Rhino's Ramblings - The Non-Voters

By Robert Thomas - Opinion/Commentary

“Who won the election?” is a question more than a few people have asked me over the last few days.

Most of them are seniors and/or lower income people but what they all have in common is they just do not bother to vote.

In reality they might be curious to see who is the new mayor but after that they don’t care much more about it.

“The new mayor can do what he wants and it does not matter to me. They always do what they want and they just don’t care about the rest of us,” is how one of the non-voting residents put it to me.

It is a sense that even if they did vote that being low income their voices don’t make a difference so why spend or waste the time voting at all?

Whether people agree with me or not it is a common sentiment which has majorly contributed to what at best can be portrayed as a decent turnout given it was a byelection. To right down calling it what I see it as eligible voters giving up on civic politics in general.

As I was told it is always “blah, blah, blah” and when it comes right down to it people of lower economic means just do not seem to matter.

It is what I was told by a couple of those lower income people they are more worried about how are they going to afford a new Winter coat than they are about how the City is going to spend their property tax dollars.

It is a feeling of frustration as those who are older, retired, recovering economically from the pandemic or just of lower economic means see it all part of the process where their concerns are not being dealt with, nor ever will be, so why even bother to vote at all.

People are already pointing out to me that mayor elect Clive Tolley in reality won the top elected job at City Hall with just over five (5) percent of the eligible voters backing him.

When you put it that way there may be more than a few out there asking is it really a clear mandate the new mayor has received? Or is it just a case of people not caring anymore?

As unlikely as it sounds others have said there were far too many people - nine - running for mayor so who in the end do you vote for?

What I can say is for the most part there really was no great burning issue out there which would have brought more people out to the polls.

While true those who I spoke to and did not bother to vote for the City’s next mayor likely would not have voted in the first place. Nobody elected will listen anyhow so why waste the time and bother is how it was told to me.

That is how much voter alienation there is out there in the community at the present time.

It was an election in many ways for the non-voters not worth the effort.

And besides, as many have pointed out to me, really who was the best candidate that would honestly listen to them?

This is the election which should be a major wake up call to the powers that be in Moose Jaw.

The ever shrinking microcosm that really have control of the reigns in the city is in many ways losing the support of those eligible to vote. It seems to be translating into difficulties finding new faces for advisory committees, volunteers and overall support for initiatives both new and on-going.

Although it has not come up publicly I have heard many telling me the shrinking number of voters who even bother to vote really attacks the legitimacy of the entire system.

Now they can call me a “Negative Nelly” but at the same time perhaps we need to sit back and take a really hard look at how this effects not just the political leadership at City Hall, but how it effects what efforts City Hall undertakes and more importantly resident’s active involvement in the community.

Perhaps we need to go beyond how the election figures came in and who in the end won but rather look at where and why there is such a continual drop in voter turnout.

It is something mayor elect Tolley was asked about on election night and something he admitted that truly needs to be looked at.

And no it was not a response from our new mayor come Monday that it was the non-voters problem but rather one where the City or rather the City’s politicians need to address.

The voters are not the problem the system or rather the response from those in the system are.

The non-voters need to be engaged and their concerns listened to so that they feel they are equal participants in the running of the City is how I would best paraphrase mayor elect Tolley’s response in all of this.

But the exact way is how?

Although it is not a perfect science by any means or a stretch of the imagination having a poll located at the Cosmo Senior Centre does help in determining the turnout in the northeast part of the city.

Certainly it made it far more convenient for people to cast their ballots. But access is not what voters want, they want to see our local civic politicians listening and in the end delivering on their promises.

On election day the Cosmo poll showed just under 500 people voted.

And yes there could well be a major number of people from the area who voted in the four early days of advanced voting at the Cosmo but it is highly unlikely the northeast side of the city voted in that large of numbers.

The Cosmo poll would be a great start for a study as what is needed to get people out to vote. It is a poll which needs an exit poll asking how could the City make it better and bring out more people to cast their ballots.

With that though the poll’s results may very well show is the number of people who could not be bothered to come out and cast their ballot. And if the number is accurate it is telling.

Certainly name recognition played a bit of a factor when it came to people casting their ballots - plenty of studies will show you that happens in Canadian municipal politics - but I cannot have an underlying belief that there is a lot of voter alienation in this poll.

If I am correct how much of an impact did voter alienation and just not caring about how the election turned out impact the vote?

I know this is only anecdotal but the people who told me they could not be bothered with voting were from the northeast or east side of the city.

This is what the mayor elect and others need to somehow address over the next three years.

There needs to be some sort of inclusion of not just the issues faced by people of lower socio-economic standing but also some solid results.

Somehow Council needs to recognize that there are those out there who might have to chose between a decent winter coat and paying their property taxes or their increasing water bills.

It is something that is going to take work.

Work that could very well begin with the upcoming operating and capital budgets.