Increasing voter turnout is the stated goal of a recent series of articles printed in the Newmarket Era. The editor has named her quest to improve the percentage of eligible voters exercising their right to vote from 32% (in the last election) to 50% in next year's race as a key priority of her paper. Lagging voter turnout has been a topic she herself has written about numerous times over the years.
But unless the Era begins to understand the reasons why people vote, she won't be successful at convincing anyone who sat on the sidelines in 2010 to change their behaviour. Stop interviewing those who didn't vote and focus on those who did and what motivated them to do so.
Here is a hint - People don't vote because they felt a civic duty nor do they vote because they were nagged to participate in the electoral process. People vote because they want to influence a change in course of government.
In 2010, there was a movement to change the direction of Newmarket Council. It began with 2 incumbents being defeated and a third seat was won by someone not affiliated with the "old boys" network (in fact, the "old boys" preferred candidate was soundly rejected).
In addition, despite a non-existent campaign from challengers for the Regional Council and Mayor's race, these "on paper only" candidates still managed to garner thousands of votes and demonstrated a legitimate groundswell of people who were motivated by an "anyone but Van Bynen/ Taylor" sentiment.
You see, as Canadians, we rarely vote "in" a government in as much as we vote "out" an incumbent.
If the Era wants to increase voter turnout, here are some very simple steps to take. (For the record, I don't expect that the Era affect any of these steps because they are too closely tied with the Van Bynen/ Taylor regime including sitting on various boards and committees together. In reality, there is no independent "local press" in Newmarket outside of a few blogs like mine).
Step 1) Actually report the news.
Here is a recent example of story that was buried by the Era. Two weeks ago, a pedestrian was struck and killed in a part of town where no sidewalks existed. The mayor and his cronies have been battling against constructing sidewalks for years and now it has actually lead to a death of a young person. That's newsworthy and the mayor and his buddies should be called to account. The public has been purposely kept in the dark by the Era newspaper which is too close to the current regime to be objective about reporting actual news.
Step 2) Stop the spin cycle.
Why does the Era sit silently while the mayor spins a yarn about 45% of Newmarket residents working in the community as he did in his Chamber of Commerce speech earlier this year. The Era should challenge the mayor and shut him up when he lies and/or makes up stats. Isn't the reporter's job to inform the public? Challenge him too on what is going on with Davis Drive construction or about his role in voting to massivley increase the debt load of York Region. These are important issues on a Regional level that never get reported on by the paper. Why not?
Step 3) You are a reporter not a shill
Stop reporting drivel like Councillor Emanuel's "Internet voting" idea and treating it like it might be a good idea. Instead of acting as Councillor Emanuel's personal PR department and simply regurgitating whatever lame-brained idea pops into his head, why doesn't the Era question him as to what the cost of implementing a Internet voting is going to be and what the expected "boost" in voter turnout will be? Better yet, why not look at the results of the recent leadership race in the federal Liberal Party. If there was ever a case study against Internet voting, its that race and the results are right under our noses. I say, Enough with the silliness. (Hint - stop quoting Councillor Emanuel and the Era will be able to cut out 95% of all silly news relating to municipal politics. The man is a buffoon).
Step 4) Ask tough questions
Stop nagging us about an election that is 15 months away. Rather than focus on voting in 2014, why isn't the Era taking the mayor to task about the budget process? Or, raising taxes 2 times this year. Or the councillor expense report that has been quietly posted on the town web site. Or the fact so many of the town-owned facilities had to be closed down for "emergency repairs" because this mayor can't seem to manage the town in the same way his predecessors have? Why are their no stories about the duplicity of the mayor with the heritage Clock Tower development? There is another local blogger who has done a great job turning up dirt. Why is the Era burying this story too?
My point being that there is plenty of news that is being completely ignored by the Era that are legitimate news stories. Each of them point to some level of incompetency and/or duplicity with the current administration. These stories are too important to our local democracy not to be written about.
If there is going to be a higher voter turnout it will be because voters have decided to toss the gruesome-twosome to the curb.
The Era can boost the voter turn-out to 50% and beyond by simply ending their kids-glove treatment of the Van Bynen administration and just report the news from a fair and balanced perspective. It won't take voters long to see that the mayor is incompetent. Voters will turn out in droves to vote him and his allies out provided the Era actually starts acting like a news organization again and stops painting every event rose coloured.
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