2026 Oxford County Municipal Election
East-Zorra Tavistock — Ward 1 Councillor
We asked. Jon Ross answered. You decide.
Answers are published as submitted.
I. Candidate & Municipal Governance
1. Candidate Introduction
Please introduce yourself to the residents of Oxford County. Briefly tell us why you are running for municipal office, what principles or values would guide you as an elected official, and what you believe is the most important issue facing the municipality you are seeking to represent. What would you do about it?
I have called Tavistock home since age seven and raised three children here with my wife, Kim. With nearly 30 years in business and technology leadership alongside co-owning Madmash Brewery & Restaurant, I bring strategic problem-solving and hands-on community experience to council. Locally, I’ve served as head referee for Tavistock Minor Soccer, a minor sports coach, a longtime Mason, and an active supporter of the Tavistock Assistance Program (TAP).
My guiding principle is servant leadership—listening first, acting with fiscal transparency, and remaining accountable to taxpayers.
The most pressing issue facing East Zorra-Tavistock is managing growth while protecting our village character, economy, and pedestrian safety. Specifically, we must address heavy truck traffic through town, revitalize downtown, and ensure recreational facilities keep pace with our growing community. As Councillor, I will advocate for tangible traffic-calming solutions, champion business-friendly policies, and ensure our 2024–2028 Strategic Plan delivers measurable results.
2. Local vs. Provincial Authority
Municipalities are increasingly affected by decisions, policies and requirements established by the provincial government. What degree of local discretion do you believe municipalities should have when provincial direction affects decisions within municipal jurisdiction? When, if ever, should a municipality challenge or oppose provincial direction? Please explain.
Municipalities must retain strong local discretion because local councils understand their communities far better than Queen’s Park. While municipalities operate under provincial legislation, one-size-fits-all mandates rarely fit rural and small-town Ontario. East Zorra-Tavistock council has a clear duty to oppose provincial directives when they threaten prime agricultural land, download unfunded costs onto local property taxpayers, or undermine local land-use planning. We should work constructively through Oxford County and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), but council must never hesitate to formally push back and defend local autonomy when provincial policy compromises our community’s safety, infrastructure, or financial sustainability.
3. Accountability & Access
Once elected, how will you maintain open communication and accountability with your constituents? What level of access should residents have to you, and what responsibility do you have to explain and defend your decisions and votes, particularly when constituents disagree with them?
Accessibility is fundamental to servant leadership. As a downtown business owner and active volunteer, I am already accessible daily—whether online (jon@madmash.ca), by phone (519-502-3995), around town, or across the counter at Madmash. Residents should have direct, straightforward access to their elected representative.
True accountability means explaining the “why” behind every vote, especially on contentious decisions. If constituents disagree with my vote, my responsibility is not to become defensive or dismissive, but to explain the facts, trade-offs, and financial implications considered, and to listen openly to their perspective. Leadership requires the transparency and courage to stand behind your decisions face-to-face.
4. Staff vs. Elected Council
What do you believe is the proper division of responsibility between municipal staff and elected council? What decisions should be made by staff, what decisions should be made by council, and what responsibility should elected officials retain for decisions recommended or implemented by staff?
There must be a clear, respected division of responsibilities. Council is elected to set strategic vision, establish policy, approve budgets, and represent the community’s priorities. Municipal staff provide professional expertise, objective analysis, and day-to-day administrative execution. Council should not micromanage operational details, but council must never act as a passive rubber stamp.
Elected officials retain 100% of the public and fiscal accountability for the policies and budgets we approve. We must ask rigorous questions and evaluate staff recommendations critically on behalf of the taxpayers who foot the bill.
5. Candidate Social-Media History
Have you ever deleted, hidden or substantially altered past social-media posts or other publicly available online content because you believed it might affect how voters viewed you or your candidacy? If so, what did you change and why?
No. I have never deleted, hidden, or altered past social media posts or online content to curate or change how voters perceive my candidacy. I value authenticity, open dialogue, and standing behind my long track record as a local business owner, volunteer, and neighbor in Tavistock.
II. Taxes, Growth & Development
6. Taxes & Services
What annual municipal property-tax increase do you consider reasonable over the next four years? If maintaining existing services would require an increase above that level, what principles would you use to determine which services or expenditures should be reduced, delayed or eliminated instead? Please explain.
Property tax increases should be kept as close to the rate of inflation as possible, ideally in the 2% to 4% range, recognizing the significant cost-of-living pressures facing our families and small businesses.
If inflation or capital pressures threaten to push increases beyond that threshold, council must apply strict business discipline:
Protect Core Services: Essential services—roads, emergency response, water/wastewater, and recreational maintenance—must remain fully functional.
Audit for Efficiencies: Scrutinize operational budgets, eliminate departmental waste, and leverage technology to optimize service delivery.
Defer Discretionary Spending: Delay non-urgent capital projects, outside consulting studies, and discretionary program expansions before asking taxpayers for more money or cutting frontline services.
7. Population Growth & Agricultural Land
Oxford County’s current planning projections anticipate substantial population growth over the coming decades, creating increasing pressure on agricultural land. Should Oxford plan to accommodate the projected level of growth, or should the County and its municipalities seek to influence the rate and/or location of future growth? When development competes with agricultural and food-production uses, should agricultural land and food production receive priority? What principles should guide these decisions? Please explain.
Prime agricultural land is Oxford County’s greatest natural asset and the foundation of our local economy; once paved over, it is lost forever. When development competes with agricultural land, food production must receive clear priority.
Rather than passively accepting unchecked urban sprawl, EZT and Oxford County must actively steer the location and style of future growth. Growth should be directed inside established settlement boundaries through sensible infill, brownfield redevelopment, and higher-density residential options where municipal water and road infrastructure already exist. Growth must pay for growth, and expansion should only occur when strictly necessary and strictly buffered from active farming operations.
III. Energy & Major Development
8. Wind & Utility-Scale Solar
What is your position on industrial wind turbine and utility-scale solar developments in Oxford County? If your municipality were asked to determine whether it should be a willing or unwilling host for a large-scale wind or solar project, how would you vote, and what factors would guide your decision? Please explain.
Municipalities must have definitive local decision-making authority over major energy projects. I would vote as an unwilling host for any industrial wind or utility-scale solar development that consumes prime agricultural land or proceeds without broad, documented support from affected local landowners and neighbors.
Clean energy projects make the most sense on marginal lands, brownfields, or commercial/industrial rooftops—not on food-producing soil. My decision on any energy proposal will always be guided by three non-negotiables: protection of productive farmland, direct community consultation, and respect for neighboring property enjoyment.
9. Data Centres
What is your position on approving data centres in Oxford County? Under what circumstances, if any, would you support one? How should council weigh its potential economic benefits against demands on electricity, water, land and other municipal infrastructure? Please explain.
Having spent nearly three decades in the technology sector, I understand both the economic value and the resource demands of data centres. While they generate non-residential commercial tax revenue with minimal municipal service demand (such as schools or transit), they draw massive amounts of power and water.
I would only consider supporting a data centre proposal under very strict conditions: it must be situated on designated, serviced industrial land (never prime farmland), require zero taxpayer subsidies for infrastructure hookups, and demonstrate that its power and water consumption will not compromise our local aquifers, residential grid reliability, or municipal drinking water systems.
IV. Property Rights, Environment & Climate
10. Property Rights & Environmental Regulation
What principles should determine the balance between private property rights and municipal environmental regulation? What limits, if any, should municipalities place on environmental restrictions affecting the use of privately owned rural land? Please explain.
Private property rights are a bedrock principle of our rural community. Farmers and rural landowners are typically the best long-term stewards of their land because their livelihoods depend on it. Municipal environmental regulations must be balanced, evidence-based, and focused strictly on genuine shared public risks—such as protecting municipal drinking water aquifers, source water protection zones, and preventing downstream flooding.
Regulations should never be arbitrary, punitive, or enacted without extensive consultation with the agricultural community. Where environmental restrictions limit a landowner’s ability to work or enjoy their property, the process must be clear, transparent, and offer sensible, practical pathways for variance and relief.
11. Climate Change & CO₂
What role, if any, do you believe carbon dioxide emissions play in climate change? What responsibility, if any, should municipal government have for addressing climate-related issues, and should municipal taxpayers fund those efforts? Please explain.
Carbon emissions are recognized globally as a factor in climate patterns, but municipal government must stay focused on practical, common-sense stewardship rather than costly symbolic initiatives. East Zorra-Tavistock taxpayers should not be funding broad, expensive climate programs that duplicate federal or provincial mandates.
Our municipal responsibility should center on pragmatic local asset management: investing in energy-efficient upgrades for township buildings and vehicles (which saves taxpayers money on utilities & fuel), maintaining robust stormwater infrastructure to handle severe weather, and protecting local waterways and tree cover. Practical conservation that delivers tangible local value is where our tax dollars belong.
V. Municipal Policy & Public Institutions
12. DEI, Hiring & Public Services
When municipal government makes decisions about hiring employees or providing services, what role, if any, should a person’s race, ethnicity, sex, disability, newcomer status or other demographic characteristics play? Do you support mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training for municipal employees, and should municipal taxpayers fund it? Please explain.
Municipal hiring and promotion must always be based on merit, qualifications, integrity, and competence. Taxpayers deserve the most qualified and capable individuals serving our community. When it comes to delivering services, every resident—regardless of background—deserves fair, courteous, and professional treatment.
Training for municipal staff should be funded by taxpayers only when it is practical, legally required under provincial standards (such as accessibility standards under AODA and workplace harassment policies), and directly aimed at improving professional customer service and workplace respect, rather than ideological training that has little operational benefit to township operations.
13. International Policy Frameworks
What role, if any, should international policy frameworks such as the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals play in municipal decision-making? If municipal policies are influenced by such frameworks, what responsibility does council have to ensure that those decisions remain transparent and accountable to local residents? Please explain.
International frameworks should play no direct governing role in municipal decision-making. As an elected Councillor in East Zorra-Tavistock, my sole duty is to the residents, businesses, and taxpayers of this township and Oxford County—not to unelected international bodies.
While good municipal planning inherently involves efficiency, conservation, and smart infrastructure, these priorities must emerge from local needs and our own community-driven 2024–2028 Strategic Plan. If any policy or grant proposal originates from external frameworks, council has an absolute obligation to ensure total transparency, public debate, and full accountability to local voters.
VI. Public Safety, Privacy & Emergency Powers
14. Flock Cameras & Surveillance
What is your position on the use of Flock cameras and other automated licence-plate recognition (ALPR) or camera-based surveillance systems by municipalities for public safety? What limits, if any, should apply to their use, and how should council balance public safety with residents’ privacy? Please explain.
In my technology career, I worked directly as a solution provider for retail Loss Prevention, specializing in CCTV systems. This experience gave me a deep, practical understanding of privacy laws, video data capture, and how easily surveillance technology can be misused if strict governance is not in place.
While rural property crime and vehicle theft are serious concerns and ALPR technology can be an effective tool for policing partners like the OPP, public safety must never come at the expense of our constitutional privacy rights.
I support automated license plate recognition only under strict, audited constraints:
Narrow Focus: Systems must be used strictly for active criminal investigations (e.g., locating stolen vehicles or Amber Alerts), not general public tracking.
Data Retention Limits: Data that does not match an active law enforcement database must be permanently deleted immediately (within 24–48 hours).
Strict Custody: Data must remain solely within law enforcement control—never sold, shared, or accessible by third-party private corporations.
15. Public-Health Emergency Powers
If another public-health emergency occurred, what restrictions, if any, should a municipality be able to impose on access to municipal buildings, facilities, programs or community activities? What role should elected council have in approving or overseeing such restrictions, and what limits should apply to municipal authority during an emergency? Please explain.
The elected municipal council must never surrender its governance authority or oversight during an emergency. While public health directives may require operational safety protocols, elected officials—who are accountable to the voters—must maintain active oversight and voting approval over any restrictions affecting municipal buildings, community centres, parks, or local business operations.
Any emergency restrictions must be strictly temporary, supported by clear, locally relevant evidence, and subject to automatic expiration dates with mandatory council review. Outdoor spaces like Queen’s Park and recreational amenities are essential for mental and physical well-being and should be preserved whenever safe. We must always balance public safety with common sense, individual liberty, and local livelihoods.
Questionnaire sent: September 8, 2026
Response received: September 24, 2026
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