Municipal governments, in most parts of Canada, are spared the divisiveness promoted by political parties and their extreme ideologies, but they have a very serious problem of their own. Their special majority isn’t moderate; in fact, it isn’t anything. It is totally missing in action.
There is a growing body of literature about the increasingly important role played by municipalities in addressing challenges that face us today, and yet local citizens can’t be bothered to turn out to vote. The sharp drop in the voting turnout in Toronto (from 60% in 2014 to 40% this year) can doubtless be largely attributed to the arbitrary action of Doug Ford in cutting the size of city council almost in half – and announcing this change two months after the election campaign was underway. The result was widespread confusion about the new wards and their boundaries and insufficient time for candidates to connect with the much larger number of constituents they suddenly inherited. The new boundaries also tended to pit incumbents against each other, leaving little opportunity for new faces to prevail. On the positive side, at least the proportion of women and visible minorities on council did not decline. One welcome outcome was the defeat of the infamous Giorgio Mammoliti, long a very controversial councillor prone to inflammatory remarks.
Another welcome defeat was that of the mayor of Stouffville who had gained notoriety after it was discovered that his private washroom wall was covered with photos of current and former councillors, members of the public, and staff who had resigned or been fired from their jobs – complete with lines across some faces and others connected by arrows. In my blog about this discovery, I couldn’t help wondering if all mayors have private bathrooms and suggested that this might be a worthy subject for a future research project – something along the lines of “From Privy Councils to Privies: an examination of secret gatherings at the various levels of government in Canada.” Alas, no one has yet taken up this promising line of inquiry!
With only 40% voting in the municipal election, even those councillors elected with 50% of the vote have a mandate from only 20% of the eligible voters. All one can do is wish them well in representing those voters and the missing-in-action majority who regrettably chose not to participate.