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Weak mayors, strong councils: Why B.C.'s system is leading to long ballots

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Ask many British Columbians how they feel about the province's "weak mayor" system at city hall and chances are very good you'll get a confused look. But understanding what that means explains why city councils are just as important – if not more so – as who you select for mayor.

Unlike provincial or federal politics, where we vote for a local representative of a political party and the leader of the party with the most seats forms government, municipal elections see residents vote for a mayor and up to 10 councillors. 

Councillors vote on motions, but the mayor doesn’t get involved unless council can’t come to a majority decision. This has been the case in Vancouver during the last term, since Kennedy Stewart was elected as an independent and did not have a party to support his goals.

“I think there's a temptation in local politics to look at a mayor as the equivalent of a premier or a prime minister or the chief executive of a city, and the weak mayor system does not do that,” observed UBC political science associate professor Gerald Baier.

“Staff of the city take their direction from council as a whole, and so mayors are just one vote on that council – they're a tie-breaking vote. They chair council as a meeting, but they aren't necessarily driving the city on a day-to-day basis.”

In Surrey, Doug McCallum’s policies and goals were carried out by his councillors with the Safe Surrey Coalition, who had the majority vote for the term, and he was able to continue his agenda despite tensions and even an angry crowd.

CHOOSING COUNCILLORS NOT EASY

All of Canada’s biggest cities, except those in B.C., have ward systems where councillors run to represent designated areas of the city. The at-large system has now seen municipal parties growing in popularity as a way of both supporting a mayor’s agenda through council, but also to try and make it easier for voters to choose who to support.

The problem is, Vancouver and Surrey, in particular, now have more than 100 names on the ballot between council, school district and – in Vancouver’s case – park board candidates. 

In an era of shrinking newsrooms and further decline of voter turnout, civic leaders and observers are worried about the potential for extremist candidates to garner support from voters who may not realize what they stand for, including what are described as “harmful ideologies.”

ADVICE TO GET YOU THROUGH

Researching dozens of candidates and determining which you support isn’t feasible for most people, but assessing a party’s platforms and focussing on priorities is more doable.

“It's not a sin to make your decision based on one or two issues that really matter to you, so if you know that an approach to housing or homelessness is your number one priority, make your decision that way,” suggested Baier.

However, he warned that there are sometimes unintended consequences to a cursory approach.

“There might be compromises that you don't like down the road in terms of other priorities that candidate might have,” said Baier. “You may have regrets, but we all have regrets over who we've chosen to vote for at one time or another, I'm sure.”

Municipal elections take place in every B.C. municipality Oct. 15.

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