If you don’t know who to vote for in the upcoming municipal election, you aren’t alone.
Not only do most people not know who to vote for, most people don’t even vote.
In 2018, when incumbent mayor Sharon Gaetz ran for re-election against two popular incumbent councillors, it was the highest municipal voter turnout in decades. That was 39 per cent. So, 24,703 people voted for mayor and council and school board and FVRD representatives and Cultus Lake Park Board out of 63,427 eligible voters.
Why? Municipal politics appears to be mostly about rezoning, paving, and garbage collection. But it’s also about fire and police services, water, and so on. In other words, a lot, and it’s about the things that are arguably most important in our day-to-day lives.
It’s been said before that if the federal government disappeared, it would take about a month for the regular citizen to notice. If the provincial government disappeared, maybe a week? If the municipal government disappeared, you would notice tomorrow when your garbage wasn’t picked up.
“Municipal issues are really important to people’s lives,” says University of the Fraser Valley political science assistant professor Hamish Telford in a recent chat I had with him. “It’s getting clean water delivered to your house, public transit, libraries, swimming pools, garbage collection, fire, police services. It’s really important to people’s lives. People should be engaged in this.”
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If people are in fact happy with all those services, some think that might be a reason why people don’t vote. Another reason might be that people think their vote doesn’t matter, or that there will be a minimal difference in their lives if candidate A wins over candidate B.
“We have been witnessing declining voter turnout at the federal, provincial and municipal level for three decades now and we haven’t really figured out why this is happening,” Telford admitted.
My theory, for at least part of the problem, is the media. Yes, me, us. No matter how closely constituents follow and read The Chilliwack Progress, they likely also watch regional and national broadcast news. Those outlets may do a good job covering provincial and federal elections, but they can’t possibly give voters detailed information on the dozens of municipal elections and hundreds of candidates across the Lower Mainland.
So, it is left to us smaller outlets to let you know about the local elections. We will try, but it’s a challenge to be comprehensive. Any candidates who sent us press releases about the campaigns were posted online and received ink in these pages. Not all did.
This Oct. 15 election, no one voting for an FVRD electoral area director in our readership area needs to do any thinking. All three ran unopposed and will be acclaimed. Same goes for the only two people who put their names forward for the two spots on the Cultus Lake Park Board voted on by Chilliwack voters.
We have 15 candidates running for the seven seats on the Chilliwack Board of Education, 12 running for the six on Chilliwack city council, and incumbent Ken Popove has an opponent, Ian Carmichael, in the vote for the mayor’s chair.
That in itself should help voter turnout if history is any guide. In that last provincial election in 2018 I mentioned above, it was a competitive three-way race for mayor with incumbent Sharon Gaetz up against two well-known city councillors in Ken Popove and Sam Waddington.
That voter turnout of 39 per cent sounds low but is actually pretty high for a municipal election.
The last time a mayor won by acclamation (2011) voter turnout was 16.1 per cent, a full 14.5 per cent lower than the B.C. average.
Just 9,343 people voted in 2011.
The election before that in 2008 voter turnout was 24.3 per cent. The one after, 2014, it was 25.6 per cent.
“It is problematic from the point of view of a democracy,” Telford said. “Democracy is supposed to be the rule of the people and if the people don’t step up, we don’t have a democracy any more.”
Some say don’t sweat the small things. I say don’t forget the small things. They’re important. Get out and vote.
READ MORE: Top Stories of 2011: Most didn’t bother to vote in Chilliwack’s municipal election
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