A commission is looking into why Montreal’s municipal elections have had such low participation. Only 38.3% of eligible voters turned out in November 2021, down from an already pitiful 42.47% in 2017.
As Jeanne Corriveau writes, interest in last year’s vote could have been weakened by Covid, by the federal election that closely preceded it, or by the narrow restrictions on voting by mail, but none are complete explanations. But how do you get people to feel more involved, at least to the extent of feeling it’s worth casting a vote?
Two things are not raised in the item, which have been mentioned before on this blog, but are worth considering:
1. Educating people on the functioning of city government and making clear what’s done for them by city hall and what’s done by the borough. People are amazingly vague on the domains of operation of the levels of government and, I think, often don’t realize that the quality of life in their surroundings is largely a municipal realm, so if you want a say in how things look and feel in your neighbourhood, go vote in the next municipal election.
2. Find some way to allow permanent residents to vote. I don’t know how deep this would have to go in changing Canadian or Quebec law, but there must be some way to do it. Or even, to get around that, have an election in which permanent residents could choose a parallel council that would have some participation in city hall decisions! If this worked right, I bet actual citizens would take more interest, but I don’t have any idea whether it’s workable.
Kevin 08:35 on 2022-09-01 Permalink
Seems like a perfect candidate for the ankle monitors being used for those charged with domestic violence.