Uncontested elections are a loss for all

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2022 (761 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are few things in politics more disheartening than someone winning an election because they were the only candidate.

Our entire system of government starts to come undone when certain elected officials do not actually have to pass through the crucible of an election. Lamentably, more and more local governments are featuring acclaimed officials.

In Winnipeg this year, Couns. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) and Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) were acclaimed, as no other candidates registered to run in their wards. Three other wards have only one challenger: Waverley West (incumbent Janice Lukes and Pascal Scott); North Kildonan (incumbent Jeff Browaty and Andrew Podolecki); and Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry (incumbent Sherri Rollins and Michael Thompson).

That’s a total of seven candidates running to represent five wards that together represent one-third of the entire city council. Sad is not a strong enough word.

There are pockets of greater competitiveness. St. James, Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood and Mynarski each have five candidates competing for a seat on council. The lack of an incumbent may be one of the reasons; only one of those seats (Mynarski) featured an incumbent (Ross Eadie).

These observations are not meant as a criticism of those who are either acclaimed or running against minimal opposition. It is, however, a condemnation of our collective disinterest in municipal politics, a phenomenon not unique to Winnipeg.

This fall in British Columbia, 37 mayors were acclaimed to their positions. These included mayors of fairly large cities such as Burnaby (pop. 240,000) and Port Coquitlam (pop. 58,000). That is nearly the same number (36) that were acclaimed in 2018.

In Ontario, 139 reeves or mayors — one in three municipal officials at this level — and 546 councillors were acclaimed.

In the United Kingdom, in spring local government elections, 91 seats were filled by acclaimed candidates. One of the most severe examples was in Gwynedd, Wales, where 28 of 69 local council seats were acclaimed.

What is driving down interest?

It’s a mash-up of factors, not least of which is the powerful brand recognition of incumbents. So few people vote in municipal elections in Manitoba (eligible voter turnout in Winnipeg is typically just under 50 per cent) that those who do show up usually go directly to the name they know from past elections.

The larger issue is we, as voters, have incredibly high expectations of our municipal councillors and very little in the way of sympathy when things go wrong. Although most Canadians tend to trust municipal elected officials more than those at the federal and provincial levels, we are also quite rigid in judging their performance.

Case in point: I received correspondence from a reader this week, criticizing mayoral candidate Coun. Scott Gillingham for cost overruns and delays in a renovation of the St. James Civic Centre. City officials reported two separate “dust-release events” — where dust from work inside the facility contaminated the electrical and mechanical system — had crippled the project. The City of Winnipeg is seeking compensation from the contractor.

For the reader, the problems with the project were 100 per cent Gillingham’s to bear. Could he have done a better job of pushing the project forward? Perhaps, but when you start to queue up all of the challenges this project faced, it’s perhaps not entirely surprising it was behind schedule and over budget.

We, as voters, are entitled to reasonably high expectations of those we elect to pull the levers of government. However, we must also be reasonable in assessing blame and poor performance. When voters are quick to judge, it does not create an environment where new candidates are ready to step forward.

Working conditions are also a concern.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, vehement opponents of vaccine and mask mandates took out their anger on municipal officials. Angry letters, threatening notes and physical intimidation were reported in municipal councils all over the country. It’s a sign absorbing threats and online harassment have become an inherent part of the job description.

The CBC recently profiled a municipal official named Jasvinder Sandhu, a lawyer who was elected as a part-time councillor in Oakville, Ont. After twice-per-month council meetings, numerous obligatory appearances at public events and constituency office work, she found out it was “a full-time job for part-time pay.”

And occasionally toxic. During the 2018 election, someone put a note in her mailbox suggesting she and her husband (who are both Sikh) were terrorists. Not surprisingly, Sandhu did not run for re-election.

Democracy is not well-served when we cannot generate enough candidates for public office to avoid acclamations. Elections are the first and most effective tool for enforcing accountability in government.

So, congratulations to the acclaimed candidates. Don’t take this personally, but I hope it never happens to you again.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca