The Editor,
Re: "Richmond slips to bottom of turnout table," News, May 17.
Ratna Omidvar's column in the May 20th issue of the Globe & Mail ("Temporary immigrants, temporary loyalties") provides a clue as to one of the reasons why Richmond's voter turnout in the provincial election was the lowest in B.C.
When a significant portion of a community's population commits to only part time residency and a limited or minimal engagement in the life of that community, it's no surprise they might have little or no interest in its political process.
As Omidvar points out: "Impermanence comes at a cost ... and by focusing on the temporary we create transience.
"This discourages temporary residents from integrating into (these) communities and forming an attachment to Canada. In fact it encourages the temporary to maintain and develop their loyalties elsewhere."
For those who believe it is improper to focus on such things, it should be noted that this is a culture-related and not a race-related issue.
It has existed through much of human history, occurs in many parts of the world, has involved human traffic moving between almost every culture on the face of the Earth, and has always precipitated many more negative than positive outcomes.
There are several factors that contributed to Richmond's abysmal voter turnout, but we should recognize that as long as we maintain a high percentage of part-time citizens and residents, those turnout numbers will not change to any significant degree.
If this is, in fact, a valid indicator of the nature of the society we are entrenching in Richmond, perhaps we should be looking ahead to our next local election as an opportunity to find a new, motivated leadership that would be dedicated to finding a way to change the equation to a more positive one, rather than simply continuing to ignore its implications and effects, as is the case with our current government.
Ray Arnold Richmond
