Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic among long list of unopposed candidates throughout Waterloo Region

With just over a week to go until people are allowed to declare their candidacies in the fall municipal election, Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic is currently unopposed.

This is a far cry from the last election, when four people opposed his candidacy.

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Vrbanovic is far from an anomaly at the moment, however, as a scan of the city’s website shows four other candidates for council are currently unopposed for office. Scott Davey (Ward 1), John Gazzola (Ward 3), Paul Singh (Ward 6) and Bil Ioannidis (Ward 7) may all be able to skip posting campaign signs if things don’t change.

In the 2014 election, Gazzola was the only candidate to get the night off.

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A spokesperson for the City of Kitchener said the sheer volume of candidates who are unopposed is unusual.

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Global News was told that one potential reason for the lack of candidates could be the shortened nomination period. In 2014, potential candidates had from Jan. 1 until Sept. 12 to enter the race.

The low number of people seeking a municipal council seat is not limited to Kitchener, though.

The situation is somewhat similar in both Cambridge and Waterloo.

Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky has two challengers in Kelly Steiss and Chris Kolednik, but multiple council members are currently without opposition.

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Unless someone steps up, the web site shows Angela Vieth (Ward 3), Diane Freeman (Ward 4) and Jeff Henry (Ward 6) will all return to office without having to sweat a vote.

In 2014, Bob Mavin (Ward 1) and Melissa Durell (Ward 7) were both unopposed. Both have decided not to run again this time and there are multiple people looking to replace them.

Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig will face off with Randy Carter and Kathryn McGarry, who just lost her seat in the provincial legislature.

Four of the city’s eight wards currently only have one candidate running for office with Michael Mann (Ward 3) and Nicholas Ermeta (Ward 8).

There were multiple candidates in each ward in Cambridge in 2014.