Pros and cons of the ward system

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It may better represent the city, but some people find it confusing.  One political scientist says we should consider bringing back the ward system with the civic election one week away.

A ward system, essentially, has an elected representative from varying neighbourhoods around the city.

Langara College political scientist Peter Prontzos says it’s a little more democratic and things won’t be rushed through council because there are more voices to be heard and more issues brought to the table.

But he warns there are cons. 

“It may be a little more confusing in some ways and there may be occasional gridlock on city council, but I think that’s relatively minor.”

He says right now those who run for office are people with money who only represent wealthy neighbourhoods where something like public transit may not be issue. 

“Somebody from Kerrisdale would get in but not from the Downtown Eastside or somebody from the Commercial Drive area,” he says. “So you’d get a much more fair representation of what Vancouverites want.”

Addressing voter apathy tough – especially among youth

Prontzos has other ideas to about how to strengthen democracy, including the introduction of online voting.

He says it’s been tried in Markham, Ontario, and in Estonia, but the main concern stopping other places from trying it is hackers getting through the system and destroying elections.

“I would hope the technology that exists pretty much guarantees that’s not going to happen or catch it if it does happen, and obviously it might be prudent to wait until that technology is established,” he says.

He adds that parties that want to engage youth also need to make their platforms more exciting, by “coming up with policies that actually have more of an appeal to young people.

“Whether it’s environment, whether it’s the cutbacks in education, we need to have parties really address [those things] to get the excitement there,” he says.

The civic elections are on Nov. 19 and News1130 will have full coverage throughout the weekend.

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