This has been the election when so-called "big city politics" interfered with the way things are normally done in peaceful Waterloo Region.

Attack ads. Negative robocalls. Attempts by one candidate's campaign to persuade someone else in another campaign to quit.

Frankly, it all stinks.

First there was an email last week that was sent from the campaign of Kitchener mayoral candidate Dan Glenn-Graham. The message urged Ward 2 candidate Wasai Rahimi to step aside so that another candidate in that ward, Dan Graham, could win.

It said, in part: "I would encourage you to consider supporting Dan Graham as he is close to winning and unless you have covered all the doors in your Ward, a victory this time is unlikely for you."

Luckily, Rahimi had the foresight to go public with this thoroughly undemocratic and arrogant request. He has stayed in the race.

Glenn-Graham apologized and said the message had not come from him, but a volunteer staffer who has since left his campaign.

The staffer has not stepped up to face the public. Let's call him "Sammy Schnitzel." (After all, Canadians have already dealt with "Pierre Poutine," a pseudonym for someone involved with robocalls that directed voters in Guelph to the wrong polling stations during the 2011 federal election. One person, Michael Sona, has been convicted.)

Glenn-Graham had little choice but to accept responsibility for "Schnitzel's" role in the whole sorry affair.

Moving on to the campaign of Jay Aissa, who is challenging Regional Chair Ken Seiling, some ugly things are happening.

A flyer that was delivered to some homes - complete with a photo of a man with duct tape on his mouth and the caption "Get Your Voice Back" - alleged that "Ken Seiling has "forced LRT on the Region."

No, he didn't. Light rail was approved in a 2011 vote of Waterloo regional council. Seiling is one voice of 16 on that council.

The flyer also alleges that under Seiling's watch the region's debt load rose to $548 million by the end of 2014.

Also untrue. Regional staff say that the debt will be $507 million by the end of 2014.

Today, homes across the Region - mine included - received anti-Seiling robocalls from the Aissa campaign.

The call said that voters have a choice to make on light rail transit.

"You can protect your money against increased debt that will raise your taxes by voting for Jay Aissa, or you can vote for Ken Seiling and watch your money fly right out the door," says the recorded message.

"The LRT is not a done deal, as Seiling would have you believe," it continues.

"You will have the last word on the future of the LRT. The only way to protect your money and our future is to vote for Jay Aissa."

It would take nine votes of Waterloo regional council to stop the light rail project. A survey by this newspaper has identified only six regional councillors who would vote to halt it. So it's a little sketchy to suggest that a vote for Aissa can stop light rail.

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I spoke with one angry Kitchener voter who received the phone call.

Jennifer Adams said she understands that not everyone approves of light rail transit, but this is not the way to fight it.

A debate is a reasonable environment to test ideas, she said.

So are the courts. Aissa went to court to stop light rail, and lost. A judge is there to hear all the arguments and make an impartial ruling. Adams feels that is fair.

But she despises the robocall format because it doesn't give Seiling a chance to respond.

"And that's not fair," Adams said.

"If this man is going to stoop to these kinds of tactics to get elected, then what will he do as chair?" she said.

"It's a glaring question for me."

I'm sure that Adams speaks for many people.

The local elections are crucially important to the way our communities develop over the next decade. They need to allow for an exchange of ideas that speak to our sense of reason, not to our fears.

There are plenty of ways to have a difference of opinion. Are these kinds of inaccurate claims and backroom tactics the way we want to do it?

I don't think so.