What defines a "citizen"?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a citizen is: "an inhabitant of a city or town; especially one entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman" or "a person who legally belongs to a country and has the rights and protection of that country".
A citizen is a person, a member of a community or country, entitle to certain rights and privileges. In this context, every man, woman, and child living in Prince George is a citizen of the city. They I mention this because we have civic elections coming up. Citizens of our city are putting their names into the hat to become elected members of council. At least two brave souls - Don Zurowski and Lynn Hall - have already put their names forward for mayor.
On November 15th, citizens of Prince George will have the chance to select our council. Almost every citizen will have an opportunity to vote.
I say "almost every citizen" because we apply age limits to voting. A while ago, my page six colleague Tracy Summerville discussed the Scottish independence question and the inclusion of 16 and 17 year olds in the pool of eligible voters.
I think including the youth vote was a good idea but no matter what, setting an age limit means somebody is going to be excluded. In the case of the Scottish referendum, even though it was more inclusive, it still excluded about 15 per cent of the population purely on age.
The other caveat about voting is the requirement of a place of residence. In many cases, and for some individuals such as college and university students, the criteria pretty much ensure that they will not be part of the voting public.
Which brings us back to the question of citizenship - if you cannot exercise your franchise to vote, does this infringe your rights?
More interesting, perhaps, is the question of why some people do not exercise their franchise in the first place. Voter turnout for municipal elections is abysmal. Yet the choices city council make have, perhaps, the most impact on the citizens of this fair city.
Maybe it is the way that we define democracy - "a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting" - that causes the fundamental problem. We have "representational democracies" in which we vote for representatives.
In civic elections, we do get to vote for a leader - the mayor - independent of any the members of council. In this case, one could argue that we have a truly democratic process.
Yet the general sentiment that I hear when I ask people why they do not vote in municipal elections is something along the lines of: "what is the point? They aren't going to represent me."
The other line that I hear is: "what is the point? It's not going to change anything."
Indeed, one colleague went so far as to use the common characterization and said: "They're all crooks. One is as good as another."
It is a sad statement about our democracy that the gulf between elected officials and the general public just keeps getting wider and wider.
It doesn't help that the term "citizen" seems to have been replaced by the term "taxpayer".
There was an excellent guest column on this transposition by Daphne Bramham of the Vancouver Sun reproduced under the Citizen's "Your Vote Matters" banner. She points out: "A citizen is a rare thing these days in Canada. Citizens have been expunged from the political lexicon and replaced with taxpayers and, as election approach, voters."
Perhaps that mere term sets people's teeth on edge. After all, if you and I are citizens, then there is a sense of community and belonging. But if you are a taxpayer, there is a sense that you are the one footing the bill and anyone not a taxpayer is just along for the free ride.
It strikes me that we need to get the term citizen back into the lexicon of our politicians and, more importantly, into the general debate and discussions.
As citizens, we have both rights and privileges. I would also argue that we have duties, one of which is to participate in our democracy. Don't complain. Change things. Vote for someone with better ideas. Vote for someone different. Run yourself. These are the duties that we owe our democracy.
In the movie, The American President, actor Michael Douglas delivers an impassioned speech telling us that democracy is hard. It demands the participation of its citizens. There is no question about that.
We are about to start into the six week long run up to the civic elections. It should be fun. Hopefully, it will be a campaign in which everyone gets involved. After all, we are citizens of Prince George.
