With a municipal election on today, it always puzzles me that voter turnout is so low when the services offered by this level of government so closely touch our day-to-day lives.
Turn on the water tap. Go for a walk through your neighbourhood. Take the bus or ferry. Borrow a book from the library and sit in a park to read it.
Put out the garbage on Tuesdays. Watch your street get plowed out after a snowstorm. Enjoy the flowers growing on the boulevards.
Call the police when your house is broken into and your things are stolen, or the fire department when things burn.
All of this is the work of municipal governments. In Halifax alone, they distribute a billion dollars to provide these services.
And yet, so few people vote.
In the last election, only 30 per cent of eligible voters showed up in Halifax. Across Nova Scotia, the numbers were better: 46.5 per cent participated.
Sometimes municipal governments get labelled as boring. But are they?
When Halifax took down the Cornwallis statue, it stirred up enough controversy. And Black Lives Matter protests brought people into the streets in the midst of a pandemic lockdown to speak out against systemic racism in police services.
When a developer tries to build a high-rise that will throw shade on residents, obscure view planes or alter the historic character of a downtown district with glassy monoliths, people get worked up.
And listen to hue and cry when sidewalks turn to ice after one of those wicked Maritime winter storms. People end up in emergency rooms with sprained ankles and concussions.
That’s all municipal. Council decisions and priorities affect everyone — all ages, colours, genders in every part of town and country.
So what is the problem?
Low voter turnout is not unique to Nova Scotia. It’s actually worse in other places. In some parts of the U.S., local election turnout rates have plunged to 20 per cent of eligible voters. Research shows that those voters tend to be white, wealthy and older.
Some municipalities in the U.S. have made municipal elections concurrent with state or national elections. This has produced spikes in voter turnout, in some cases a doubling of numbers.
In California and Alaska, there are lotteries that actually pay people for voting. One fellow in L.A. actually won $25,000 for voting.
So it turns out that little changes can make a big difference.
The provincial government in Nova Scotia — which oversees municipal governance — recognizes the problem of low voter turnout, and in 2019 made a few small changes to the Municipal Elections Act. But this is more like tweaking than substantial change.
Some people have made the argument that low participation rates are a consequence of the disconnect between voters and the people who really run the show — the unelected municipal staff. A case in point is a severance payout of more than $300,000 to John MacIsaac who worked for Halifax for three months before he was let go.
That severance payment was organized by Halifax CAO Jacques Dubé, who is not elected. When voters ask elected officials about this, they say it’s a personnel matter and they can’t comment.
That is exactly the sort of thing that alienates voters. That is their tax money being used to compensate an employee for three months of work.
It is worth noting that in Halifax, the number of people voting in advance polls exceeded the total number of ballots cast in the 2016 election. There are also strong results coming in from other municipalities for advance polls.
Electronic voting will have played a huge role in this. It’s easy and fast, and it makes it convenient for people for whom transportation to a polling place is an issue.
Electronic voting is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to boost voter participation. Numbers in the 30 or 40 per cent range do not make for good democracy.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
