To the Editor:
In the 2014 (last) Thompson municipal election, six new city councillors were elected along with a new mayor. That’s a substantial change from the previous council, yet both these councils unfortunately are not that different. Change is needed. If for no other reason, this council needs to be held accountable for having “negotiated” what I believe is a bad grant-in-lieu (GIL) deal with Vale, and which appears will be passed “in principle.” The political “spin” never ceases. Aside from city-run operations, the impact of this GIL will likely also be felt in the operations of the School District of Mystery Lake. Parents of school-aged children and Manitoba Teachers’ Society should follow this likely impact stemming from the city “negotiated” grant-in-lieu. It is clear to me change is needed before more harm is done; the kind of change needed more than ever before, when Tim Johnston successfully ran for mayor in 2006 using the same call for “change.”
With respect to the last municipal election when Mayor Dennis Fenske was elected, something is wrong, at least to me, when a school board trustee received more votes than a mayor-elect. Voter turnout in this election was 33.14 per cent. That was lower than the 2010 municipal election when 39.79 per cent of people voted, and 40 per cent during the 2006 municipal election. I’m worried that this trend will continue and result in an even lower voter turnout. A new mayor will serve having very little support as defined by the vote count, and so will things deteriorate further?
In contrast, nearly 64 per cent of voters in our federal riding voted in the last federal election when Niki Ashton won – a 48 per cent increase over the previous election. The overall voter participation rate for Manitoba in the last federal election was 68.8 per cent, very close to the Canadian national average. Political commentators suggest that the 48 per cent increase in voter turnout was due to a concerted effort to encourage Aboriginal people to vote, and this stands to reason to me.
Academic research shows that members of minority groups tend not to vote as frequently as do members belonging to the majority group. Those who are more active in politics tend to be white, and most likely to run in an election, and/or to vote (I believe Thompson has never had a non-white mayor or MLA). Thompson’s demographics will change with the downsizing of Vale. Already a strong portion of Thompson’s population is composed of non-Canadian born persons (newcomers), along with a large and growing portion of Aboriginal people. In Thompson’s case, the minority groups to whom I refer are these two groups, and they alone could change city council’s own demographic composition. So with only 30 per cent voter turnout for the last municipal election, I am calling upon the other 70 per cent of eligible voters among these two groups, along with all others who did not vote, to vote.
So, get ready vote! To be able to vote, you must be a Canadian citizen and at least 18 years old on or before Oct. 22, 2018, and have been a resident of Thompson for at least the six months before Oct. 22. Non-resident owners of property in the city are also able to vote. Persons who do not have a permanent address in Thompson may be able to vote by presenting oneself to an election official. Further, you do not have to be on a voters list to vote. You may be asked to provide proof of identity in the form of an official document issued by a federal, provincial or municipal government that contains the person’s name, address and photograph, or at least two other documents that provide evidence of the person’s identity. It may be that some persons don’t have the necessary identification to prove identity, and it will take time to obtain this.
Now voting is one thing – running for election to be the next mayor or councillor is equally, if not more, important if we want change. We should have representation from newcomers and Aboriginal people on council (better than what little representation Thompson council has had in the past from each of these two groups) if we want change (in theory). I wish to write a separate article about this in the near future that I hope the Thompson Citizen will consider publishing.
With an end to refining and smelting later this year, perhaps now is the time for the Province of Manitoba to meaningfully encourage Vale Canada to responsibly develop and implement a long-term plan to remediate and/or reclaim the tailings.
Mark Matiasek
Thompson
