Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer has been asked to quit the mayor's race and step aside for law-and-order activist Gary McHale.
McHale made the requests in two meetings last month with the mayor at the home of his Caledonia supporter Merlyn Kinrade. He asked her to drop out for his mayoral candidacy, back him, but still serve the county by running for a council seat in the Oct. 25 election.
The mayor rejected the overture and registered this past week to run for the job she has held since 2003.
"I guess you don't know unless you do ask," said Trainer. "He asked me if I would check with my boys (she has three grown children) before I made a final decision. I told him I was going to run one last time. I asked him, why doesn't he run for council and get to be known? But he wants to run for mayor."
McHale is head of Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality, which he founded over his belief provincial police have been employing two-tier justice during the Caledonia land claims dispute.
Natives occupied the Douglas Creek Estates housing site in 2006, claiming it was being built on unsurrendered land. The dispute has quieted down in recent months, but was once marked by road blockades, court fights, assaults, arsons, tense rallies and a hydro blackout. McHale has alleged police treated natives differently than non-natives during the dispute, but the OPP has denied that.
McHale said he asked Trainer to move aside because he said she hasn't been able to stand the pressure from the land claims dispute and stand up to council members who want to control her comments. He asked her to run as a councillor because she could still be a "great asset."
"My only point is that she clearly cannot hold her own in the situation that has been going on in Haldimand County," said McHale.
Trainer rejected the criticism. "A majority of my time, especially in 2006 and most of 2007, was working on Caledonia and it's always there," she said. "It never stops."
Ward 2 Councillor Buck Sloat and former Caledonia Citizens' Alliance head Ken Hewitt have also registered to run for mayor. Farmer Ryan J. Geddes has dropped out.