- Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

It's been a busy summer already, and the fall is going to be a very full election season.  We consider election work to be some of our most important - giving residents information about candidates and voting, covering all candidates' meetings, and sharing editorials and opinion pieces from residents and candidates on the issues.

We're going to have to do some catching up to the Grey Highlands Municipal League. This group of local residents and organizations are committed to boosting civic engagement in their municipality.  They describe themselves as "non-partisan, fact-based and fun!"

Step 1 was getting more candidates to run for office, and they succeeded spectacularly!  "Grey Highlands not only has the highest number of candidates in the entire county but that we've also broken the record for the most candidates since Grey Highlands was created two decades ago!"

Here are the Grey Highlands candidates . We'd like to see that kind of clear information available to voters in every municipality.

The nomination period is now closed.  The next step is to be sure the voters' list is accurate.  Don't say "But I always vote!"  One Own Sound resident who has lived in the same house for 43 years and voted in every election discovered she was not on the list this year. A check is easy at VoterLookUp.ca

The Owen Sound Hub can use some help if you have some time to spare - accurate data is very important to our readers, and it takes time to source and collate.  If you know something about the Joomla software, or you'd like to buy and ad or make a contribution, that would help too.

We'll be off until Tuesday, August 23, (but our eyes and ears will be open, so you'll likely see some photos on social media).  We won't be answering email or messages, or publishing new stories.  After that - we're hitting the ground running!