The Editor,
Congratulations to the local press, but perhaps not the candidates, for better pre-election coverage of their policies and profiles.
I believe that this was the major driver of the increased voter participation that we saw at this week’s elections.
The candidate profiles were published late (in my opinion) and should have been published earlier and then repeated, but they did give us the basis for making some form of decision.
That said, the notifications of the candidate question times were woefully inadequate and frankly there simply were not enough of them.
I put the blame for that on the candidates who, regardless of whether or not they could arrange an “all candidate session,” should have been hosting and promoting many more local consultations and increasing their profiles.
You will note that the people elected are the incumbents — who in my opinion, with one or two exceptions, do a fantastic job — and the highest profile names on the ballot.
Carol Day has received significant publicity for her work on the No. 5 Road development and Alexa Loo, is our local Olympian.
If change is really desired by these other candidates, they need to get out and about between now and the next election and not rely on a badly-written profile with hopelessly generic target areas.
This uptick in voter numbers is great news for our city and will only be sustained with more voter engagement.
The bad news for the candidates is that the number of voters that they need to reach has now risen significantly.
It’s time to get into the 21st century with how they do that.
Rupert Whiting
Richmond
