Meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses.
District of West Vancouver Mayor Michael Smith and District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton will both wear the chain of office for another four years after no one in either community stepped up to challenge them.
Perhaps everyone is just that satisfied with their mayors' work and no one feels the need to contest Smith or Walton. Perhaps they have detractors but no one felt they could beat them at the polls. Or maybe they're just the only two people who actually want the job of mayor, which would be a shame. A healthy election race is good for democracy as a whole and a mayoral race draws more people to the polling booth than a council race alone.
When Smith ran unopposed in 2011, only 23.7 per cent of eligible West Vancouver voters cast a ballot, falling from 32.5 per cent in 2008 when there were four mayoral contenders. Voter turnout in the two North Vancouvers in 2011 actually went up (although it was still abysmally low.)
This being the case, we have a challenge for our two acclaimed mayors: Get out and campaign, not for yourselves but for voter turnout in general. Knock on every door you would have if you were running for your political life, but instead of saying, "Vote for me on Nov. 15," you can just shorten your message to: "Vote on Nov. 15."
And come to all candidates meetings to take questions from your constituents as well.
That will be a 2014 campaign legacy you can be proud of when you are officially sworn in next month.
