Laying It Out: Even in democracy, you gotta be lucky to be good

By Scott Schmidt on October 16, 2021.

Heading into Monday’s hotly contested municipal elections around Alberta, a couple things are essentially certain – a whole lot of turnover will occur, and a relatively few number of Albertans will decide most of it.

Voter turnout at all levels is suspect at best, but at the municipal level it can get downright sad. It varies some from place to place, but wherever you look the numbers are abysmal.

In 2017, only 31.5% showed up in Edmonton, with Red Deer (30%), Lethbridge (27%) and Grande Prairie (22%) all coming in behind. Even Calgary’s 58.1% was an anomaly as its largest turnout in four decades.

Medicine’s Hat’s 35% last election looks half decent in comparison, but with 14,184 total votes placed for mayor and 6,083 X’s enough to elect the eighth councillor, a lot of Hatters ended up living with a result they had no part in making.

This is setting up as a plea to vote on Monday, but rest assured it is not. For one, if you’re reading the newspaper, you’re likely among the third who will vote regardless of what I suggest. But to be perfectly honest, I think the whole “Exercise your civic duty!” push is overplayed, and in this election, it’s almost assuredly counterproductive.

With mayoral races, council races and trustee races mixed in with referendums that matter, referendums that don’t and a trio of Senate suggestions no one will appoint – unless, of course, the CPC forms government some day and then does – those who haven’t already started to inform themselves should feel free to sit this one out.

I just think it’s worth mentioning that in 2021 Alberta, we have enough apathy and/or disenfranchisement that most people won’t be involved on Monday when crucial decisions are being made. Those who don’t care might go another four years without being forced to start, but the ones falling through cracks assuredly won’t be so lucky. Because while millions of Albertans experiencing change next week is a guarantee, the direction that change is headed is not.

Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge, at minimum, will all have new mayors after incumbents chose not to run. Here in Medicine Hat, even if incumbent mayor Ted Clugston returns, at least half his current council won’t.

Recent history has hopefully taught us that who we select to lead is kind of important, whether it be for emergency management purposes or otherwise, so we know the votes we place on Monday hold a lot of weight. That’s why it’s more than a little nerve-wracking when you see not only the number of choices we have to make, but also the number of options to choose from.

Calgary has 27 candidates running for mayor this year, versus 10 on the ballot in 2017, and the views of these candidates stretch from one end of the spectrum to completely off it. When I spoke recently to a media friend they told me, “At least 10 of these people are actually insane.”

Even the front runners (Jeromy Farkas and Jyoti Gondek) couldn’t possibly have more differing plans for that city’s future.

Medicine Hat, which has no ward system in place, will pick eight councillors from a list of 31. Profiles on each have come across my desk, I’ve read an entire election preview guide where they answered the same questions, and if you asked me on the street why I’m picking any one over the other, I don’t know if I could answer without having it all right in front of me.

And that’s not even to mention the umpteen choices we have for school trustees, which in Medicine Hat, might not matter to everyone until they find out at least one candidate thinks vaccines are satanic and are literally made using baby parts.

The point is, a lot is riding on Monday’s decisions, and even those of us who plan to vote are likely hampered by the tall task of understanding who we’re voting for.

And then there are the side bets. Should we stop changing the clocks, or pretend we have a say on equalization, or who should we elect to a Senate where no one is elected? Calgarians have to decide if they should keep saving a million bucks or so at the expense of 1.6 million people’s teeth, but even if they say no, whomever’s in council doesn’t actually have to listen.

Even the Daylight Saving Time choice, which nearly everyone has an immovable opinion on, could have a much larger effect than we think. Until recently, I thought it was a matter of our ability to change sleep patterns twice a year. Apparently though, on one side is the “doing so increases your chance of heart attack and motor vehicle collisions,” and on the other is the, “permanent DST throws us out of the ideal time zone and will affect our psychology.”

I don’t properly understand any of it, and I’m guessing I’m not alone.

Some of the issues our newly elected officials will face are well known to Albertans, while others will no doubt blindside us all along the way. I’m not sure how comforting it is to know the entire process for picking them is boiling down to a crapshoot.

The concept of choosing leaders is wonderful, and it’s a process we need to take seriously. But when it’s easier to get on the ballot than understand the plans of those who do, it can potentiality have costly results.

Hopefully the three out of 10 Albertans who show up Monday will have done their homework, but even if they’ve consumed all they can, a lot of this is just a roll of the dice. On the bright side, maybe we’ll get lucky.