万锦现任市长薛家平会在赢得连任后再去竞争约克区主席的头衔吗？

 

2018年市政选举的报名截止日终于到来。报名于7月27日（星期五）下午2点结束。选民们对谁将参加市政议席的期待，猜测和焦虑都因报名而烟消云散。对万锦市来说，报名结束后，谁将参加角逐，在那个选区角逐也一清二楚了。

 

The nomination cut-off day for the 2018 municipal election finally arrived. Nomination closed on July 27 (Friday) at 2 pm. All the anticipation, second guessing, and anxiety come to an end. In Markham, many intriguing questions on who are the candidates and where are they running in this election were answered as the nominations closed.

竞选万锦市长，市议员和区议员的候选人总共有72人。这是该市有史以来参赛人数最多的市政选举。以下是候选人的统计数字：

In Markham, the total number of candidates contesting for Mayor, Ward Councillors, and Regional Councillors is 72. This represents the largest number of contestants ever recorded in the City's election history. The following is a breakdown of these (candidate) numbers:

 

市长：5个候选人；区委员 - 12个候选人（竞选4个职位）；1号选区:8个候选人；2号选区：6个候选人；4号选区：4个候选人；5号选区：13个候选人；6号选区：5个候选人；7好选区：10个候选人；8号选区：4个候选人。

Mayor- 5, Regional Councillors – 12 (for 4 positions), Ward#1 – 8, Ward#2 – 6, Ward#3 - 5, Ward#4 - 4,  Ward#5 – 13, Ward#6 – 5, Ward#7 – 10, and Ward#8 – 4.

在过去很长的一段时间里，许多现任议员都在观望现任万锦市长薛家平的动作。许多人希望他能够参加第一次普选的约克区主席一职。这意味着这些盯着市长一职的现任区议员和市议员们可能角逐市长一席，其他新人也可以准备角逐那些空出的议员席位。

For the longest time, incumbents were holding their collective breath waiting for the incumbent Mayor (Frank Scarpitti) to make his move. Many expected him to go for the York Regional Chair position that was to be publicly elected for the first time. This scenario will open up the Mayoral position for a few of the existing Regional and Ward Councillors to try and in turn opening up their own positions for newcomers.

 

薛家平一直让公众蒙在鼓里，并制造烟幕暗示他将参加约克区主席的竞选。他一直等到报名截止的前一天才登记自己将继续角逐万锦市长一职，从而让那些打算问鼎市长一职的人或准备顶替那些空出来的议席的人一个措手不及。

For his part, the Mayor kept them in suspense while sending up smoke-screens suggesting that he will indeed proceed to compete in the York Regional Chair position. He waited until the day before the deadline to put his name into the registry for the Mayoral position, delaying others to either reaffirm their commitments to races or to change their directions for other positions.

 

现任约克区主席（Wayne Emmerson）随后宣布他将不寻求连任。许多人，包括我自己都希望地区议员琼斯能够立即参加约克区主席的角逐，与其他2名首次踏入政坛的人竞争主席一职。

Existing York Regional Chair (Wayne Emmerson) then announced that he will drop out of the race. Many, including myself, expected Regional Councillor Jim Jones to immediately enter the race for the York Regional Chair and fight it out with the 2 other candidates who are outsiders to Regional politics.

 

7月26日晚，安省省长福特突然宣布取消约克区主席和皮尔区主席的普选。前安省保守党党魁彭建邦恰好打算竞选皮尔区主席一职。约克区现任主席Wayne Emmersion随后宣布他将继续参加区主席一职的角逐，并指望主席一职由20名约克区的市和区议员组成的小圈子选出，他大可不必不必象普选那样，花大钱拉票。

On the night of the 26th, Ontario Premier Doug Ford suddenly announced the cancellation of public voting for the York regional Chair and Peel Regional Chair where the previous Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown is contesting. York Regional Chair Wayne Emmersion subsequently re-entered the race again, hoping to be elected by the small circle of 20 York Regional Council members without going through an expensive campaign that would have cost tens of thousands of dollars.

 

市政选举登记的前一天，报名参加市长竞选的只有一人-现任市长薛家平。当薛家平宣布连任市长的意图时，两位现任区议员和一位市议员放弃了他们的市长梦想。许多居民认为此次市长会出现这样一个局面，即薛家平不必费力去拉票而理所当然地连任市长。虽然在最后一天有其他四人加入了竞选万锦市长的行列，但这些人之前都没有竞选过市长一职。

Up until the final day for nominations, the Markham Mayoral race only had one name in it – that of the incumbent (Frank Scarpitti). Two incumbent Regional Councillors and one ward councillor gave up their ambitions when Frank Scarpitti declared his intentions to run as Mayor again. Many residents were thinking that this may end up in an acclamation situation where Frank will be declared a winner without the need for a campaign. Four names were added to the list on the final day. None of these other candidates ever ran for Mayor in previous elections.

鉴于此，10月份的市政选举之后，以下情况仍可能出现：

Given the latest situation, the following may still unfold after the October municipal election:

薛家平再次连任万锦市长，但他将于11月竞选约克区主席，并可能由约克区的议员们“任命”为主席。因此，万锦市长一职将按照“市议会空缺规定”填补。

Assuming that Frank Scarpitti is successful in becoming Markham's Mayor again, he will then run for the York regional Chair in November and likely to be “appointed” by the York Regional Council members. The vacated position of Mayor in Markham will be filled in accordance with the “Council Vacancy Policy”.

最有可能的情况是万锦市议会任命一名市议员作为代理市长并组织市长补选。如果其他市议员参与补选并成功当选为市长，这又会触发市议员的补选。这显然是个恶性循环，但它也许会成为事实。

The most likely scenario will be a by-election after the appointment of a member of Council as a temporary replacement. If other Council member(s) enter the by-election and successfully elected as the Mayor, further by-elections will be triggered to replace the winning member. This may look like a vicious circle but it is also a reality.

下一篇，我们将分析区议员候选人和市议员候选人的情况，看看万锦市议会可能出现的结局。

Next time, we will go through the Regional Councillors and Ward Councillors situation for each ward to get an idea of what is happening to the future make-up of Markham's City Council.