Editor: Democracy is a wonderful thing.
In municipalities it allows the voter who disagrees with the actions of their town council to express this disagreement by use of the ballot box to vote incumbents off the council.
In the same way, it also allows the voter who agrees with the actions of town council to reinforce those actions by re-electing incumbents. In Alberta this happens every four years.
However, the voter who exercises this right to vote the incumbent out must replace them with another candidate. Herein lies the problem; how does the voter find out about and chose the replacement candidate?
The first step is name recognition. This is a particular problem in municipal elections as the incumbent enjoys a distinct advantage. Their name has been front and centre for at least the past four years and usually even longer.
It is even more of a problem in towns like Canmore that do not have a ward system as the voter chooses the entire town council, not just the councillor for their own ward. This means a candidate must get their name out to the entire town, not just a particular ward.
At a recent Canmore council meeting, town administration started a discussion about restricting the use of election signs on town property. The reasoning behind this discussion was billed as esthetics, but I wonder if something darker is at play.
You could argue that in today’s digital environment these signs are outdated and not necessary. But they do serve one purpose very well and that is name recognition.
This particular town council has in the past four years embarked on a policy voyage that has generated considerable controversy and definitely some very vocal and strident opposition.
Of course, the council feels it is operating in the best interests of the town and is supported by that famous silent majority of its citizens. Therefore why do they feel it is necessary to resort to what appears to be an underhanded way to ensure their re-election?
I urge the current council, especially those who are planning on running for re-election, to live up to the principles they claim to be upholding and stop this bylaw to restrict election signs on public property.
Don. G. L. Rees,
Canmore
