In October 2020, a pollster noted that 38 percent don't want to see the sitting city council re-elected. And how this is big problem.
Well, it may be a real problem for the councillors, the few, that is, who are running for re-election.
And it is a problem for voters but only because the councillors who are running will probably be re-elected just as they were in the last election. Most people did not support the councillors when they were elected at that time.
In that election, more votes were cast for candidates who were not elected than for the candidates who were elected.
Thinking about it, the council's un-popularity (if in fact the poll is correct) may not be that much of an issue after all. The councillors were not that popular when they were elected! They were elected with only 49 percent of the votes cast.
(The article-writer must have been trying to be ironic when he wrote "The poll, conducted online from Oct. 2-5, surveyed 500 Edmontonians. As a non-random survey, the poll doesn’t have a margin of error." No margin of error - wow- that is accurate! And so much accuracy by a poll that only questions 500 people in a city of 800,000 people How is that even possible?)
The councillors received only 96,000 votes cast while 101,000 votes went to the other - the unsuccessful - candidates.
Seven of the city's 12 councillors were elected with only a minority of the votes in their wards.
Dziadyk, Hamilton, Paquette, Caterina, Henderson, Cartmell and Banga were elected despite a majority of voters voting for other candidates.
And it is likely that will happen again this year.
With each ward seat filled by the one candidate that has the largest number of votes, whether he or she receives a minority or a majority of the votes cast, there is no attempt to represent a majority of voters in the city. And the poor system of representation is probably a major reason for the poor turn-out -- only 32 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote in the 2017 election.
We have science and technology all around us. but are using for our city election a system that was established back in the 1700s if not earlier. the First Past The Post system does not ensure that the various views of the voters are represented. it represents only the view of the largest group in each district. Like I said, this group is the only one represented whether it is a majority or not.
While Edmontonians have a range of view, an assembly that does represent only one group is not representational. Only an assembly that represents the range of of views held by its citizens proportionally is democratic.
Really, the question is whether you believe in democracy or you do not. If you do, only proportional representation is acceptable.
Proportional representation can be easily formed by forming multi-member wards and giving each voter only one vote. That way no one group can take all the seats in the ward and a number of the substantial groups among the voters will be represented. As well, electing a few at-large councillors, again with each voter casting only one vote in the at-large vote, would provide another layer of proportionality.
And of course proportionality would be easier still, if Edmonton had more city councillors. 12 councillors to represent a city of almost a million residents is not enough to be able to fairly represent the range of sentiment held by city residents.
The "poll" was reported in "‘Big problem for them:’ Most Edmontonians don't outright support city council re-election in 2021", by Dustin Cook, Edmonton Journal, Oct. 17, 2020.
Thanks for reading.
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