The turnout for this year’s Langley elections was dismally low.
In the Township, 30.4 per cent of eligible voters managed to make it to the polls.
Langley City only managed 25.2 per cent.
Considering the issues that were at play in this election, those numbers simply aren’t acceptable.
There was no shortage of issues at play this year. In an ordinary year, our local governments deal with millions of dollars worth of public work projects. They build and repair our roads, sidewalks, and water and sewer pipes. They plow the snow and salt the roads in the winter. They hold the purse strings for adding more RCMP officers and firefighters.
And of course, they have to determine how to pay for those projects, which affects local taxes on homes and business properties.
Ask anyone about the issues big and small that they care about, and whether it’s potholes or public safety, one of those will come up.
Yet people can’t be bothered to spend an hour or two out of a month-long election campaign learning about a few of the candidates? They can’t take themselves down to a poll – including one of the numerous early polling opportunities provided – to spend 10 minutes marking a ballot?
Voting need not be mandatory – not voting by choice can be a political act, too. But most of those who skipped the polls simply didn’t care.
Those who did vote: when your neighbours, co-workers, or friends complain about parks, or snowplowing, or taxes, ask them if they cast a ballot in 2018.
– M.C.
