With multiple seats across Haliburton County’s lower-tier municipalities likely to be acclaimed during this fall’s municipal election because of low candidate registration, a non-partisan grassroots community group is working to encourage more residents to run for public office.
Led by a steering committee of five local community leaders, the Haliburton Highlands Healthy Democracy Project (HHHDP) was formed in 2025 to strengthen local democracy and promote higher levels of civic engagement, including candidate registration and voter turnout.
“There’s still a number of positions that no one is running for and a number of positions where one person stands to be acclaimed,” said Lauren Hunter, HHHDP chairperson, in an interview with kawarthaNOW.
Increasing number of acclamations and declining voter turnout in municipal elections
Haliburton County comprises the Township of Algonquin Highlands, the Municipality of Highlands East, the Municipality of Dysart et al, and the Township of Minden Hills. Across the four municipalities there are 25 elected positions, including mayors, deputy mayors, at-large and ward councillors, and school board trustees.
Each municipality is also represented on county council by their mayor and deputy mayor, one of whom is elected annually by county council to serve as county warden.
In the 2022 municipal election, 12 of the 22 roles on the ballot across Haliburton County were acclaimed, and voter turnout was just 26 per cent on average across the four municipalities in the county.
“Sometimes you still end up with a great person being your elected official, but we thought that it was a shame that there wasn’t more choice on the ballot,” Hunter said.
Research from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) shows that increasing acclamations is a trend across the province, corresponding with a decline in voter turnout.
In the last municipal election in 2022, there were 548 acclaimed candidates in 2,860 elected positions (19 per cent), including 139 heads of council, and 32 full council acclamations.
In comparison, the 2018 municipal election saw 477 acclaimed candidates (including 120 heads of council) and 26 fully acclaimed councils. In 2014, there were 390 acclaimed candidates and 26 fully acclaimed councils.
The increasing number of acclamations has been accompanied by declining voter turnout in municipal elections. According to AMO, the average voter turnout in 2022 was 32.9 per cent, compared to 38.3 per cent in 2018 and 43.1 per cent in 2014.
“The two things tend to be related to each other,” Hunter explained. “The fewer number of contested elections, then the less people are campaigning, the less interest is being drummed up in the election as a whole.”
Reaching Haliburton County’s non-resident electors
Hunter said one factor impacting voter turnout in Haliburton County is the high percentage of seasonal residents, such as cottagers, who may not be aware they are allowed to vote in the municipality where their seasonal residence is located in addition to their home municipality.
Unlike elections at the provincial and federal level, people can vote in any municipality where they own or rent property, even if it’s not their permanent residence.
This includes seasonal property owners as well as students living away from their home community to attend post-secondary education, if they intend on returning to their home community after their schooling is completed. These voters are known as non-resident electors.
For the 2026 municipal election, a lack of awareness among non-resident electors of their voting rights has been exacerbated by the transfer of voter registration lists from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) to Elections Ontario.
Several Ontario municipalities, including Peterborough County, have identified that the voter registration lists are missing eligible voters, especially non-resident electors.
HHHDP is trying to combat the low number of non-resident electors participating in Haliburton County lower-tier elections by collaborating with the Coalition of Haliburton Property Owners Association.
“We are trying to make sure that folks know and that they check their voter registration,” said Hunter.
Non-resident electors are encouraged to confirm their voter registration with Elections Ontario. To check whether you’re on the voters list, to update your information, or to add yourself, visit www.registertovoteon.ca.
Three-part engagement campaign and all-candidate events on Saturday mornings this fall
As part of its efforts to boost participation in October’s municipal election, HHHPD is running a three-part engagement campaign that delivers digital and physical postcards to Haliburton County residents educating them about the election and encouraging people to run for municipal office.
With the nomination period for candidates closing on August 21, the first postcard highlights the elected positions available across the four townships.
“Consider running for office! Our local governments make important decisions about many, many services that you use every day,” reads the postcard.
Hunter told kawarthaNOW that the second mailer will be a “candidate menu” that introduces residents to the candidates with a photograph and short biography.
“At least voters have that information and that might inspire them to go and look the person up and try to find out more,” Hunter said.
The final postcard will inform people how they can vote using mail in and telephone voting, or in person in Minden Hills.
In addition to the postcard campaign, HHHDP will host four in-person all-candidate events, with one in each township, to give residents the opportunity to meet candidates, learn about their platforms, and have their voice heard on key election issues.
“It’s a chance for the community to hear from these folks who want to represent them about their ideas and what they might do when they’re in office,” Hunter said.
Hunter added HHHDP is trying to do things differently when it comes to engaging residents, in an effort to reach more people and be more accessible. As such, HHHDP will host the all-candidate events on Saturday mornings rather than the traditional weekday evening:
- Highlands East – Saturday, September 12 from 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Cardiff Community Centre (2747 Monck Rd., Cardiff)
- Minden Hills – Saturday, September 19 from 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Minden Community Centre (55 Parkside St., Minden)
- Dysart et al. – Saturday, October 3 from 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at the Haliburton Legion (719 Mountain St., Haliburton)
- Algonquin Highlands – Saturday, October 17 from 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Stanhope Firefighters Hall (1123 North Shore Rd., Algonquin Highlands)
Affordability, housing, and governmental structure expected to be key campaign issues
According to Hunter, the cost-of-living crisis and affordability challenges will be hot topic issues during the campaign.
“Cost of living is a real concern,” Hunter said. “People are looking to every level of government — it doesn’t matter what their responsibility is — to try to find a way to make it easier for people to make ends meet.”
Haliburton-based charity Places for People, which provides affordable housing in all four townships, explains on their website the hidden nature of homelessness and housing shortages in rural communities.
“Homelessness in rural communities is hidden. Due to local services and the small size of our communities, it is not initially visible. Instead, homelessness in Haliburton County takes the form of couch surfing, sleeping in cars, or living in substandard housing.”
For Hunter, another key area of discussion will be the future of the governmental structure in Haliburton County. She said this might include more shared services between townships, such as waste management.
“The County of Haliburton is studying what (the government) should look like in the future because they have recognized that costs of running these governments is outstripping the available funding,” said Hunter.
The results of this study will be released prior to the August 21 nominations deadline, which will allow residents to decide if they want to run and how they would manage the outcome of the study if they are elected.
“It’s more dry, but I actually think it is going to be the hot topic of this election cycle,” Hunter said.
This will be the first municipal election since HHHDP was formed, and as such the organization will be learning about successful engagement strategies and adapting their work over time, said Hunter.
“As the Democracy Project, we are interested in trying things in different ways to try to increase that accessibility to the process as a whole,” she added.
HHHDP is supported in their work by the Haliburton County Community Co-operative, the Telling Our Stories Speaker Series, the Haliburton County Development Corporation, and Canoe FM.
For more information about the Haliburton Highlands Healthy Democracy Project, visit hhhdp.ca.
Haliburton County municipal election candidates
A list of all uncertified candidates registered in each of Haliburton County’s four municipalities, as of July 16, is provided below.
Township of Algonquin Highlands
- Mayor: Liz Danielsen (incumbent)
- Ward 1: James Cooper
- Ward 2: Lisa Barry (incumbent), Gary Trapp
- Ward 3: none to date
Municipality of Highlands East
- Mayor: Dave Burton (incumbent), Steven Kauffeldt
- Ward 1 (Bicroft): Bill Easton
- Ward 2 (Cardiff): Jo-Anne Gould-Green, Angela Lewis (incumbent)
- Ward 3 (Glamorgan): Arlene Quinn, Cecil Ryall (incumbent, deputy mayor)
- Ward 4 (Monmouth): Ruth Strong (incumbent)
Municipality of Dysart et al
- Mayor: Greg Bishop, Pat Casey, Andrew Nowell
- Deputy Mayor: Walt McKechnie (incumbent)
- Ward 1: Rob McCaig, Danny Roberts
- Ward 2: Rob Parish, Mike Waller
- Ward 3: Tammy Donaldson (incumbent), Marianne Schlottke, Geoff Webber
- Ward 4: Carm Sawyer (incumbent)
- Ward 5: Kirby Bagg, Barry Boice (incumbent)
Township of Minden
- Mayor: Bob Carter (incumbent), Pat Kitcheman, Tammy McKelvie, Pam Sayne
- Deputy Mayor: Ivan Ingram, Lisa Schell (incumbent)
- Councillor at-Large: Ron Nesbitt, Bob Sisson
- Ward 1 (formerly Anson, Hindon and Minden): Dan Garbutt, Shirley Johannssen (incumbent)
- Ward 2 (formerly Lutterworth): Brad Griffin, Stephen Hertel, John McNeil
- Ward 3 (formerly Snowdon): Jeff Hancock, Lisa Mercer
