indicate willingess, and the designated groups have yet to be heard from.
As mentioned before in this space it is certainly among the most consequential questions ever asked of a municipal electorate and with nearly 70 per cent turnout (50 per cent was required to be binding) South Bruce residents did their part
The other imminent poll is one entirely outside the control of Canadians – the US presidential election on Nov. 5. Only two results are possible, the relative stability of a win by Democrat (and democratic) candidate and current Vice-President Kamala Harris, or the certain chaos of a second term by former Republican (and repugnant) President Donald Trump.
To an outside observer, it seems unimaginable that Americans would vote for the return of the twice-impeached Trump, who has been convicted of 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records and faces numerous other charges, including some related to attempts to change the outcome of the 2020 election, which he lost (no matter what he claims) – and yet, here we are.
Impacts for Canada of a Trump win would be wide-ranging (including sleepless nights for any rational observer of international affairs) and would include the effects of his proposed 10 per cent (at a minimum) tariff on any goods imported into the USA and the resulting trade wars and damage to the Canadian economy that would spark and the potential damage to global security due to Trump’s well-documented distain for NATO, the western military alliance that has provided the necessary balance of power that has kept the world free of global-scale conflict since the end of the Second World War.
Some economists warn policies Trump would impliment could push Canada into recession.
While our various levels of government are no doubt preparing plans for dealing with the aftermath of the US vote, with polls showing the American presidential race at pretty much a dead heat, there’s little average Canadians can do right now but watch, wait, hope – and maybe stock up on canned food.
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Patrick Raftis is editor at Midwestern Newspapers. Reach him at editor@midwesternnewspapers.com
