When the next province-wide municipal elections take place in October, Kings County voters could be deciding on more than who their councillors are.
Discussion took place recently at county council about whether or not to ask voters if they would prefer electing a mayor or would rather stick with the current system of having elected councillors choose a warden from within their ranks. As pointed out by chief administrative officer Bob Ashley, each system has its pros and cons and there is no right or wrong.
Council tabled a motion on holding a plebiscite on the mayor versus warden matter as part of the 2012 municipal elections, pending further research by staff on the two systems and any other questions council may deem appropriate for a plebiscite.
There was concern expressed by councillors members of the public could not be expected to make such a decision without information. However, the problem might be addressed by a staff recommendation for open public debate on the pros and cons of moving to a mayoral system, but moving forward only if the majority of councillors want to learn the public’s opinion on the matter.
We think Kings County voters are more than capable of deciding whether or not they want a mayor or a warden. With examples of both systems in the province to look at, what’s so difficult to understand?
While it is within council’s mandate to make the decision on behalf of its constituents, shouldn’t the voters handle this? After all, it’s their government.
Kings CAO said, given the time and resources needed and if public input warrants, council should target the 2016 municipal election as the year to make a realistic transition to the mayor system. If 2016 is the target year to make the change all preparations should be made by 2014 to prepare the voting public and the incumbent council. There is also a provincially mandated electoral boundary review set for 2014.
The province’s Municipal Government Act specifies, once a municipality decides to switch to electing a mayor at large, it cannot go back to having councillors elect a warden from within their own ranks. This might be one reason for trepidation on council about rushing into a change.
We believe the questions should be posed to voters during the 2012 municipal election in Kings County. Some view giving voters the power to make decisions to be the purest form of democracy. Although we can’t always govern by plebiscite, it seems appropriate in this instance.
Ask the public about the mayor versus warden matter and any other pertinent questions.
While going the US route of combining seemingly endless questions on one ballot is far from desirable, combining plebiscites with regular elections is the way to go.
Adding the matter to the 2012 vote makes sense, financially and democratically. Remember the boost to voter turnout across Nova Scotia in 2004 when the province added a plebiscite question on Sunday shopping to the municipal ballots? Voters said ‘no’ in the supposedly binding vote, until Premier Rodney MacDonald came to power and unilaterally decided to do the opposite. But that’s another editorial for another day.
