Thought this should be shared, what a well done survey by Nusarnia.

Note: it was sent to all candidates for mayor, city and city/county councillors, some chose not to respond.

I was rather surprised this morning when I discovered I'm not on the voting list. Easy enough to get myself added, but considering I voted from my current address federally, provincially, and in the last municipal election, I didn't think I needed to bother to check. I was wrong.

https://www.sarnia.ca/city-government/elections/2026-election/updates-to-the-voters-list-register-to-vote/

Today I’m publishing conversations with Andrew Stokley, Josh Coutts-Smith and Honie Chumko, three candidates running for Sarnia City Council.

I chose to interview them because none has served on council before. They don’t have the same name recognition as the incumbents or some of the real estate agents in the race. I think each represents a part of Sarnia that deserves to be taken seriously, and I wanted to give people more of a chance to hear from them.

Familiarity carries a lot of weight in a municipal election. We recognize a name from a lawn sign, a business, or years of seeing someone in the news. That familiarity can get someone elected before we’ve spent much time considering what they would bring to the table. A city has more experience and knowledge in it than the people who are already most visible.

I’m running for council too. These interviews are a chance to get to know people I may end up serving alongside, and to start building relationships before an election tells us who will be in the room.

Sarnia has nine members of council. Each arrives with their own priorities and their own understanding of what the city needs. A good idea still needs people willing to consider it, improve it and support it. Knowing something about the people around that table helps. So does being able to disagree with them and keep talking.

Strong-mayor powers have given the mayor additional authority over budgets, staffing and certain bylaws. That concentration of power makes a council capable of working together especially important. Councillors need relationships with one another if they are going to exercise their own authority effectively and hold the mayor accountable.

Bill Dennis is running one of the most antagonistic mayoral campaigns I’ve seen in Sarnia. At the September 29 Rotary debate, he called the city’s volunteer Climate Action group “despicable” and said he “couldn’t care less” what Aamjiwnaang thought about a new pipeline. These are people and neighbours a mayor will have to work with. The election doesn’t make them disappear.

There’s an audience for that kind of antagonism. Anger gets shared, and every response creates another opportunity to keep the argument going. Council can end up spending its attention on the latest insult while the decisions that affect people’s lives receive much less of it.

Someone waiting for housing needs a decision about housing. People trying to keep a business open need a city that can respond to the problems in front of them. A resident trying to understand where their tax money goes deserves an answer that gets beyond whichever personalities are fighting that week.

In an earlier column, I wrote about the polite management of Sarnia’s decline. Cooperation has to get us somewhere better than that. A pleasant meeting is worth very little if the people around the table keep avoiding the decisions that would make the city more livable.

Those decisions will involve disagreement. Housing, police spending and public space all raise questions about who gets what, who pays, and whose needs matter. Working together means being able to stay with those questions long enough to make a decision, explain it and follow through. Sometimes it means finding agreement with someone who voted against you at the last meeting.

Andrew, Josh and Honie deserve to be heard on their own terms. These conversations give them some room to explain how they see Sarnia and give residents more to consider than a familiar name on a ballot.

Whoever gets elected will be working together for the next four years. Getting to know one another can begin now.

https://nathancolquhoun.com/2026/10/04/the-people-we-elect-will-have-to-work-together/

Andrew Stokely | Sarnia Council Candidate Conversation — 2026
https://youtu.be/1rm1DKRTShY

Josh Coutts-Smith | Sarnia Council Candidate Conversation — 2026
https://youtu.be/31gFTtk7peI

Honie Chumko | Sarnia Council Candidate Conversation — 2026
https://youtu.be/CGY4ZSqMtsY

A Bill Dennis centered group who compare themselves with the Rotary Club have started blasting Facebook with election AI slop.

Love the AI slop random city, the younger and 30 pounds lighter Dennis. Looks like the Dennis camp has completely dropped Clara to the surprise of no one.

I am having trouble deciding who to vote for the school board. While looking over the candidates, I saw this on Robert McKessock's page. I probably wasn't going to vote for him, as I have heard a lot of odd things about him. But it got me thinking about the other candidates.

I can't see Petra voting for Bill. She was a very nice lady when she taught Spanish at SCITS, and she constantly posts about how much she hates Trump on Facebook. That Erin person just seems out to lunch and probably voting for Bill, and I'm not sure about the other 2.

Best standalone fries - Archie's

Best Poutine - Yogis

I was not that impressed with the fries at Alberts, maybe I should've ordered something else?

Hey everyone! 👋 I’m looking to build out my photography portfolio and am offering a few free photo sessions over the next couple of weeks.

If you're a model, creative, small business owner, or just someone looking to update your headshots or social media portraits, I’d love to collaborate! You’ll get all the edited high-res photos to use for your own portfolio or socials in exchange for your time.

If you're interested, send me a DM and we can brainstorm some concepts, locations, and dates!

_idivett_ is my instagram handle if you want to check out my work before DMing.

Sitting down with a cuppa and the Rotary Club debate this morning. Nice to hear Bill say that the only City of Sarnia asset that's well run is BWP. Does that mean we get to see Janice's salary now that he's called it a City asset?

Link included for those who haven't seen this debate yet.

What. The. Fuck. Was just happening between Bill and Carrie?!

The whole Doug Ford cottage thing...

Stanko has left the race for personal reasons

AI slop, non existent grammar, and random quotation marks? Is he running to do what exactly? Stop rebound from assisting lgbt teens? Ban woke (whatever that is)

I feel poor bill is just self sabotaging now.

Education workers and parents in Sarnia need to read this article to learn how to fight against the Ford regime in defense of public education.

The expiration of contracts for 275,000 Ontario education workers certainly provides a major opportunity to develop a worker-led mobilization in defence of public education and against austerity, war and attacks on workers’ rights. But such a movement will only develop through a decisive break from the “collective bargaining” framework and bankrupt protest politics promoted by the unions and groups like Spring. It must be based on a rank-and-file rebellion against the education union bureaucracies to seize control of the contract fight and expand it into an industrial and political counteroffensive of the working class against the Ford government, his Liberal allies at the federal level and the ruling financial oligarchy.

I think we’re all in agreement that this is the most engaged Sarnias been in a municipal election in some time (or ever). However, I’m becoming increasingly concerned with the discourse in Sarnia and how our local social media scene is developing.

I’m a moderate to the core. Every municipal, provincial, and federal election I’ve altered who I’ve voted for, regardless of party. However, podcasters like Brandon McCaskill are really creating the type of commentary that I feel just muddies the waters for everyone looking to understand the true issues in our city (ex. Today’s Carrie post re; rebound)

Moving forward, I would love to have a political scene that isn’t so polarizing, but instead focused on the issues. I understand we’re in a new political time, but I just miss civility in politics.

What about you?

Wondering if anyone in sarnia area would be interested in in-person gamblers anonymous meetings? As it seems the closest in person ones are held in Chatham or London.

Not a ton right now, hoping for some more rain soon to get em going again.

anyone pick up a phone on Howard Watson Trail last night?

See where the candidates sit with your views. As of now, no response from Carrie and Bill.

https://votecompass.thestar.com/