Hey, Prince George. We're not going to let the residents of Toronto make us look bad, are we?
A whopping 61 per cent of eligible Toronto voters turned out Monday to elect a new mayor and council. While they were either blessed or cursed, depending on your political views and your tolerance at being the laughing stock of the world, to have had Rob Ford as mayor, there's no doubt he got people talking about municipal politics. The fact Doug was running for the mayor's chair in the absence of his ailing brother probably helped, too.
So, Prince George, how about 61 per cent of you turning out on Nov. 15 to cast your ballot for mayor, city council and school board? After all, anything Toronto can do, we can do better, no?
Maybe we shouldn't be too demanding, so let's ask for 51 per cent, which would exceed our #YourVoteMatters target set in May. That would likely be good enough to beat the online challenge to Prince George issued by a get-out-the-vote initiative in Kamloops.
No, wait, let's keep it reasonable and how about 41 per cent of the electorate come out to vote? That would restore Prince George's municipal election turnout to the 2005 level, a record year.
But let's not get too crazy. How about a 31 per cent voter turnout? That would still be a 10 per cent improvement over the paltry 28.5 per cent of Prince George residents who bothered to vote in 2011.
Just 15,266 voters took part in 2011. In contrast, the record municipal election turnout was in 2005, where 17,621 cast a ballot. To put that 2,355 ballot difference into context, Colin Kinsley only beat Dan Rogers by 642 votes in 2005 and Shari Green beat Rogers by 1,637 votes in 2011.
Demographics should be on the city's side to increase voter turnout. Young people (in voting terms, that would be anyone under 35) are notoriously unreliable as voters but older voters (as in anyone over 35 and particularly anyone over 65) are normally as reliable to turn out to the polls as people scrambling to get their winter tires on after the first snowfall. The older people get, it seems, the more interested they become in roads, schools, hospitals, libraries, arenas, pools and everything else taxes help pay for.
Since the median age of a Prince George resident is now in the late 40s and the local population over 65 has never been higher in the city's history and grows with every retirement party, voter turnout should be soaring.
Perhaps it will for this election. With two excellent candidates for mayor, plenty to choose from among the 25 individuals seeking the eight available city council seats and some equally strong candidates to select for school board, perhaps this will motivate the electorate.
Or it might not.
Clear choices, not difficult ones, is what usually inspires voters to show up. In Toronto, voters had a clear choice - another term of Ford, whether it was Rob or Doug, or something, anything else. The 61 per cent voter turnout in Toronto was 10 points higher than usual as a result.
Regardless of the reason, Toronto residents have shown us that a strong turnout at the polls for a municipal election can be done. So many people complain that there aren't good candidates to choose from as a reason not to vote but that's just shorthand for being too lazy to take the time to study the candidates and make the best choice. That becomes crystal clear when these same people flock to the polls to make sure Rob or Doug Ford don't get back in (33 per cent of voters still supported Doug Ford). Put another way, these voters can't be bothered to choose from among a pool of good candidates but definitely want to vote when it's clear who the bad candidates are.
Toronto got out to vote, Prince George. In just over two weeks, it's our turn. Let's at least make it respectable.
