Municipal Fallacies

The Union of British Columbia Municipalities determination that corporate votes should not be allowed for any elections is a great victory for all British Columbians. But the report has many other strong points, and has raised questions about local government and their role in citizen's lives.

Campaign finance limits are a great start. For too long, wealthy mayors have been able to outspend their opponents thereby putting them at an advantage; requiring the disclosure of third party advertising during elections would also be very beneficial for candidates during local elections.

The most intriguing portion of the report though in my opinion, is about the length of term for local candidates. Currently it is three years, thus those elected in 2008 will be running once again in 2011 for re-election. If we were to do what the report recommends, then the term would be extended to four years like provincial elections. To be fair, this would save a considerable amount of money, but like every other level of government set election dates do allow for governments that are unpopular to stay longer then they should, and those that are popular to stay for too short a period until we all march back to the polling station. Granted, it is much more difficult to determine when a municipal government has lost the confidence of the electorate that elected them in comparison to provincial governments.

This recommendation got some hype beyond the denial of corporate votes in the media. Some editors suggested that along with four year terms, there should be term limits for local politicians. Now those who said this had points that mayors in some cities have held their position since the 1990's, and ran unopposed nearly every election since then. They claim that a change of faces would encourage voters to hit the polls more so then the same person hanging around in his or her office for longer than a decade. Perhaps what they need to remember though is that voters show up for elections when they feel that their vote can make a difference. If the mayor is running unopposed, votes for council members might appear to be pointless. What we need are issues that engage the public in discussion allowing everyday citizens to affect the government they elected.

To end, most editors that suggested term limits for local politicians pointed out that young voters feel especially left out of the municipal government loop. To curb this trend, maybe what we need is someone to listen to the people of his or her municipality, someone who is willing to put the citizens, not the businesses first, and someone who truly cares for their community, and wishes for future generations to embrace a better world then we could ever imagine.