A vote for civic involvement: website details 200 candidates
Site will be continually updated to help encourage local vote
WATERLOO REGION — Some techies are taking on a job that may prove more difficult than creating the next billion-dollar startup — getting more people to vote in this fall’s municipal elections.
The group CivicTechWR built a website that is a one-stop shop for information about all the candidates running in this fall’s municipal elections across Waterloo Region. There is an interactive map on the site with the names and contact information for candidates, as well as the dates and locations of debates and meetings.
Kristina Taylor, a product manager at TextNow, started CivicTechWR and the website called Waterloo Region Votes is the group’s first big project.
“Municipal politics affects your life far more than any other level of government,” said Taylor.
But municipal elections are the most confusing. There are no political parties with clearly defined platforms and policies. There are no political parties that screen candidates. At the local level, elections are a free-for-all.
Making that even more confusing is this region’s two-tier government — local councils that look after parks, recreation, libraries, fire departments, local streets and
drinking water distribution, and a regional council that oversees police, ambulance, drinking water treatment, garbage collection, social services, public health and Grand River Transit.
There are more than 200 candidates seeking office in this fall’s municipal elections, and that means more than 200 different platforms. There are city and township councils, school boards and regional council.
“It is a lot harder to figure out who stands for what,” said Taylor.
Traditionally, about one-third of the eligible voters bother to cast ballots in municipal elections. During past elections it has sunk to 22 per cent of eligible voters in Kitchener. That is not unusual.
“It’s crazy,” said Taylor of the low turnout. “And it’s worse in Waterloo Region than anywhere else, and I don’t know why that is.”
CivicTechWR monitors social media feeds and candidates’ websites for information about debates and other public meetings.
This region’s largest technology association, Communitech, is also encouraging people to vote in the local elections. Last week it held a public workshop called Civics101 that was free and open to anyone. It was about municipal government, services and local elections.
“Communitech views it as highly important,” said Greg Barratt, the organization’s vice-president of strategic growth. “These are hot topics that people should very much care about.”
The Communitech workshop Civics101 was organized by Beisan Zubi, Communitech’s manager of community relations. It is her job to increase understanding between tech and non-tech communities. The 31-year-old has taken the message to heart, and is running as a candidate in Waterloo for regional council.
“At a certain point you have to walk-the-talk if you are trying get people involved and you are in the perfect kind of position to do it yourself,” said Zubi. “I think there is a lack of communication between tech and non-tech communities at times.”
The tech sector in this region is growing and influential. It employs more than 30,000 people. It generates an estimated $30 billion a year in products and services. The startup scene has blossomed since 2011 following the implosion of BlackBerry. Zubi is not the first person from that sector to run for municipal office.
Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky, who worked in government relations for BlackBerry, is finishing his first term and running for a second one. He recently sent out personalized video messages via email using technology from the high-profile Kitchener startup Vidyard.
Jaworsky first saw the technology during a tour of Vidyard’s offices on Queen Street in downtown Kitchener. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was visiting the startup at the time.
When the email is opened there is a picture in the middle of the screen showing Jaworksy holding a sign with the recipient’s name, and saying: “I need your input.” The two-minute video features Jaworksy talking about his first term highlights that include the opening of the Communitech data hub in the downtown, investing more money in the Accelerator Centre that incubates startups and attracting Shopify Plus to the city that’s hired hundreds of workers.
“My team was working on stuff and heard about this technology, and said: ‘Instead of doing a community newsletter, let’s go with video and this individualized video technology,’” said Jaworsky.
The video is highly effective, and many of the recipients watch it through to the end and share it with friends.
The technology was developed by a company in San Francisco before it was acquired by Vidyard. Michael Litt, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Vidyard, urges tech workers to vote in this fall’s municipal elections.
“At Vidyard our stakeholder list is customers, employees, community and then shareholders,” said Litt.
“Every time there is an election, federal, provincial or municipal, we jump on our internal chat platform and remind everyone to get out and vote, that their voice is important.”
Public transit within the region, supporting better train service to and from Toronto, helping startups cover the costs of renovating old buildings, and helping Communitech with expansions in both Kitchener and Waterloo are just some of the ways local governments are directly involved in the tech sector.
“Those things are important, and you can’t expect those to happen if you don’t go out and vote for the parties that support those ideas,” said Litt.