Municipal elections
loom in November,
but will anyone vote?

Martin Millerchip
News Reporter martin@nsnews.com

THE North Shore goes to the polls
November 20. Will anyone care?

Despite mayoralty challenges ia all three
municipalities and a plethora of new and expe-
rienced candidates for council seats, only in
West Vancouver is there any likelincod of more
than 30% of registered voters visiting the ballor
booths.

Based on recent statistics, North Vancouver
City’s council makeup is likely to be decided by
less than 20% of eligible voters, approximately
5,000 people.

North Vancouver City councilfor John
Braithwaite was first clected in 1972.

“Even in those days it was tough,” says
Braithwaite. “I don’t know ifit’s an attitude on
the North Shore chat people are comfortable.
It’s apathy, IT think. They scream once in a
while but they never get out and change any-
thing.”

Braithwaite believes age is a factor in voting
patterns. “The younger clement seem more
interested in the provincial and federal level
rather than the area that affects them directly.
The older people tell me they do get out and
vote. It’s iike they are attached, have a stake in
the community.”

Ron Wood, a nine-year councillor in West
Vancouver District and a challenger for the
mayor's chair, is laughing when he answers the
question of why voters don’t get excited about
municipal elections: “Because they feel very
well-served by their politicians.” He’s well
aware of the political criticism city mayor Jack
Loucks has taken for voicing similar views.

Getting serious, Wood SuBpests: “I think
there is a perception that federal and provincial
legislation has miore of an affect on their
income through tax structures.

“Local issues drive municipal politics: a new
recreation centre, or the ferry terminal in
Horseshoe Bay. In West Vancouver certainly,
people become involved in issues of concern to
them, but it tends to become regionalized
rather than an election issue.”

' Going back to where he started, but this
time more seriously, Wood says, “I may be

Sunday, September 26, 1999 — North Shore News - 3

ll. Election 1999

y Wd

NEWS pluto Terry Poters

WHAT if you gave a party and nobody came? Municipal potling booths across the North Shore have rarely been busy places
and in some recent years have been downright lonely.

wrong, but I think pcople feel reasonably well-
served in West Vancouver by police, fire and,
for want of a better word, reasonable taxes.”

Veteran North Vancouver District council-
lor Ernie Crist has .at at the council table for
19 of the last 20 years.

He believes the problem is partly one of
perception.

“We are perceived as lacking power. All lev-
els of higher government ignore us anyway.
People simply don’t rake local government
seriously,” says Crist.

Voter turnout

% Turnout

Nve

18.79
18.89
21.69

13.33
18.06
13.50
23.00
15.42

7.96
21.80
14.97

22.90
13.43

%Turnout
ww
33.92
30.19
50.40.

%Turnout

_NVD

27.89
28.65
29.28
32.07

27.80

31.04
27.60
34.98
36.92
20.00
26.60
31.26
16.30
35.24
18.20

9.44

49.86
39.50
43.50
19.45
30.60
21,90
*14.00
25.10
37.10
26.80
25.70
26.00
46.30

* mayor and councillors
by ecclaimation

NEWS graphic Norlsa Anderson

VOTER turnout for North Shore municipal elections in the last 25 years has

generally been poor.

He has campaigned for several years for
sweeping amcadments to the Municipal Act
that would include the rights of direct
municipal taxation.

But irrespective of the failings of legislation,
Crist says voters fail to comprehend how their
lives are affected by the municipal governments
they elect “from the time they get up to late at
night.”

Crist is right. Municipalities have the power
to determine how big you may build your
home, whether you can rent your basement,
whether you can work out of your bome or
even if you can cur down thar big tree in the
front yard. They can also determine how early
construction noise might wake you; whether
your local bakery can offer you a coffee on the
sidewack or not; how much business signage
you will see as you drive to work; whether a
stop sign or a traffic light will be placed at that
busy intersection; how often the grass is cut in
your local park and whether it will be laid out
for soccer or baseball.

Homeowners know municipalities pick up
the garbage and put out the fires, but not all
realize the number of police available in times
of need is also a municipal responsibility, While
West Vancouver has its own police force, the
federal Mounties are almost totally paid for by
the local municipal contracts.

“We face a challenge of raising their aware-
ness about how much we do,” says Crist.

One answer, suggests Crist, would be the
adoption of direct democracy principles that
would allow voters to initiate bylaw referenda
of their own choice and amend or repeal, again
by referenda, bylaws adopted by council.

Those in favour of the initiative have sug-
gested direct democracy prevents “runaway”
councils and offers true democracy. Those
opposed worry about the expense and time
involved in government by referenda.

District council, unable to come to grips
with such issues as what percentage of voters
would be needed to initiate a referendum, nar-
rowly defeated a taove earlier this year to put
the concept of direct democracy in front of the
voters via a referendum in November.

Crist knows that decision will become an
election issue itself, but argucs that if direct
democracy was embraced voter turnout would
ultimately increase.

“it’s an invitation to participate in the

democratic process of their awn community
and does away with the excuse that govern-
ment doesn’t listen. It brings local government
down to the level of the people.”

The statistics highlighting low North Shore
turnout for municipal elections don’t surprise
Patrick J. Smith and Kennedy Stewart of Simon

’ Fraser University’s Institute of Governance

Studies.

Smith and Stewart are the authors of
Making Local Accountability Work in British
Columbia, a report commissioned by the,
provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs and
published Jast year. 7

In the introduction to their look at electoral
accountability they say: “In many major munic-
ipalities it appears thar citizens have already fost
control of their local governments and have —
opted out of the focal democratic electoral
pracess.” : /

Smith says the at-large system of voting in
B.C. municipalicies works well in smaller com-
munities of up to 20,000. But he argues that as .
municipalities get bigger it becomes harder for
new politicians to get their messages out with-
out spending a lot of moncy. ;

Therefore, says Smith, the regulatio: “: on
clection spending and the need for financial
“transparency” become key. Otherwise, he
argues, clections will become even more irrele-
vant since the real power struggle will take
place within local party membership ranks in
terms of who is placed on the ballot. The party
with the most money will get afl its candidates
clected. He suggests such a situation faces
Vancouver voters with the powerful NPA party
poised to repeat their sweep of council.

Kennedy Stewart uses an international
example: “In Sweden which has a well-devel-
oped party system, tight election spending lim-
its and a system of proportional representation
turnout levels reach almost 90%!

“This was made clear to former Minister of
Municipal Affairs Minister Jenny Kwan (in
their report). Aithough aware of the dire cir-’
cumstances in some. municipalities she bowed
to pressure from the Union of B.C.
Municipalities and did nox institute change.”

MUNCIPAL WEB SITES:
West Vancouver www. west-van.com
North Vancouver City Www.cnv.org
North Vancouver District. www.dnv.org &

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