Meet the Lambton County community that hasn't had a municipal election in 10+ years

Voters across Windsor-Essex and Sarnia-Lambton will be deciding the fate of their municipal leaders on October 26th. Except here, the township of Enniskillen. This quiet farming community in the middle of Lambton County hasn't needed a full municipal election in more than a decade. That's because its mayor and council have been repeatedly acclaimed. This Monday will make it three times in a row. One long-time Enniskillen resident and voter feels there's no reason to change things up. Why fix something that isn't broke? There's not a lot of interest in municipal politics in rural communities some of the time. Not that we never, never, ever have any disagreement on anything, but it's rare. At around 1,100 households and 2,800 residents, Enniskillen is not the smallest municipality in Lambton County, but it's the only one where there are no currently contested council seats. Tim Williams, a lifelong Enniskillen resident and a fourth-generation farmer, joined the township's council just a year ago. He was chosen to fill a vacancy. Once in a while, we'd have one person who retires or something, someone else come in. I think that the councillors that have been in place over the years have been good leaders and listened to the community. I think probably the local voters are probably happy that they don't have to deal with an election or see some of the carryings on that's going on in other communities. One political science professor says no change in a municipal council might also be attributed to simple voter apathy. You know, especially in a small community, everybody knows everybody and you do tend to have low voter turnout anyway. And there's also this sort of democratic deficit that when we have communities with consistent incumbents, people don't see themselves as participating either by voting, but also thinking that they too could have a chance. The incumbent mayor of Enniskillen, Kevin Marriott, doesn't lack for political involvement. Since 2010, he's been Lambton County's warden, leading a county council representing 11 municipalities. But he says he's grateful and honoured that he hasn't needed to do any mayoral campaigning. I've been told people are fairly happy with the state of affairs. I actually am thinking I'm getting close to maybe I should let somebody else take over. Any local residents of Enniskillen that are watching, I encourage them to consider running in four years from now. Despite an entirely acclaimed council, Enniskillen's township office still has voting paraphernalia at the ready. That's to give residents the ability to vote on school board trustees. Dawson Chen, CBC News, Lambton County.