Haliburton County has seen a surge of public engagement in advance of the October 26 municipal election, thanks in part to the efforts of the Haliburton Highlands Healthy Democracy Project (HHHDP).
“We think that voters should have choice on the ballot, and that’s what they have in this election,” said HHHDP chairperson Lauren Hunter in an interview with kawarthaNOW.
Led by a steering committee of five local community leaders, HHHDP was formed in 2025 to strengthen local democracy and promote higher levels of civic engagement, including candidate registration and voter turnout.
Only one acclamation in 2026 compared to 12 uncontested races in 2022
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 23 council positions, including mayors, deputy mayors, at-large and ward councillors, as well as school board trustees.
Each municipality is also represented on Haliburton 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 races across Haliburton County were acclaimed — meaning only a single candidate was nominated for the position. The high number of acclamations likely contributed to that election’s low voter turnout, which was just 26 per cent on average across the four municipalities in the county.
In contrast, the 2026 municipal election has seen only a single acclamation (incumbent Algonquin Highlands Ward 1 councillor Karla MacKay), while 56 certified candidates are vying for the 23 council seats across the four municipalities.
All candidate meetings draw strong attendance and community participation
As part of its efforts to boost citizen participation in October’s municipal election, HHHDP has been hosting a series of all candidate meetings in the four townships to provide voters and candidates an opportunity to meet ahead of the voting period.
“Candidates had a chance to say who they were, give an opening statement, and then answer some questions that we had compiled from the community,” said Hunter.
HHHDP’s Highlands East all candidate meeting in Cardiff on September 12 saw over 100 in-person attendees and 350 unique views online. A week later, the Minden Hills HHHDP all candidate meeting in Minden had more than 215 in-person attendees and 312 unique views online.
Other organizations in Haliburton County, including the Highlands East Lakes Organization, the Kennisis Lake Cottage Owners’ Association, the Oxtongue Lake Association, and the Rotary Club of Minden, have also been engaging voters and candidates in conversation.
Hunter told kawarthaNOW the response from community members to these events has been overwhelmingly positive.
“People have been really engaged — turning out, submitting their names to be able to ask questions, coming early, and then sticking around afterwards to meet with the candidates and speak with them.”
HHHDP will be hosting all candidate meetings for Dysart et al on Saturday, October 3 at the Haliburton Legion at 719 Mountain Street, and for Algonquin Highlands on Saturday, October 17 at the Stanhope Firefighters Community Hall at 1095 North Shore Road, with doors opening at 9 a.m. for both meetings.
Governance and affordability study emerges as leading election issue
For the Highlands East and Minden Hills meetings, Hunter said that each event received an “overwhelming” number of questions across a range of issues impacting Haliburton’s disparate voter base.
Of those, municipal governance and structures remain at the top of people’s minds.
“The number one issue is the county’s governance and affordability study, which is looking at how the lower tier — the four townships of Haliburton County — govern themselves.”
The County of Haliburton Community Affordability Governance Structure Study was undertaken by the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN), with the results released in August.
The study highlighted infrastructure costs, inflation, legislative requirements, workforce shortages, aging assets, and climate resilience needs as contributing to financial pressures for rural municipalities such as the Haliburton region.
The study also assessed the efficacy of changing the governance structure of Haliburton County, such as by amalgamating some or all of the lower-tier townships — a controversial proposal.
However, the report notes that “the value of this study lies not in identifying a preferred governance model, but in providing the information necessary to support thoughtful, transparent, and informed decision-making.”
It will be the responsibility of the new councils elected on October 26 to determine an approach going forward.
Haliburton Highlands Healthy Democracy Project working to get the vote out
With the higher number of candidates running in Haliburton County, HHHDP is also working to encourage more people to vote in this year’s election.
“The two things tend to be related to each other,” Hunter explained. “The fewer number of contested elections, then the less people are campaigning and the less interest is being drummed up in the election as a whole.”
She pointed out the importance of voting, noting that “municipal government is the level of government that touches our everyday lives the most and the most concretely.”
“If you drive on our local roads and bridges, if you take your garbage recycling to our local dumps and transfer stations, if you enjoy any of the local parks and recreation facilities, if you use the local libraries, if you want to be able to rely on our emergency services, fire and ambulance and police, those are all municipal services,” she explained.
Continuing its engagement efforts, HHHDP will have a voting information postcard delivered by mail in the coming days, and will soon have “candidate menus” for each municipality available on the HHDP website to give a quick snapshot of who is running.
Voting is set to begin in Minden Hills on October 10 (in-person, by phone, and online) and in Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, and Highlands East on October 16 (by phone and online).
“It’s really important that people use their voice and their vote to cast a ballot during this election,” reiterated Hunter.
HHHDP is supported 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.
