In a thoughtful piece today - the Centre for Civic Governance, part of the Columbia Institute, looks at why people do not vote on local government elections (School District, Regional District and Municipal Council). Two items that stood out for me:
a) Youth Engagement to develop voting habits for life
b) Lack of Media Coverage on local government meetings
On Item 'B' - I believe the local media does the best they can with the human resources they have available.
On Item 'A' - The Cariboo Regional District has called for civic government to be part of the local school circulum. In the meantime, all local governments do go to local schools and have that introduction to students about the role that a Mayor, Councillor or Electoral Area Director play in our local community(ies). I hope that this continues in addition to the holding of "Local Government Day" where awareness is brought to how local government impacts on people's lives…
Read the item from the Centre for Civic Governance here
Thanks to Greenwood Mayor Nipper Kettle for alerting me to this item
Update at 1:52pm, Wed May 7th - The participation rate for local government elections in 2011 were:
Wells - 97 out of 165 eligible voters cast a ballot resulting in a participation rate of 58.79%
Quesnel - 2,843 out of 7,069 eligible voters cast a ballot resulting in a participation rate of 40.22%
Williams Lake - 3,638 out of 7,649 eligible voters cast a ballot resulting in a participation rate of 47.56%
100 Mile House - 457 out of 1,265 eligible voters cast a ballot resulting in a participation rate of 36.13%
~SF
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