Who cares about voter apathy?
The Union of B.C. Municipalities convention is the province’s political event of the year. Here are some highlights from last week’s session. Fixing civic elections: Premier Gordon Campbell’s biggest policy announcement was the formation of a task force of councillors and MLAs to overhaul the Local Government Act. He said it will examine whether civic terms should stay at three years, move to four or go back to the old two-year cycle. I can save the task force some time as it heads for its May 30, 2010 deadline to recommend legislation. While Campbell rightly cites the struggles of underpaid small-town councillors, it’s not about them. Civic voter participation is now below 30 per cent and dropping. The idea of going back to two-year terms is a non-starter with the taxpaying public, due to cost and further loss of continuity in land use planning. Any politician who supports it should have lots of free time soon. Just look at what more frequent elections have done for federal turnout. O
