There’s now a third candidate for mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality, and one councillor will be acclaimed for a fourth term.
Nominations closed at 5pm on Tuesday and the municipality updated its list of official candidates soon after. The election is scheduled for Oct. 17.
Max Taylor has entered the mayoral race, joining current Mayor Mike Savage and Coun. Matt Whitman.
Taylor has a significant following on TikTok, the video app popular with Gen Z, where he’s amassed more than 20 million likes and 600,000 followers.
@maxemersontaylorAmazing little trip to Stillwater lake today. @samskorobogatov♬ original sound – maxemersontaylor
On a Facebook page for his campaign, Taylor introduces himself as “a 22-year-old running for Mayor in the greatest city in the world; Halifax.”
“My platform is simple: get out and vote. I don’t care who you vote for, I care that you vote. October 17th. Vote,” he writes, adding, “I could win.”
Taylor enters a race where, according to the only public polling conducted so far, the incumbent mayor has the support of 89% of decided voters.
One councillor to be acclaimed
There are multiple candidates in nearly every council district this time around, except for one. In District 16 — Bedford-Wentworth, Coun. Tim Outhit will be acclaimed again.
Outhit was one of four councillors to go unchallenged in 2016. This will be his fourth term on council.
With the election coming up, the Halifax Examiner will have more campaign coverage in the next few weeks. We’ll be sending out a questionnaire this week to get candidates’ positions on a few issues.
In the meantime, check here to see whether you’re on the voters list, and check here to find out which district you live in.
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Once upon a time a voter had the option of appearing at a polling station, taking the ballot and then handing the ballot back and saying ‘I decline the ballot’. When the polls closed all the ballots would be counted and the result would show the number of votes cast for each candidate, the number of spoiled ballots and the number of declined ballots. Declining the ballot was a way for voters show they did not approve of any of the candidates for mayor and/or councillor. I declined the ballot in a municipal election and the officer was shocked, she was annoyed that I took the ballot (for mayor) and immediately handed it back and saying ‘I decline the ballot for mayor’. I explained that the legislation allowed a person to decline a ballot.
Being famous on TikTok is not what I look for when choosing a mayor. I do, though, support his ‘get out and vote message.’ I hope this year will see more voters than ever marking their ballots, whether they do it over the phone, online, or in person.