Editor: With municipal election turnouts running at around 30 per cent in B.C., it鈥檚 time to acknowledge some obvious truths 鈥� truths that are literally staring us in the face. I鈥檓 referring to the ocean of election signs that litter our streets, and soon will litter our landfills. Candidates use these election signs to 鈥済et their name out there,鈥� not realizing that these signs do most of them no good at all.
Many people don鈥檛 vote in local elections because all they know about the horde of candidates is the names they鈥檝e seen on their signs 鈥� with little or nothing about the person. Many see the waving ocean of signs, and all those meaningless names, and just give up.
One candidate seems to acknowledge reality. On Nov. 8 you published a story about Petrina Arnason, a candidate for Township council, saying she has heard complaints about visual clutter, but hasn鈥檛 heard anyone question the ecological impact of all that plastic waste.
You reported that she is taking a stand by not putting up any election signs at all. Good for her. But that begs a question. How are we, the electorally illiterate electorate, supposed to know who to vote for if we aren鈥檛 given a sign?
A little sidebar below the Arnason story provides an answer. With no headline, the story states: 鈥淧otential voters鈥an check out candidate videos on The Times鈥� website, www.langleytimes.com.鈥� And you note that fully 52 of the 58 candidates running for office in the City and Township have videos on your site. Excellent.
But that begs another question: Why not make it front page news 鈥� in every edition 鈥� that you are making these videos available? Then our candidates would know that their stories 鈥� not just their names 鈥� will be seen and heard by huge numbers of voters.
Voters would know that we have the opportunity to learn those stories through your website. I know you publish a pull out section (鈥�91原创 votes鈥�) that gives candidates an opportunity to respond to your questions, but if your website was heavily publicized, and perhaps gave visitors an opportunity to ask questions of candidates, I think it could double the turnout at our next municipal election.
It would also sharply reducing the flow of plastic into our landfills.
Neil Godin,
91原创
Editor鈥檚 note 鈥� We have frequently mentioned the videos in the pages of The Times, and we thank the letter writer for doing so again. They will remain online until Friday.
