Look, I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but I totally told you so in a recent column about how the Burnaby byelection will have a turnout so bad that it will be shameful to the entire city.
Not that this is some Nostradamus-level stuff because byelections are typically bad when it comes to voter turnout.
But what happened in Burnaby on Saturday was just so awful. According to the City of Burnaby website, 13,518 out of 161,751 registered voters turned out to vote on 14 candidates vying for two open spots on council.
Yep, that’s a turnout of just 8.36% - even below Richmond’s recent turnout of 10% in its byelection.
Richmond used mail-in ballots to help more people vote while Burnaby didn’t.
“Congratulations on creating a very inaccessible election and preventing democratic participation,” tweeted Joel Gibbs, a Green candidate in the last general civic election. “There are challenges of having an election during COVID, but Burnaby delayed 9+ months and still made it far more difficult to vote.”
I’m sure the scorching heat didn’t help things, but that’s just window dressing to a far bigger problem of civic voter apathy.
I’m always perplexed at how few people vote in civic elections when it is the most accessible level of government. Councils make so many decisions that impact our daily lives and yet so few people care. The only time people ever seem to care about council is when the city has a project that directly impacts their backyard.
General elections usually draw 25-30% voter turnout, which is a terrible number considering it only takes up a few minutes off your time every few years.
Two spots were open on council and only 8% managed to drag their asses to a nearby voting station.
I did receive a few messages during the campaign with the usual excuses about how all candidates are same so why bother and blah, blah, blah.
That’s just not true.
There was a diverse set of candidates for people to choose from, offering voters a chance to add badly-needed diversity on a council that has been too old, too male and too white for too long.
Burnaby Citizens Association candidate Alison Gu dominated the Burnaby byelection with 4,994 votes, with independent Mike Hillman taking the second seat up for grabs with 3,227.
Gu becomes just the second woman on Burnaby council, joining Colleen Jordan. No offence to Hillman but the last thing this council needed was another old white dude (I can say that because I’m an old white dude myself.)
Baljinder Narang, a former Burnaby school trustee, finished in third with 3,103 votes while ex-city councillor Lee Rankin finished fourth with 3,061. Green candidate Mehreen Chaudry finished in fifth spot with 2,212 votes.
You can find the full results for all 14 candidates here.
The byelections were made necessary after two city councillors – Nick Volkow with the Burnaby Citizens Association and recent independent Paul McDonell – died within a few weeks of one another last summer.
The BCA currently has three members on council, James Wang, Sav Dhaliwal and Pietro Calendino. Two council members, Dan Johnston and Jordan, quit the party last year.
Gu is an environmental activist who spoke passionately about the subject in her interview with the NOW.
Here is what Hillman told the NOW in response to our questionnaire. He was a major part of Mayor Mike Hurley’s campaign team so the mayor gets another strong ally.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
