Sometime within the next year or so, Cal Huntley will have an important decision to make.
Does he run for a second term as Flin Flon mayor? Or does he decide that after 16 years on city council, the first dozen as a councillor, it’s time to ride off into the sunset?
Asked late last year whether he would seek re-election in 2018, Huntley told The Reminder it was too early to say – but then he continued.
If he could “give to the community, and the citizens see that we’re going in the right direction and like what they see, or don’t dislike it too much,” the mayor said, “there is a good chance that I may run again.”
So if he does seek a second term, what are his chances?
Huntley came into office politically fragile, having won the 2014 election over incumbent mayor George Fontaine by a mere four votes out of 1,300-plus cast.
Since then, Huntley has sought to avoid controversies that dogged the previous administration.
Most notably, he’s not suggesting the city will try to annex nearby cottage subdivisions if cottagers refuse to pay an annual fee to the municipality.
Some residents believe the annexation hullabaloo won Huntley the election. Cottagers who own no property in Flin Flon couldn’t vote, but their friends and loved ones in city limits – fearful annexation would price cottagers out of house and home – certainly could.
Under Huntley, council has also withdrawn a contentious proposal to limit taxpayer-funded sewage-tank pumpouts in Channing; the mayor sees no problem with the status quo.
Huntley has saved his ambition for politically popular initiatives, most notably the newly enacted youth curfew.
Calls for a youth curfew have been echoing throughout Flin Flon for at least a decade. Though not necessarily fair, they are response to the perception that crime is a problem and young people are a key reason why.
While the curfew raises legitimate moral concerns, there’s no denying it is favoured by a large segment of the public. And what is democracy if not listening to the voices of the many?
Smoking on Main Street, a practice Huntley’s council is, as of this writing, considering banning, is another sore spot for many residents who don’t appreciate walking through clouds of secondhand smoke.
None of this is to suggest Huntley has made friends but no enemies.
Some of his supporters were no doubt disappointed when he backed an extension of the city’s protective services fee, which is meant to raise taxes on low-end homes and reduce taxes on high-end homes.
Huntley was an unenthusiastic advocate for the fee, calling it “the lesser of two evils”, since the city is forbidden from implementing a base tax to more equitably distribute Flin Flon’s tax load.
The mayor must have also felt a backlash over the in-some-cases-dramatic property tax hikes that took effect last year.
Those increases were more the result of rising property values than of a money grab on the part of council, but all Flin Flon mayors of recent times have come to realize they will be blamed once those bills hit people’s mailboxes.
In light of such issues and his razor-thin victory, the usual power of incumbency may not be a strong factor for Huntley should he seek re-election.
He would also be campaigning among a fickle Flin Flon electorate that hasn’t re-elected a one-term mayor in 15 years.
It would all come down to whether Huntley faces a challenger – and how closely aligned that candidate’s policies are with the wants and needs of Flin Flonners.
