What’s on the Ballot: Understanding Municipal Government Ahead of the 2026 Election
What mayors, councillors, school trustees and county council actually decide for Owen Sound and Grey-Bruce voters — and what they don't — ahead of the October 26 election.
Municipal elections often get tangled up with provincial and federal politics in voters’ minds. Healthcare delivery, school curriculum, immigration and most income tax policy are not decided at this level.
What is decided locally — by the people on your October 26 ballot — touches nearly everything else: the road in front of your house, your property tax bill, what gets built next door, what hours your library is open, and whether your local arena gets a new roof or a new lease on life.
Elected officials serve four-year terms. This time, that spans October 2026 to November 2030, with the new council typically sworn in in mid-November. Councillor and mayor remuneration varies across municipalities and is publicly disclosed annually under the Municipal Act.
Here’s what each position on the ballot actually does.
Mayor
The mayor is the head of council and the public face of the municipality. They chair council meetings, set much of the agenda, represent the municipality at official functions, and sit on county council alongside the deputy mayor.
The mayor has one vote on council, the same as any councillor — unless their municipality has been designated a strong mayor municipality, in which case some powers shift to the head of council alone.
Strong Mayor Powers in Grey-Bruce
Effective May 1, 2025, the Province extended strong mayor powers to 169 additional Ontario municipalities. In our coverage area, that includes the City of Owen Sound, Town of Hanover, Town of Saugeen Shores, Municipality of Kincardine, Municipality of Brockton and Township of Huron-Kinloss. The province says the powers are intended to advance provincial priorities like housing, transit and infrastructure.
A mayor with strong mayor powers can:
Propose the municipal budget (subject to council amendment, mayoral veto and council override)
Hire and dismiss the CAO and certain department heads
Create committees of council and appoint their chairs
Direct municipal staff in writing
Veto bylaws the mayor believes interfere with provincial priorities
Bring forward matters for council consideration in support of provincial priorities
Mayors must exercise these powers in writing and make them publicly available. They can also choose to delegate the powers back to council and staff. Owen Sound’s Mayor Ian Boddy has done exactly that, and council has formally requested the province remove Owen Sound from the strong mayor list.
In municipalities without strong mayor powers, the mayor’s authority comes from leadership and the persuasive weight of being chair, not from unilateral decision-making.
Related:
Deputy Mayor
In every Grey and Bruce municipality, the deputy mayor is directly elected — voters choose them on a separate ballot line.
The deputy mayor stands in for the mayor when needed and, alongside the mayor, sits on the upper-tier county council. That means your deputy mayor vote is also a vote about who represents your community at Grey County or Bruce County Council.
The Town of Saugeen Shores is unique in our region: voters there elect a Mayor, a Deputy Mayor and a Vice Deputy Mayor.
Councillors
Councillors are elected either at-large (representing the whole municipality) or by ward (representing a specific area). In Grey-Bruce, both systems are in use:
At-large examples include Owen Sound (7 councillors), West Grey (5), Southgate (5), Meaford (5), Blue Mountains (5), Huron-Kinloss (5).
Ward-based examples include Saugeen Shores (six councillors split between three wards — Saugeen, Southampton, Port Elgin), Arran-Elderslie (one councillor each from Arran, Tara, Chesley, Paisley, Elderslie), and Kincardine (a hybrid system with three councillors-at-large plus four ward councillors).
The size of council varies too — from five total members in Chatsworth, South Bruce Peninsula and Northern Bruce Peninsula, to nine in Kincardine and Saugeen Shores.
What Councillors Decide
Together with the mayor, councillors:
Set the municipal budget and the property tax rate
Approve zoning changes, subdivision plans and development applications
Decide on local infrastructure spending — roads, bridges, water and wastewater systems, arenas, libraries, parks
Pass bylaws on things like short-term rentals, parking, noise, fireworks, animal control and waste collection
Hire and oversee the CAO
Appoint members to local boards and committees, including the police services board
What this looks like in practice in our region: deciding whether to fund a new pool, approving a subdivision on the edge of town, setting rules for Airbnbs, deciding how much a property tax increase will be in any given year, debating the future of a closed arena, or weighing in on a controversial development application.
It’s important to remember that municipalities are "creatures of the province" — meaning provincial legislation can override or constrain local decisions (the Strong Mayor designation itself being a clear example).
What Councillors Don’t Decide
Councillors do not run hospitals, set school curriculum, deliver primary healthcare or administer the courts. They have no direct authority over OPP staffing or operations, though they do appoint members to the OPP detachment board.
A common source of frustration: councils can pass resolutions about provincial or federal issues — homelessness funding, healthcare staffing, agricultural policy — but those are advocacy positions, not enforceable local decisions.
County Council
Lower-tier municipalities — like the Town of Saugeen Shores or the Municipality of Grey Highlands — sit within an upper-tier county (Bruce County or Grey County). County councils handle services that cross municipal boundaries:
County roads and bridges
Long-term care homes (Bruce County operates Brucelea Haven and Gateway Haven; Grey County operates Grey Gables, Lee Manor and Rockwood Terrace)
Social services, including Ontario Works administration
Affordable and subsidized housing (county housing waitlists)
Paramedic services
Economic development, tourism and planning support
Bruce County Council is made up of the mayors of its eight lower-tier municipalities. Grey County Council is made up of the mayors and deputy mayors of its nine lower-tier municipalities. Each county elects a Warden annually from among councillors.
The City of Owen Sound is a separated municipality and is not part of Grey County for governance purposes, though it participates in some shared services. Owen Sound voters do not elect county-level representatives.
School Board Trustees
Trustees are elected during municipal elections but serve a separate level of government. They sit on boards of education and oversee:
The board’s budget and capital priorities, including decisions about school construction, additions and closures
Hiring of the Director of Education
Local policies within the framework set by the Ministry of Education
Advocacy to the province on funding, programming and accommodation pressures
What this looks like locally: the Bluewater District School Board’s decision on the new Port Elgin elementary school build is a trustee-level decision. School boundary changes, accommodation reviews and decisions about which schools host specialized programs all run through trustees.
Trustees do not set curriculum, hire teachers directly or determine standardized testing — those are provincial responsibilities.
Who You Vote For
Voters elect trustees for one of four boards depending on language and faith:
Bluewater District School Board (English public) — covers Grey and Bruce counties
Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board (English Catholic) — covers Grey and Bruce counties
Conseil scolaire Viamonde (French public)
Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir (French Catholic)
Catholic and French-language school supporters must declare their support to be eligible to vote for those trustees. Public school supporters in English-language households default to the Bluewater District School Board ballot. You can check or update your school support designation through the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) at voterlookup.ca.
A Note on First Nations Governance
The Saugeen First Nation (Saugeen 29) and Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation (Neyaashiinigmiing) hold their own elections under their respective governance structures. These are separate from Ontario’s municipal election process.
A Note on This Guide
This piece is part of the Owen Sound Current's 2026 Municipal Election Guide. For key dates, candidate lists by municipality, and coverage of local races, visit the full guide here.
This piece is intended as a general educational resource to help voters understand the structure of municipal government in Grey and Bruce ahead of the October 26, 2026 election. It is accurate to the best of our knowledge as of May 5, 2026, based on publicly available information from each municipality, the Province of Ontario, and other primary sources.
Council composition, voting methods, polling logistics and campaign rules are set and administered by each individual municipality. For questions specific to your municipality — including how to register to vote, where to vote, accessibility accommodations, candidate information, or any other election logistics — contact your municipal Clerk’s office directly. They are the official source of truth for your local election.
For school board trustee elections, contact the relevant board.
If you spot an error in this guide or have a question we haven’t answered, email us at owensoundcurrenteditor@gmail.com.
A Brief Glossary
Acclamation/Acclaimed — When only one candidate files to run for a position, they are declared elected without a vote. Common in smaller rural municipalities where seats sometimes go uncontested.
At-large — A voting system in which all eligible voters in the municipality cast ballots for all council seats, rather than electing representatives by geographic ward.
Bylaw — A law passed by municipal council that applies within the municipality. Bylaws cover everything from parking to zoning to noise restrictions.
CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) — The top non-elected staff member at a municipality, responsible for day-to-day operations and implementing council’s decisions. Hired by council (or, in strong mayor municipalities, by the mayor).
Council composition — The total number of elected positions on a municipal council, including mayor, deputy mayor and councillors. Councils can change their composition by bylaw, but only between elections.
County council (upper-tier) — The level of government that handles services crossing municipal boundaries — county roads, long-term care, paramedics, social services, affordable housing.
Delegation — A formal presentation by a member of the public to council. Most municipalities require advance registration with the Clerk’s office.
Lower-tier municipality — A local municipality (city, town, township, village) that sits within a county. Examples in our region: the Town of Saugeen Shores, the Municipality of West Grey.
Nomination period — The window during which candidates can register to run. For the 2026 election, this runs from May 1 to August 21, 2026.
Quorum — The minimum number of council members required to be present for council to make decisions. Set in each municipality’s procedural bylaw.
Separated municipality — A municipality that operates independently of any county. The City of Owen Sound is the only separated municipality in our region.
Strong mayor powers — A set of additional powers granted to mayors of designated Ontario municipalities under the Municipal Act, including the ability to propose budgets, hire and fire senior staff, and veto certain bylaws.
Trustee — An elected official who sits on a school board. Voters choose one of four boards (English public, English Catholic, French public, French Catholic) based on their school support designation.
Voters’ list — The official list of eligible voters for the municipality, maintained by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). Residents can check or update their information at voterlookup.ca.
Ward — A geographic subdivision of a municipality. In ward-based systems, each ward elects its own representative(s). In Grey-Bruce, Saugeen Shores, Arran-Elderslie and Kincardine all use ward systems.
Warden — The head of county council, elected annually from among the mayors and deputy mayors who sit on county council. Bruce County’s current Warden is Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau; Grey County’s is Blue Mountains Mayor Andrea Matrosovs.