The founder of the Grey Highlands Municipal League says he intends to stay active in municipal politics well after last month's election.
Dave Meslin recently moved to Eugenia, and spent $10,000 of his own money to establish the League, which he says was a group formed to drive interest in politics, especially at the municipal level. The boost led to a record number of council candidates in the election, however voter turnout in Grey Highlands did drop slightly.
"We created the Grey Highlands Municipal League as a non-partisan municipal group to try and get more people engaged, more people running, more people voting, and more people actually understanding what's happening," said Meslin, adding the group's sole purpose is to drive democratic engagement, and to possibly be used as a template for nearby municipalities that wish to do the same thing in future election. "There's openings right now on seven boards and committees in Grey Highlands, and most people aren't aware of that. So we're doing exactly the same thing we did with the election... putting out advertisements, social media, and emails, and we're trying to let people know that if you want to make a difference, there's ways to do that."
Voters in Grey Highlands received "candidate menus", full-colour advertisements that highlighted each candidate, and also included notes like salaries and job descriptions for positions on council.
"The more people involved, the better," said Meslin, "Everyone brings a unique perspective, a unique background, history, opinion and skillset. When we have the most people participating, that's when we're most likely to end up making the best decisions."
