Voter Eligibility

Seguin Township Office

I swung by the Seguin Township administrative building today to find out a thing or two about voter eligibility. As I will be surveying Ward 1 people for their direction on my council voting, I want to be sure that I'm talking to people qualified to vote.

Here's what the Municipal Elections 2010 Guide states:

A person is entitled to be an elector at an election held in a local municipality, if on voting day he or she is:

• a Canadian citizen;
• at least 18 years old;
• residing in the local municipality or an owner or tenant of land there, or the spouse of such owner or tenant; and
• not otherwise prohibited from voting.

The following cannot vote in a municipal election:

• a person serving a sentence of imprisonment in a penal or correctional institution;
• a corporation; or
• a person convicted of a corrupt practice for an election held within four years of voting day.

If not on the voting list, you can fill out a form to get registered at the Seguin office in September. As it is a mail-in voting system, trying to do this on Oct 25th (voting day) could be problematic to say the least.

The form merely requires a potential voter to declare on the signed document that they occasionally 'reside' in Seguin. Their word is taken for granted.

So, for the purpose of my 'Perfectly Seguin' survey, an 18 year old who visits a family cottage for one weekend out of the year has the same right to vote in a Seguin Township election as a 60 year old who has lived in the township since birth.

Should I wonder who takes the trouble to vote?

Virtue Development

My interest in virtue development led me to create the 'Virtue Model' shown below.

'Virtue Model', Bill Pocock, 2007

This model helps me to understand at a glance how individuals with the desire to develop virtue may do so. At least this is one possible explanation.

Tree Cutting By-Law

Yes, I finally did read the tree cutting by-law (found here) after expressing my thoughts at length on 'Environment First'.

The tree cutting by-law isn't so horrific after all. Anything less than 6 inches in diameter (at breast height) isn't even considered a tree and may be cut at will.

Tree pruning and topiary (sculpting) is also allowed and limited only by your imagination.

Proper Pruning Technique (University of Minnesota).

I think this is a reasonable by-law. 80% of tree life is less than 6 inches in diameter. If you don't like it, then that's just one more of life's little disappointments.

Hitting the Books...Again.

I tell all those kids out there that it's never too late to hit the books.

After a hard day lumberjacking, I sit down to read
and take notes from books on politics.


Handwriting analysis.

The book I'm currently working on is called, "Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy Analysis" by Aaron Wildavsky. I go over it every year or so. Like all very good books, I get a different read from it because new experiences and perspectives gained help me draw new insights from the same text.

Writing out passages from the books I study, then boiling down the ideas into things I can easily remember is how I take in the information and make it knowledge for use in life. I laughed when I read this line from the book...

PEOPLE MAKE PROBLEMS.

Funny because it's true.

Municipal Councillor's Guide

Ever want to know what an Ontario municipal councillor does? Sure you do!

Well, just click on over to The Municipal Councillor's Guide provided by the ever helpful Ontario provincial government.

A romping, roller coaster ride of fun and adventure at only 73 pages.

We're gonna need more coffee.

All done?

Moving right along to the Ontario Municipal Act. Yippie!

I don't know if I'm in heaven or hell!!!!!!