Editor:
I was disappointed that the voter turn-out for our recent Surrey municipal election was less than 35 per cent of the eligible voters.
I suggest that part of the reason is the enormous number of candidates that the voter had to choose from. How can one reasonably expect the average person to understand who of the 56 councillors would best represent their opinion – and then select the top eight?
Which of the 20 persons wanting to be school trustees would best guide the education process – select the top six. Heck, there were even eight individuals wanting to be mayor – how to choose without splitting the vote, who would the right choice?
A daunting task for the best of us.
Yes, the mayoral candidates propose a slate of councillors as part of their team, that might help you decide, but is that the best way to get a good selection of people to represent the interests of the population? Does it allow for effective debate if the majority of the councillors on the mayor’s team vote in accordance with the mayor’s wishes? Experience says it does not.
One solution is to have our city divided into nine wards. Many large cities have the ward system. At least that way voters can better focus on understanding who will best represent their area.
They will have fewer people to research and after the election know who will represent their area, who on council to talk to.
Then have the nine elected persons select one of them to become the mayor, with the mayor changing half way through the term. OK, perhaps that is a little extreme, an alternative is to have a ward system, with 8 wards, and also vote for a mayor.
The School District 36 currently includes six elected trustees from Surrey and one from White Rock. I don’t like increasing number of elected persons we have to pay for, but if we went to the ward system then having eight elected trustees from Surrey plus one from White Rock to direct the $1B budget might not be inappropriate.
Something needs to change.
Terry Peel, Surrey