In 1909, a vote meant something.
Al Huble and Ed Seebach made the 41-mile trek to Prince George (it was Fort George at the time) from Giscome Portage to vote in the provincial election on Thursday, Nov. 25. It was the first provincial election ever held in the Cariboo District north of Quesnel, according to the Saturday, Nov. 27 edition of the Fort George Tribune.
It took Huble and Seebach three days to get here, much of it in snowshoes through four feet of snow, according to the Tribune account.
And they weren't happy campers when they got here because the returning officer had run out of ballots. They cast their ballots on pieces of paper and the votes were counted.
Only men were allowed to vote in those days and the newspaper was good enough to list the names of all 26 men who did.
Huble and Seebach weren't the only ones who went the extra distance to make their vote matter.
The newspaper account goes on to describe the efforts of two other men, Joe Boyer and John Porter, to reach the polling station at Hamilton's store. The men lived on the south side of the Fraser River, four miles away, and "broke trail to a point opposite South Fort George."
"The river was covered with jammed ice and Mr. Boyer made an effort to get across," the story says. "He had not gone far when he realized it was not safe and in getting back he broke through and got wet up to the armpits. It was after sundown, the temperature was below zero (Fahrenheit); but Joe kept moving and Mr. Porter had a fire built in a few minutes."
With help from the area aboriginal population, Boyer and Porter later crossed the river at another spot "and by 10 o'clock they were thawing out at Hamilton's."
Other men came from the Blackwater road camp 20 miles away to vote, as did others through two feet of snow from the Fort George canyon area, 15 miles away.
All but two of the 28 men registered to vote made it to Hamilton's that day to mark their ballot.
Once the polls closed, the party began and didn't end until "there wasn't a drop of Hudson's Bay rum to be had nearer than Quesnel."
The next morning, Hiram Carney left for Quesnel with the ballots and wasn't expected back until Tuesday night.
"The result in Cariboo and throughout the provinice will not be known at Fort George for probably two weeks, or until the arrival of the next regular mail," the report concluded.
This November, no one will have to wait two weeks for results, nor will they have to travel three days on snowshoes through a metre of snow to vote in the municipal election.
Like the early settlers of the region, all it takes to vote is a belief in democracy and the power of a single ballot. In 2011, just 28.5 per cent of registered voters in Prince George cast ballots in the municipal election. This year, let's make that 50 per cent.
Bonus points if you show up to your neighbourhood polling station wearing snowshoes.
