King Township to consider municipal election donor rebate program

YorkRegion.com
Nov. 29, 2016
Tim Kelly

What price democracy?

King Township councillors will try to find out.

At their Monday council meeting, councillors discussed changes on tap for the 2018 municipal election. They decided they won't change the first past-the-post election system despite having the choice of going to ranked-ballot voting.

Coun. Debbie Schaefer said she would like to see other councils try ranked-ballot voting, in which voters get to rate their candidates on a first-second-third preference. The winning candidate must get at least 50 per cent plus one to win the seat. In first-past-the-post, the winner can win with well under 50 per cent; the only thing that counts is finishing ahead of all competitors; in some multi-candidate races, some winners have topped the polls with as little as 33 per cent of the votes.

"That (ranked ballots) is certainly not something I want my colleagues to do. I really hope a couple of municipalities take that up in 2018 so we have the opportunity to learn from that ... so we can easily adapt it if we so choose," Schaefer said.

But Schaefer said following the money would make the system better. She wants to bring in a rebate system for those who donate to municipal elections. It would mirror what exists for provincial and federal elections where donors receive tax rebates for their political donations.

"I believe this is a way to increase citizen engagement and get them involved with the election campaign, because if we could have more people making donations to the candidates running, people tend to follow where they put their money," Schaefer said.

Schaefer estimated such a rebate program, if it provided a one-third rebate to contributors, would cost the municipality about $20,000 annually.

"I don't consider this to be onerous. I see the benefits," she said.

Coun. Bill Cober did not agree.

"Based on the telephone call I got this morning on a sidewalk issue, I would find it very difficult to direct very, very critical taxpayer money away from that sidewalk to the election process," said Cober.

As a compromise, council will review a previous report on the rebate program before making a final decision on whether to install a program in King for the 2018 election.