Prince George voter turnout is linked to the level of government - the higher the level of government, the higher the turnout.
In the 2011 federal election, voter turnout was 58 per cent in Cariboo-Prince George and 54 per cent in Prince George-Peace River.
In the 2009 provincial election, voter turnout was 51 per cent in Prince George-Mackenzie and 49 per cent in Prince George-Valemount.
In the 2008 City of Prince George election, only 32 per cent of the city's 52,509 eligible voters bothered to cast a ballot - still enough to garner the second-highest vote count in the city's history.
This trend towards municipal apathy is both saddening and foolish on the part of voters.
A single vote in a municipal election carries far more weight than at the provincial or federal level. Each person who took the time to vote in 2008 represented 1/16,918th of the total vote - the equivalent of casting two to three ballots in a provincial or federal election.
In addition, in a municipal election each voter can potentially determine the entire local government - instead of just picking one of 85 MLAs or 308 MPs.
Every day you travel the roads and sidewalks maintained by the municipal government. You may ride a city bus on those streets, or follow behind a city snow plow in the winter.
If you speed on those streets, an RCMP officer whose wages are 90 per cent paid by the city will issue you a ticket. If your house catches fire, it will be a city fire fighter who comes to assist you.
City Hall controls many of the services residents of Prince George use every single day - and only 479 people bothered to fill out a survey, attend an open house or take an online poll to tell city council what they think about those services.
In this void of public input and opinion, city councillors must base their decisions on anecdotal experience and personal biases.
If you live or work in a high-rise building, you may find it interesting to know that city council has refused since 2009 to fund around-the-clock staffing for the fire department's ladder truck. A delay in getting the ladder truck to the scene of a fire could have deadly
consequences.
It's too late to start caring about municipal politics when the stairwell is filled with smoke and you face the choice of burning alive or jumping.
Members of the current council voted unanimously on Monday to not even consider additional funding to support the RCMP's five-member Downtown Enforcement Unit.
Cpl. Kent MacNeill and his unit have shown just how much of a difference five police officers can make.
Unlike the many other ineffectual schemes to improve the downtown, the Downtown Enforcement Unit has shown clear, positive results in just 18 months - and city council isn't even prepared to consider funding it in 2012.
In 2010 Maclean's magazine named Prince George the Crime Capital of Canada. The city's online poll and an online poll conducted by The Citizen both showed policing is voter's No. 2 priority after road maintenance - a message which doesn't seem to have
resonated with city council.
If Prince George residents want the current and future council to act on their priorities, residents need to speak up and speak loudly during this election and during the public consultation on city budgets.
Most of all, residents need to get out and vote on Nov. 19.
-- Prince George Citizen
