The Guardian | Published Jan 21, 2026 By Tim Banks
This is a municipal election year in Charlottetown, and it comes at a moment when our capital city is headed in the wrong direction. While communities around us like Cornwall and Stratford are growing, adapting, and building, Charlottetown is falling behind. This is not about personality or politics. It is about leadership. The City of Charlottetown has none. After two terms in office, Mayor Philip Brown has not delivered the direction, urgency, or results the city needs to grow and prosper. This election should not be about small adjustments. It should be about bringing creative, doable change and common sense to City Hall.
Weak official plan
When Mayor Brown took office, he spoke about “growth and prosperity”. Early on, the Mayor hosted a housing forum and used language people wanted to hear, about being “shovel ready” and getting housing built. Nearly a decade later, there is little to show for it. Housing approvals remain slow and unpredictable. Downtown development is stalled. The City’s proposed new Official Plan is weaker than plans written in the 1990s and the draft adds new restrictions that will further limit development and economic prosperity, especially in the downtown. The Province knows this and are hesitant to sign off on the new Official Plan. At a time when Charlottetown needs more people living in the core, we are making it harder and more expensive to build the kind of housing we need downtown.
Meanwhile, the problems and costs keep piling up. In 2021, and with no business plan, the City developed a large dump by the airport for contaminated road waste snow that is removed from City streets. They proceeded with this construction with no permits and without an environmental assessment, even neglecting their own bylaws. They didn’t follow their own rules! Even today the site operates with a dangerous egress.
Hair-brained schemes
At a time when the City says there is little money for overdue infrastructure such as roads, Council spent $4.6 million on Boulder Park next to Province House, a site they can’t even use. They blew through $1.6 million on Heartz Hall in East Royalty, when there is already a great venue nearby (the Malcolm Darrach Community Centre). And it gets worse: By now, most people are aware that the City is investing over two million dollars in a hair-brained scheme to “redevelop” the old Irving gas station on Euston St. when it was the responsibility of the Irvings to fix up the site at their cost. We all know there are many more blunders and that this kind of nonsense has to stop.
Most of the consequences of this lack of leadership are easy to see. Growth is being pushed outward while Charlottetown’s core slowly hollows out. Fewer people live downtown. Council meetings are increasingly defined by delay and dysfunction rather than leadership and clear decision-making.
New candidates needed
That brings me to what needs to happen to turn things around in Charlottetown: New candidates with fresh ideas to run for Council. The problem is that blunders and mismanagement have eroded trust in Council so much so that few qualified people will step forward for election. And the existing Councillors not only know this, but they count on it. Why would they work harder or smarter if they are never challenged to do better?
So, let’s get out our brooms this year and clean up this mess. Seven of the 10 councillors have been in office for two terms or more. Mitchell Tweel has been there since the 1990s! In my opinion, he has caused more problems than he has solved! For example, he has been calling for the propane facility on Allen Street to be relocated for 15 years to a safer area. And clearly, Mitch doesn’t have the skills to get it done! But he will spend $4 million to get a turf field for his football buddies!
We need a completely new slate of common-sense councillors who will fix the administration of the City so it serves residents faster, more efficiently and with more accountability. Without a new common-sense approach, the bureaucracy will continue to fail us. Leadership and direction are a must.
Chance for clean sweep
As the well-known 19th century saying goes, in politics “we get the government that we deserve.” We have this Council because a decade of mismanagement has led citizens to be apathetic, disengaged and resigned. Incompetence continues when it is normalized and unchallenged.
That stops right here. Right now.
We the residents and businesses of Charlottetown need to stand up for our City and to encourage a new roster of men and women to put their name forward to represent us. This election year offers a chance for a clean sweep.
Let us all look around and encourage folks we know with fresh ideas to stand for election. A City councillor gets paid $44k a year plus benefits for what should amount to 10 hours a week of someone’s time, and all they need is common sense, not egos.