I’m a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at UBC and the Vice President of Fair Vote Canada’s Vancouver Chapter.
The talk — BIL 2015 Vancouver
Cities across B.C. had an election last fall. In Vancouver, each voter was asked to select ten council candidates, seven park commissioners and nine school board trustees. To make a truly informed decision each voter would have to evaluate the platform and positions of 109 candidates. It’s unrealistic to expect engaged citizen participation when the burden is so heavy. I suggest that changing how we cast our ballots might increase voter turnout, improve representation, and allow voters to make more informed choices on election day.