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Resources for People Voting

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Paul Nijjar edited this page Jul 25, 2018 · 8 revisions

Websites

FAQ

What is this election, anyways? I thought we just had an election!

Ontario held a provincial election on June 7, 2018. Every four years municipalities in Ontario run their own set of elections. This year the municipal election is scheduled for October 22, 2018.

Can I vote?

You may vote if you are a Canadian citizen who resides in Waterloo Region or owns property here. You must also be on the voter's list: see https://voterlookup.ca to see whether you are registered.

There are some exceptions to this rule; for details see the Region of Waterloo pages here: https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/regional-government/elections.aspx

Why should I bother to vote?

  • Student housing bylaw
  • Transit and roads
  • Garbage and recycling
  • Low voter turnout means your vote counts more
  • Property tax increases, stormwater rate increases
  • Weird NIMBYish policies (RIENS, PARTS)

Politicans pay attention to demographics that vote.

I am a student. Can I vote? If so do I vote at home or at school?

If you are eligible to vote and your home ward is different from your residence at college or university, then you may be eligible to vote in both places! [LINK TO ELECTIONS WEBSITE]

Where do I vote?

[LOOKUP ON voterlookup.ca?? ONLY ON YOUR VOTER CARD?]

Wow. There are so many things to vote for. What are they all?

Generally you will be able to cast votes for the following levels of government:

  • Regional government (regional chair for everyone + regional councillors for those in Kitchener, Cambridge or Waterloo)
  • Your city or township government (a mayor + a ward representative)
  • Your local school board (one or more representatives depending on your location and school board)

All of these positions are up for re-election each four year term.

How is our municipal government organized?

Our regional government is called "The Region of Waterloo". It is led by a regional council consisting of a regional chair, mayors of the cities and townships, and some regional councillors. In addition to their mayors, the cities elect additional members to regional council: Kitchener gets four, and Waterloo and Cambridge get two each.

If you live in a township, you may cast a vote for the regional chair. If you live in Waterloo, Kitchener, or Cambridge, you may cast a vote for the regional chair and votes for your city's contributions to regional council up to the number of seats available. For example, in Waterloo you may cast a vote for regional chair and up to two votes for people running for regional council in Waterloo.

City and township governments consist of a mayor and ward councillors. You may cast a vote for your mayor and for your ward councillor.

There are four different school boards in the Region of Waterloo, and each school board is further subdivided up into geographic areas. By default you will vote for trustees in the English-language public school board, unless you make other arrangements [HOW?]. The other possibilities are: the English-language separate school board (for Roman Catholics), the French-language public school board, and the French-language separate school board.

Once your school board and geographic area is determined, you may vote for the number of trustee seats available in that geographic area. For example, if you are voting for the English-language public school board and your geographic area is electing three trustees, then you may cast up to three votes.

[THIS IS A WORDY WALL OF TEXT. SPLIT IT UP.]

What do the different levels of government do?

Do I have to vote for everything?

No. You may vote in as many races as you feel comfortable.

What is the difference between municipal and city governments?

I don't know much about the candidates. What do I do?

There are a lot of positions to vote for in municipal elections, and candidates typically run as individuals (as opposed to being members of political parties). There are a lot of candidates to sort through! Here are some guidelines for becoming informed relatively quickly:

  • Attend all-candidates meetings for the races, or watch/listen to recordings of all-candidates meetings. This will cost you 2-4 hours per meeting, but is an effective way of comparing candidates against each other.

  • Visit candidate websites and/or social media presences. This can give you a sense of what candidates stand for and whether their views correspond to yours, but is not great for comparing candidates.

  • Read the answers to surveys posted by special interest groups. Reading responses from different (especially opposed) groups is a good way to assess how candidates respond differently to different audiences.

  • Read news coverage of candidates. Beware that some news coverage on social media feeds are written by advocates for political candidates.

There are also less effective strategies, such as voting for whatever candidate comes to your house and shakes your hand. Politicians know this strategy is effective, and they devote a lot of time to this, but other than identifying candidates who put time into door-knocking it does not give you much information about which candidates are best for their jobs.

I don't know much about the issues? What do I do?

I don't feel informed enough to vote. What do I do?

If you are stretched for time, you can follow one or two races and cast informed votes for those. The regional level of government is important, and many people do not pay sufficient attention to regional council candidates. Other influential positions are mayors and regional chair.

Spending an hour watching or listening to one all-candidates meeting can help you select the best candidates quickly.

Alternatively, you can follow one or two races by reading the campaign literature (in printed form or on the Internet) from the contenders, and choosing the candidates that match your views most closely.

[CAN YOU DECLINE YOUR BALLOT??]

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