King Township 2018 election: Canadian election 101 lesson for reporter

How I covered a municipal election for the first time in Canada

YorkRegion.com
January 2, 2019
Sheila Wang

It's safe to say I was thrown into the deep end shortly after I joined Metroland Media York Region this past July.

As a newcomer to Canada there wasn’t time for my excitement about the new environment to settle down before I realized I was to cover the municipal election of
King Township in October.

It was going to be the first election I ever covered in Canada, less than three months after I immigrated to this country.

“You’ll learn. You’ll be fine,” senior reporters told me.

Before I knew it, I was already sitting in the front row at the first all-candidate meeting of King Township at Nobleton Lakes Golf Club.

While holding an audio recorder in one hand, I tried to write down almost everything I heard on a worn notebook that I used for reporting in Utah.

I had a strong feeling of nervous excitement, so seeing something old gave me comfort.

I may have never attended any candidate debate in person, but I have seen many on television--they can be very dramatic and chaotic.

However, what I saw was quite the contrary. The 14 candidates who were vying for six council seats responded to every question raised in a respectful manner.

It's not like there isn't thorny issues in King Township, there were extensive discussions on topics such as King City overpass and parking.

I think they might have just shown us an alternative way to communicate different political views.

For me, that was two hours well spent, learning about the critical issues facing King Township, and the stances that each candidate took.

The next day, I couldn’t wait to start writing the article so that King residents were able to make informed decisions in the upcoming election on Oct. 22.

To my disappointment, the online version of the story garnered merely 47 page views on the day it was published, and little more than 300 page views before election day.

“They just don't care about municipal elections,” I was later told.

And of course, an uneventful all-candidate meeting would make it even less appealing to voters.

Then there came another shock: the voter turnout.

On Nov. 1, I published an article which looked at the low voter turnout rate in King's municipal election.

Statistics show less than one third of the electorate--30.86 per cent--cast their ballots to elect the representatives of the township, the lowest since 2006.

It was mind-bogglingly low.

“The 30 per cent range is on average,” King Township clerk Kathryn Moyle told me in an interview.

She said it was a reasonable turnout, given that there was no mayoral race.

Canadians in general are more engaged in federal and provincial elections than at the municipal level, Moyle said.

A summer survey by Nano Research found that one-third of Ontarians were not aware of the looming municipal election and most people who don’t vote say they don’t care about politics or don’t know enough.

I was born and raised in China where there is no universal suffrage. Many Chinese--including myself--have never been able to participate in civil politics.

If I had the opportunity to take part in municipal elections, no excuses would be good enough to keep me away from going to the polls.

“This is democracy in action. Choice is such an important thing,” president of the King Chamber of Commerce said at the beginning of the first all-candidate meeting I attended.

That statement still strikes a chord with me, and I hope it will ring true for more people.