Less than two weeks before Hudson’s Sunday, Nov. 2 municipal elections, I’m not seeing much enthusiasm for what should be an important decision. Politics is a contact sport; there’s been almost none of that, which says to me that turnout for the 2025 exercise in municipal democracy will be lower than it was in 2021.
Without delving into personalities, the last four years have seen a steady push away from residential development, a rejection of affordable housing for young families and seniors. This council has persisted in its single-minded goal to acquire Sandy Beach, albeit without a plan for its conservation or the means for controlling the flood of visitors. It narrowly failed to pass a tax grab on new builds and renovations only after residents pushed back. In any other municipality, residents would be howling.
In those four years, Hudson’s annual budgets have skyrocketed along with year-over-year surpluses. Services continue to deteriorate, possibly because of near-constant staff turnover and bad-faith labour relations. Instead of expanding the trail network, this council has made paving streets their path to reelection.
With a total valuation roll in excess of $1.5 billion, Hudson isn’t about to go bust, but taxpayers are going to feel the burn when the cost of servicing $36B in long-term debt will increase to 16% of the total budget by 2030 (data from the RCGT fiscal portrait on the town’s website).
Given what’s at stake over the next four years, public discussion has been a soft mix of real and virtual town halls, meet & greets and private appearances. District 1 candidates Bob Johnson, Shawn Murphy and Youri Rodrigue are planning the closest thing to an actual debate, but have only one date nailed down, at Como’s Creative Hub Sunday, Oct. 26. District 2 hopefuls Luc Dionne and Matthew Stenberg are talking but I’ve not seen anything concrete other than a blanket invite to an most-candidates meet & greet at the Cardinal Brew Pub.
As for the two mayoral candidates, a debate is off the table. Hutchison has released a full schedule of meet & greets on social media, but at no point does it appear she and challenger Chantal Perreault will be in the same room together. Perreault is holding her own town hall on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at the Creative Hub.
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If you share the belief that acclamation is evidence of democracy’s failure, Hudson’s ongoing record of uncontested seats is also disturbing. In 2021, three seats were uncontested. This year, four councillors saved themselves the hassle of campaigning. Disturbing, yes, but acclamation (4,500 candidates in this election cycle) is the new Quebec norm.
Participation in the last election was 46% of Hudson’s 4,465 qualified voters. Outgoing mayor Chloe Hutchison got 49.44% of that. In other words, she was elected by a quarter of the eligible vote.
It’s far from the first time Hudson councils were acclaimed. In 2005, the only contested seat saw Bob Parkinson defeat Germain Laporte in District 2. From the Nov. 9 Hudson Gazette: “Parkinson received 61 per cent of the District 2 vote against Laporte in an election that left both men marvelling at the outstanding voter turnout of 44 per cent. The big story that year was St. Lazare’s catastrophic experiment with voting machines as the excuse for the lowest voter turnout in the county.
In 2009, former mayor Michael Elliott and four of six councillors were acclaimed. Voter turnout for the two contested seats was 40.7 percent, with 512 of the 1,274 eligible voters casting ballots for Tim Snow in District 2 and Diane Piacente in 5.
The 2013 election, the first since SQ investigators revealed the extent of fraud at town hall, pitted duelling slates in an epic battle replete with mud-slinging. From the Nov. 6 Hudson Gazette: “Mayoral candidate Ed Prévost walked out of Hudson’s Stephen F. Shaar Community Centre the victor on Sunday night after winning 75% of the votes against opponent Jacques Bourgeois. With 47.4% of eligible residents voting, it was the largest turnout in the region, and one of the largest in Hudson’s history.”
The 2017 exercise was another high-turnout (57.4%) slog between Jamie Nicholls and Bill Nash, both of whom had regularly attended Prévost’s council meetings prior to his death in the final months of his term. Nicholls won handily with almost 74% of the popular vote. Turnout hit 57.4%, a high point.
If there’s anything to take away from these stats, it’s that voters turn out only when they’re polarized. Conversely, they stay home when there’s no debate.
Clearly, the incumbent mayor doesn’t want an authentic political debate, especially when she has managed to dump the only two councillors who gave her a fight in the last term. Barring a miracle in the dying days of this campaign, I predict more of the same in mayor Hutchison’s second term.
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