Deviating from her characteristic calm, city clerk Ulli Watkiss told council on Thursday that she is now at a “tipping point.”With Premier Doug Ford’s ongoing insistence that the election be held with 25 wards, the veteran senior city official said she is no longer sure she can hold a fair election of any kind in the time frame she’s been given.For the clerk who has weathered many crises at city hall, the situation Watkiss now finds herself in may be her greatest test.Until now, the public may have only known Watkiss by her measured, monotone voice reading out the results of votes in the chamber, a key role she’s carried out thousands of times since her appointment in 2001.Now, she’s become an active participant in the mayhem at city hall, applying in court Friday, after retaining an outside law firm, to present her own evidence in a court case that will decide if the upcoming election will consist of 25 or 47 wards.It’s an unprecedented step for the clerk, who under provincial law is responsible for administering the election scheduled for Oct. 22. That entails printing 2.6 million ballots, testing equipment, overseeing polling locations and more. The increasingly unclear question is: What election — one with 25 or 47 wards — is she supposed to prepare?Behind the scenes at city hall, sources say Watkiss is known for taking her role incredibly seriously — a practiced bureaucrat who cares immensely for the rules. They note she is currently under unprecedented stress. A common refrain lately between those paying close attention to the back-and-forth has been: “Poor Ulli.”She’s also been placed in the middle of an ongoing court battle, as provincial lawyers use her earlier warning to council that she may not be able to return to a 47-ward election if the city were to win a legal challenge. Filings made with the court Friday outline she is no longer confident an election with either ward s ...
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