Near the end of every council term, we invite the rookies who were elected in the previous election onto this podcast to talk about their experience. This time it’s different because one, there were so many new councillors in 2022, and two, in this case, we have two people who’ve decided that one term is enough. How can just four years on Guelph city council possibly be enough?

The day after Municipal Election Day in 2022, the Ontario government announced Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, and its sweeping changes. It was an early, practical lesson that cities are creatures of the province, and the province was going to reshape them as they saw fit. Over the last four years, Queen’s Park has been freely changing the rules and it seems without a lot of consultation with the local political leaders.

This was the atmosphere that both Erin Caton and Michele Richardson walked into when they took office in November 2022. Both these councillors have a lot in common: Being a Guelph city councillor was their first gig in politics, they both became wardmates to long serving councillors and succeeded other long serving councillors, and they’ve both decided that they do not want to run for re-election. Why have they decided to walk away now, and what lessons will they take with them?

Ward 1 City Councillor Erin Caton and Ward 3 City Councillor Michele Richardson will share their thinking on this edition of the pod. They will talk about what factors went into their decision to retire, what they wish they had known about the job in advance, and the ways it was tough to adapt to all those changes as a first-timer. They will also talk about advice for their successors, the things they want to finish before October, what they plan on doing next, and whether they might ever run for office again.

So let’s talk about the city council experience on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

The nominations for mayor, city councillor, and school trustee opens this Friday, May 1 and will continue to be open until late August. You can learn more about how to run, who’s running and other important information here. Council business continues for the next few months, and the next meeting is on Tuesday May 5 at 2 pm, which is the Committee of the Whole meeting. Get all the council agendas here, and you can get all coverage here on Guelph Politico!

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Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.