Jeff Lehman has thrown a political curveball at Barrie voters.
Unintentionally, of course, but he snapped one off nonetheless.
It’s one thing to announce he wants to be the Liberal candidate for the Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte riding in the June 2 provincial election.
But announcing that he won’t run for a fourth term as Barrie mayor on Oct. 24, even if he loses in June (Tory incumbent Doug Downey is running again), is quite another.
It’s thrown the race for city mayor wide open, probably for the fist time since 2010 — when Lehman, after one term as Ward 2 councillor, defeated a strong field including former Barrie-area MPP Joe Tascona, city councillor Mike Ramsay and former mayor Rob Hamilton.
Dave Aspden finished a distant fifth despite being the incumbent, for reasons I’ve told too often and need not repeat.
Since then, in 2014 and 2018 elections, Lehman has steamrolled his competition, such as it was, taking more than 90 per cent of the vote for mayor.
The same might have happened in 2022, had Lehman decided to run again.
Before Lehman announced his provincial intentions, only Coun. Natalie Harris had said she would run for mayor this year, although nominations don’t open until May 2 and end Aug. 19.
Since Lehman announced his intentions, former city councillor and former Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MP Alex Nuttall has said he will run for mayor.
Would he have run had Lehman not said he was stepping aside?
There’s no way to tell now, is there?
Coun. Mike McCann, long rumoured to be taking a run at the big chair, has said he has decided whether or not he will run for Barrie mayor. He’s just not telling anyone, yet.
There will be other candidates, of course, before the dust settles.
Which could mean, looking at a half-full glass, Barrie voters will have great choices for mayor this fall and get just the right person to lead this city for the next four years, and perhaps beyond.
It could also mean four or five candidates might divvy up the vote fairly evenly and Barrie’s next mayor could win with 20 to 25 per cent of that vote, which is not exactly a mandate to govern.
Yes, yes, the mayor only has one of 11 votes on council, but anyone who thinks a mayor has just one vote’s worth of clout with council isn’t paying much attention.
This is the unintentional curveball Lehman has thrown Barrie voters.
Maybe it will shake up the political landscape in a good way, with more quality candidates not only coming out of the woodwork to run for mayor, but ward councillors as well.
Not that this is particularly Lehman’s doing.
He’s free to run for any level of government his heart desires, and doesn’t owe Barrie voters anything.
Why did he do it?
Well, the provincial government is obviously a larger stage than Barrie City Hall — although many thought Lehman would enter federal politics, especially when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kept visiting the city.
Lehman also said he can take what he’s learned in municipal politics and help Barrie citizens a different way in Queen’s Park, although party politics make that a challenge for any MPP.
Maybe it was just time for a change. You can press your luck, as the saying goes.
When Janice Laking lost to Jim Perri in 2000, after 12 years as Barrie mayor, she famously said she was “too busy running the city to run for mayor,” or words to that effect.
But Lehman’s best answer to ‘why’ takes a loftier view of the political landscape.
“It has never been more apparent that the major issue of our time is (whether) we’re going to have a populist government or a pragmatic government that’s focused on getting things done,” Lehman told BarrieToday. “I think COVID has really exposed, in so many different ways, the weaknesses of populist government.”
Maybe that’s just a Liberal taking his shot at the Progressive Conservative government, which has ruled Ontario for the last four years.
Or maybe Premier Doug Ford really should be hearing footsteps.
One thing’s for sure, Lehman’s decision will make both elections — provincial in June and municipal in October — much more interesting for voters, and give people more reasons to pay attention to the candidates and who they want governing us for the next four years.
Curveballs aren’t easy to hit, especially in politics.
But unlike the baseball variety, voters can see this one coming and should be able to adjust (notice I didn’t say pivot).
Whether they do or not will be evident in the people elected in June and October.
Bob Bruton is a staff reporter at BarrieToday covering city hall.
