Recent PostsFour Names, No Choice
June 14, 2026
Slowly, but surely, the candidates are lining up to register for the upcoming municipal election. Including in the Grantham Ward, where I vote. If only City staff, who revel in their govern-by-decree powers, had the courage to put their names on the ballot. Then we could at least hold them to account and vote them out of office. But I digress.
Sadly, both Dawn Dodge and Bill Phillips have put their names forward once again. Mutt and Jeff. Both are well past their best-before dates and have become walking endorsements for term limits. Establishment politicians who, like Mat Sendzcoe Siscoe, are vassals of the staff, they both deserve to be put out to pasture, in a political sense.
But who are the alternatives?
There’s the so-called Spencer Bellows DeWolfe. The guy who’s known as Spencer DeWolfe in his daily life, even in his mother’s obituary, but who suddenly becomes Spencer Bellows DeWolfe when he’s looking for our vote. Using his late mother’s name for political gain. Four years ago, he ran in Ward 4 under that moniker. It didn’t work. Now he’s trying in my ward. No doubt, he’ll be playing up the angle of trying to get the same council seat his late mother once held. I can just see the crocodile tears flowing like a river. Cue the violin. I can’t imagine how desperate I’d have to be to vote for this dude.
And now, out of nowhere, comes Dunsin Sunday Fakorede. Who? you may ask. My question exactly.
So I visited his website. It just went live recently. And any hopes that he’d be a candidate worthy of supporting evaporated instantly.
One of his top items is being an advocate for renters. Maybe he should go work for Jennie Stevens instead of running for council, I thought. That isn’t even a city issue. Another item was to turn the ward into a tech hub, implementing a technology skills program and digital literacy workshops. All fine and dandy, but is this all he could come up with? I wondered. He went on to touch on small business support. But his idea of how to do that doesn’t involve lowering taxes or the regulatory burden, but rather, creating a business directory and connecting businesses with BIA opportunities. Surely, he doesn’t mean to suggest a BIA for this ward. One look downtown at the SCDA, which effectively acts as the municipal arm of the anti-business NDP and without a shred of accountability to its involuntary members, would turn any rational person away from such a ridiculous idea. BIAs are an absolute scourge on the province and every one of them should be abolished.
I nearly laughed out loud when he talked about the cultural diversity in Ward 5 (little mention is made of “Grantham”). With few exceptions, this area is lily white. Does this guy even live here? I wondered. He went on to say he’ll be championing the cause of getting more of the City’s $400,000 in cultural programming spent here. Why the City is spending $400,000 of our money on cultural programming at all is the question a would-be councilor should instead be asking. He added that he would be an advocate for multilingual community communications on Ward 5 matters. Why, pray tell? Just because he came from Nigeria and wants to speak his native tongue? You come to a new country, you need to learn the language. Full stop. Heck, when I went to Quebec, I ordered my restaurant meals in Quebecese. It wasn’t an all-star performance, but I managed. When in Rome . . .
Amid all that, he didn’t mention one word about defending beleaguered taxpayers, reducing the bloated bureaucracy at City Hall or telling City staff that they work for us, not the other way around.
To say the least, this guy seriously missed the boat. One can only wonder if he got the city wrong when he went to register as a candidate.
Which brings me back to my original question. And the answer is that there are no alternatives.
The way it’s looking, for the second consecutive election, when Grantham voters go to the polls to choose their councilors, there will be four names on the ballot.
But no choice.
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