Centre Wellington is the largest municipality inside the county, and it includes Elora and Fergus. In the literal and figurative middle of Wellington, representing it around the council table, unsurprisingly, is a two-person job. From this vantage point, they must have a unique view of relations between the city and county, and one of those councillors has an even bigger vantage point then that?

Diane Ballantyne represents the southern side of Centre Wellington, which is also known as Ward 6. Listeners of this show may be familiar with her previous attempts to become the MPP of Wellington-Halton Hills, but since 2018 she’s been the Ward 6 county councillor, and has put some impressive points on the board in the process taking part in several key committees and sitting on the board of Groves Memorial Community Hospital.

More than that, Ballantyne is one of the directors on the county caucus of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and was named an honourable mention in Municipal World’s 2024 Women of Influence honours. Can Ballantyne’s high profile be attributed to the fact that she’s got one? She’s one of the only people on county council with a social media footprint, so why aren’t more of her colleagues talking about county politics on the socials?

That’s one of the things we’ll talk about with Diane Ballantyne on this edition of the podcast as we get into her background before politics, dividing the civic responsibility for Centre Wellington, and whether or not it’s Fergusite or Fergusonian. We will also discuss her role representing Wellington at AMO, her view on the Guelph/Wellington relationship, and why differences don’t need to divide us across jurisdictions. Also, we will talk about running for re-election and why social media doesn’t have to divide us.

So let’s head to the middle, or the south part of the middle, on this month’s Wellington County Politicast!

You can learn more about Diane Ballantyne and the work she does at her website. You can also follow her on social media on Facebook and Instagram. Although there wasn’t any time to get into it, you can also check out one of Ballantyne’s side projects, Centre Wellington Pride, of which she was a co-founder, and you can find information about that group and its events at their website.

The Wellington County Politicast will return next month!!

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify .

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.

Photo courtesy of Diane Ballantyne/Facebook.