With Kayabaga’s victory projected in West London, the focus is on his position on the 13th District council – London | The Canadian News

London West was the local scene to watch in Monday’s federal election as Councilor Arielle Kayabaga, running for the Liberals, and Rob Flack of the Conservatives clashed in a close race to secure a seat cleared out of incumbent Kate. Young.

While Flack took the lead early in the count, it proved fleeting as Kayabaga took first place shortly after, holding it for the rest of the night and then projected himself as the winner with a close 4.2 percentage point lead.

Kayabaga’s victory marks the first time in many years that a London City Councilwoman has been able to make a successful leap from local to federal politics, leaving the question: what happens now to her former seat in the District? 13?

Under City Law, due to her projected victory in West London, Kayabaga is now ineligible to serve as a councilor.

As a result, the city council must declare its ward seat vacant and then fill that vacancy within 60 days, either by appointing someone who consents to accept the post or by passing a statute to hold a by-election in the ward.

According to city staff, the law requires the council to declare the vacancy at its next available council meeting, which would be Oct. 5.

A report is scheduled to be presented before a special Corporate Services Committee (CSC) meeting next week for the council to consider the office vacant at its Oct. 5 meeting, said City Clerk Cathy Saunders. The exact date and time of that special meeting has not yet been determined.

After the council declares the position vacant, a report will be presented to the CSC at its Oct. 12 meeting setting out the two options the council must consider when it comes to how the vacancy should be handled, he said.

“In the amount of time that I have been in the city, which is 12 years, we have not had to deal with (a vacancy) as a result of an election at another level of government,” Saunders said. “We have had to deal with vacancies for other reasons, but not for that.”

Saunders said that if city politicians choose the path of nomination rather than election-by-choice, the proposed person will need to be voted on by the council. Councilors also have a choice when it comes to the appointment process they want to follow, he said.

“They can choose someone and name someone, or they can do a process where they invite people to submit an application to be considered for the appointment and go through that process,” he said.

“That is the decision the council will have to make in early October if they go through the appointment process.”

Whoever is appointed or elected to fill the District 13 position will serve until November 2022, the end of the council’s current term.

It remains to be seen who will succeed Kayabaga, even if those under consideration could include runner-up from the 2018 race, John Fyfe-Millar.

Fyfe-Millar was eliminated in the seventh round of the counts in the ballot election ranked 2,186 votes to Kayabaga’s 2,325. Kayabaga would win the District 13 race with a total of 2,804 votes.

980 CFPL sought comment from Fyfe-Millar Tuesday about the possibility of him representing District 13, but he was not available to speak due to an earlier engagement.

In a tweet Tuesday morning, he said he was “delighted with the opportunity to represent the constituents of District 13. It is the opportunity of a lifetime to represent the core of our great city.”

The Council will have until December 4 to fill the District 13 seat after it is declared vacant on October 5, however, Saunders notes that it is extremely unlikely that it will take that long.

“This is not something they haven’t had to deal with before,” he said.

“We have had previous councils that had to deal with vacancies, and they dealt with it in a timely manner, and I anticipate this council will do the same.”