Civics 101 or 201
Time to have your say on electoral districts, leadership system
It’s time we all get our citizens’ pants on and pay attention to what’s going on in the world of elections and our civic duties. I do mean duties with an s.
Here in Annapolis County, we have both municipal and federal stuff going on. Let’s start with the local participatory democratic involvement and responsibility.
Sorry, it’s going to be one of those lectures. I’m not going into all the details because you should be able to find those if you look around.
Go to those meetings that were advertised in the flyer from the county that came in your mailbox. If you threw it out, call your councillor to see where the meetings are. It doesn’t matter which one or even two that you pick.
Here we go – warden versus mayor – that is one question to be talked about at these meetings. Here are the differences between the two kinds of governance. Not much. But there is a big difference in how the two positions are chosen.
Every four years, we have municipal elections. Once the councillors are elected, they meet and chose who they want as warden and deputy warden. In our county, those terms are for two years. Then the councillors can vote again on who will be warden and deputy warden for the final two years.
In the case of a mayoral system, the electors (us) vote for the councillor candidate of our choice in our district and we also vote for a mayor.
The winner of that contest becomes mayor for the four years, unless something egregious happens and that person gets turfed. But let’s not go there. As I understand it, the deputy mayor is chosen from the councillors. If council decides this is the way they want to go, they will have to go to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.
The big difference is we get to pick the mayor, as opposed to councillors picking the warden.
The next subject to be discussed is how many districts (councillors) should Annapolis County have – 11 (what we have now), 9 or 7?
These meetings will also ask you about land use bylaws. The folks will ask about zoning and so on. Read up on it so you can present your views clearly.
And now we get to the federal government stuff. Every 10 years there is an opportunity to redraw the country’s riding map. There will be much backing and froing and gnashing of teeth over this because it involves the big gun politics. There will probably be something in your mailbox on this but here’s the bottom line for us – giving a chunk of Kings County over to the new Kings-Hants riding to the east; and adding Shelburne to the west end of West Nova and renaming it Acadian ShoreShelburne. Poof, there goes Annapolis and Digby counties.
There are three in-person meetings in Kentville, Bridgewater and Yarmouth and a virtual meeting on May 23. This national process is expected to be finished by September 2023 and proclaimed on April 1, 2024. Although this is a long business, I figure it’s best to get your say in early. Check out www. redistribution2022.ca for the details. There was also a good article in last week’s Annapolis Valley Register.
In my opinion, I would prefer the mayoral system. I would like to elect the leader of our county. We can probably do with fewer districts. And with regard to the proposed change to the federal riding of West Nova, I’m not thrilled. There is mention of “communities of interest or identity, and historic and geographic factors.” To go from this side of Berwick around to Shelburne County doesn’t feel like the proposers took those factors into consideration.
Those are my opinions. Please speak your own mind. You never know, they might just listen.