Voting is your right. We are lucky that in Canada we can trust that our vote means something.
Residents in the Village of Boyle elected a new councillor in the June 20 by-election, and the voter turnout was pretty dismal. ;
Only 135 ballots were cast in the election, out of the 948 residents who lived in the village at last municipal census count in 2014.
Granted, not all residents can vote, but it still seems like a small number.
The vote took place on a Monday and polls were open 10 hours that day. Two weeks before, advanced polls were held for two hours. It would have been nice if advanced polls were open longer, seeing as millions of Canadians cast their ballots this way in the last federal election. ;
But there was still time to cast a ballot. ;
An abysmal voter turnout is no surprise in municipal elections in Alberta. ;
The Pembina Institute found that the average turnout in big centres like Edmonton and Calgary sat at 42 and 39 per cent from 1961-2004, with record lows hitting 18 per cent in the 2004 Calgary election and 21 per cent in the 1980 Edmonton election.
Refusing to cast a ballot can be a political act in an of itself. But voter apathy is more likely the case in a municipal by-election. ;
The decision of who fills the Village of Boyle ’s council seat is important, though at first glance it may not seem earth-shattering. ;
We do not have to look far to recognize how powerful democracy can be. The people of Alberta uprooted a 44-year-old regime last year because they wanted a change. Not everyone has been happy with the changes that have happened since then. Guess what - you can vote for someone else in the next election.
If we do broaden our horizons, we can look at the recent federal election that toppled the Conservative government. ;
Look even further, and you can see how the Brexit vote - even before the ballots were cast - has had international ramifications, from collapsing financial markets to an increase in reported violence in the United Kingdom. ;
Voting is your right. We are lucky that in Canada we can trust that our vote means something. ;
We should be proud of that right, and the responsibility that comes with it. ;
Don ’t waste it.
