John Kennair recently made several comments on improving democracy in St. Albert. Some of them, such as the need to get a better idea of which interest groups our politicians are consulting with, are quite commendable. Others, however, such as establishin
The only Alberta municipalities I know of that employ ward systems are Edmonton and Calgary. Both cities far outstrip St. Albert in population and size, and their councils are much larger — Edmonton has 12 councillors and Calgary has 14, and that's in addition to the mayors. Can a ward system honestly function in a much smaller city, with a smaller council? And for that matter, how will we draw the wards and divide up our city? Can we even agree on these types of divisions?
Mr. Kennair suggests that a ward system would make politicians more accountable, citing the Arlington Drive debate as an example. However, it could easily have the opposite effect. If the residents of Akinsdale only had one councillor accountable to them, that councillor could easily be out-voted by the rest of council, which would not be accountable to the people of Akinsdale and have less reason to care what they think. There has been considerable support for the Arlington project outside of Akinsdale; what if the rest of council members decide to pay more attention to their own constituents, who may be more in favour of it? In St. Albert, councillors can be and sometimes are out-voted, so where would the people of Akinsdale be if their councillor and the mayor are out-voted on the matter?
Potentially, a ward system could also have serious consequences for our electoral system. Presently, every voter gets the exact same number of votes and the same amount of choice — we all choose a mayor and six councillors. However, under a ward system each voter would only choose one councillor and the mayor. What happens if six candidates run in one ward, while only one runs in a second? The councillor elected in the first ward would only have the support of some of his constituents, depending on how many people vote for him, while the residents of the second ward would only be able to vote for the mayor, as their councillor would win by default. Given the high numbers of candidates we usually tend to get at election time, this means that some candidates automatically have an easier time of it than others, a complication we don't have to worry about right now.
The ward system works for Edmonton and Calgary because of how big they are. St. Albert is much too small to really need it, and it only runs the risk of making council less responsive and creating serious problems with our means of electing councillors. Mr. Kennair is absolutely right when he says that we need to put more effort into keeping our leaders accountable, but as the people of Akinsdale are showing, we don't need a ward system to do that.
Jared Milne, St. Albert
