The lack of election signs bearing his name and image is meant to be a statement for one of the Collingwood councillor candidates.
An incumbent councillor, Steve Berman, made a last-minute decision to run again for his seat on council, but he’s keeping his campaign relatively low-profile.
Berman isn’t putting up any signs, or campaigning door-to-door and he hasn’t printed any campaign literature. He is accepting invitations to speak and/or respond to questions via email. He did miss the Chamber of Commerce all-candidates councillor event last week because he tested positive for COVID.
“I want to stick to my principles, I don’t like election signs,” said Berman, who has raised a discussion to consider banning them in the municipality. “I don’t know how we talk about climate almost every week at council and then condone this.”
He also considers election signs distracting to drivers and dangerous for pedestrians.
“There are other reasons, the biggest one for me is, I think that, outside of Collingwood, democracy has evolved to the point that style is destroying substance in elections,” said Berman. “I just decided I didn’t want to take part in anything that was style over substance, signs, flyers … when I post stuff on social media, it goes unchallenged. I could be lying if you don’t know me … There’s nothing for residents to be able to compare the candidates other than the rhetoric that’s spit out.”
Berman, who owns an online business selling collectibles, is running in his third election. He ran in 2014, seeking what he called a “megaphone” but was not elected. He won a councillor seat in 2018.
He said one of his favourite aspects of the role is reading the pages of staff reports and agendas on Friday evenings with his box of highlighters close.
“The number one [most important thing] would be understanding what the job is,” said Berman. “I don’t mail it in on anything. I’ve done my due diligence, I’ve done my work.”
During his time on the council table, he said he weighed his decisions against the existing rules of the day and what he thought would be in the best interest of the whole population of Collingwood.
“There are three things that you need in order to be a councillor: thick skin, common sense, and a moral compass,” said Berman. “And by thick skin … I mean that conviction to … make every issue as important as the next one, which means that sometimes you can be making a very unpopular lone ‘no’ vote. Thick skin is just seeing the bigger picture.”
Berman’s decision to run this year was made just before the nomination deadline in August.
“As usual, I overthought a lot of things and then when it came down to it, it was just, ‘somebody has to do it,’” said Berman. “You start realizing that everything that’s been accomplished over the last eight years can be thrown away with the wrong group of people in there.”
He noted the town still has about $17 million from the sale of the airport and the hydro utility earmarked in reserve funds, but it could be reallocated and spent by a new council.
“There’s a little bit of fear and apprehension that even well-intended people who don’t know the job or what the job entails, could come in and set us back.”
He wants to see the town continue to move forward with the developer proposal for the Terminals building.
“We’ve been working on this Terminals thing for almost the whole term,” said Berman, who called the proposal a “home run.”
He said if a new council came in and didn’t follow through with what was started it would be “catastrophic.”
He expects the Terminals project to be among the easier decisions for the next term of council. As for the more difficult decision, Berman said most of the last term of council was filled with decisions and issues nobody saw coming, such as the pandemic, senior staff turnover, and a development freeze.
“I have no idea what the biggest issue is going to be,” said Berman. “It isn’t going to be an issue, it’s going to be civility and communication.”
Berman moved to Collingwood in 1999, and this is his third time running for a council seat.
There are 12 candidates running for the seven available councillor seats for Collingwood in the 2022 municipal election taking place Oct. 24. The candidates include: Chris Baines, Steve Berman, Ian Chadwick, George Dickenson, Deb Doherty, Cam Ecclestone, Brandon Houston, Kathy Jeffery, Steve Johns, Steve Perry, Chris Potts, and Rob Ring.
You can find out if you’re on the voter list by visiting the town website here.
Advance voting starts Oct. 8 with internet or paper ballot voting options available. You can vote at the library in-person starting Oct. 8, or online anytime after Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. Library voting will take place Saturday and Wednesday, Oct. 8-22 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Oct. 24 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Voting will close on election day, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m.
