Getting used to new rules

Earlier election date should draw more voters

We all agree four-year terms in municipal politics are a bad thing. Even Penticton MLA Dan Ashton believes many people are not running for office because of the extra year of commitment.

This is the second election cycle where municipal politicians are signed up for four years.

But, this year, there are a lot of new things that we’ll have to get used to.

The big one is the date of the election. It’s nearly a month earlier — Oct. 20, instead of the traditional week after Remembrance Day.

The reason, we’re told, is because more voters are around. Even with advance polls, many snowbirds have already headed south.

Traditionally, candidates began making announcements right after Labour Day because nobody cares about an election in August. The old way made for a longer campaign period.

Strategic candidates got out of the gate early this time because what we experienced was an avalanche of candidate announcements all in a five- day period leading up to the day nominations closed.

Candidates who got an early start (Marjorie Brims in Peachland, Loyal Wooldridge in Kelowna, Lynn Kelsey in Penticton) ended up getting more publicity because they got to the game early.

Another significant change is spending limits. There are many rules which include no corporate donations and individual contributions not exceeding $1,200.

These are all good, but what’s also new is a candidate may not put in more than $2,400 of his or her own money.

This discriminates against a mayoral or council candidate who doesn’t want to be beholden to anyone by financing their campaign themselves.

Apparently, there are ways around the rules (what if somebody has a large, extended family?), but he/she who’s sneaky might win.

The big thing is the shorter campaign period. Unofficially, election season in 2014 began on Sept. 2 and ended Nov. 15. This time frame favours incumbents because new people will have less time to get their message out.

A shorter time period could result in a greater attention span by the voters.

Whether all of these changes are good remains to be seen. They’re certainly different. —James Miller

Valley Editor