The Province is Undermining Local Democracy

I’m angry. And I’m worried.

Because I think that local government has a HUGE role to play in people’s quality of life. I think that local democracy is vital to making sure it delivers on improving the life of residents. And (as seen by voter turnout), participation in local democracy is often weak.

For the sake of our residents and communities: local democracy needs to be strengthened.

So I’m angry and worried by actions that the provincial government is taking. Because these actions are designed to undermine local democracy.

And I’m not alone in that view.

I just took part in an Alberta Urban Municipalities Association meeting. Members overwhelmingly voted in support of a City of Grande Prairie sponsored Resolution to ask the province to “keep local elections local.”

The province is promising to add Senate nominations and referendums on a number of (sure to be contentious) issues to the next municipal election. This is concerning to me because it will make myself and other Councillors less accountable.

There are a few big problems I see:

-LESS ABILITY FOR VOTERS TO BE INFORMED. Voters are busy. And learning about issues and candidates to make an informed vote takes a lot of time and effort. If they need to learn about Senate candidates and a bunch of complex federal/provincial issues, they'll have less time to research local candidates and issues

-LESS MEDIA COVERAGE. Outside of Calgary and Edmonton, there is very little media coverage surrounding municipal issues. Newsrooms are overworked and under-staffed. If they need to cover Senate candidates and referendum topics, they'll have even less capacity than usual to cover Council candidates and local topics.

-INCREASED INCUMBENT ADVANTAGE. Name recognition gives incumbents an advantage in elections. This is especially true in a place like Grande Prairie, where you get to vote for up to 8 Councillors instead of just voting for one. The more voters need to think about heading into the ballot box, the more name recognition helps. As someone who will be an incumbent if I run again: I want my advantages made smaller, not bigger.

It's also important to know that I've heard rumblings about legislation to change the Local Authorities Election Act getting tabled in the next little bit. Based on the "consultation" undertaken last year, myself and many others are convinced that this will increase the roll of money and partisanship in local elections. That's incredibly disturbing to me. Three thoughts:

-If legislation allows for money to have a bigger influence on local elections, I’ll have to spend more effort fundraising. I’m not personally worried about being able to raise enough money to be competitive. But it will mean I spend less time talking to random people at their doors and more times setting up meetings with potential donors that I already know. That doesn't strengthen democracy in our community, or help hold me more accountable to the general public.

-Incumbents have a fundraising advantage over new candidates. If money becomes more important in local elections, incumbent advantage grows. That undermines accountability.

-I have no loyalty to a Political Party. I'm not accountable to a Party leader or structure. I'm not relying on a Party to help me get appointments, endorsements, volunteers, data, donations, or other help. This is a good thing. Unlike politicians at other levels of government, I have complete freedom to speak my mind and vote my conscience. I'm accountable to voters and no one else. Introducing partisanship into local elections will make Councillors less accountable to their communities, and more accountable to Party leaders from outside their communities.

The changes already announced to local elections are making me less accountable to the people I represent. And changes that are likely to be introduced soon will undermine accountability even further.

The province is taking steps to undermine local democracy. And that should stop.

I’ve shared these concerns with Tracy Allard and Travis Toews many times, including when they were campaigning. I know that they’ve heard them from others. I hope they’ll hear them from you too.

Some specific I’d like to see our MLAs advocate for:

1) Don’t hold referendums and Senate elections alongside municipal elections: have them on a different date

2) Release un-curated results from “consultations” on the Local Authorities Election Act. Let us see what Albertans had to say.

3) Don’t make changes to the Local Authorities Elections Act. It was already updated since the last municipal election. Let an election happen and see how the changes impact local democracy before making even more revisions to the Act.

4) If you insist on changes to the Act, don’t make changes that will increase the role of money and partisanship in municipal elections. And any changes that are made should conform to these principals which AUMA members have endorsed: https://auma.ca/sites/default/files/Events/JuneMLC2019/auma_local_election_act_principles_0.pdf

These requests are all reasonable and important.

Because local government matters. But to have local government be as effective as possible: money and Parties should not be big factors in elections. Going into the ballot box, voters should be able to focus on local issues. And it should be made harder, not easier, for incumbents to get re-elected.