EDITORIAL – Why comparing vote totals for mayor vs. councillors doesn’t work

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THERE HAVE BEEN suggestions in recent days that the number of votes received by candidates for councillor are somehow comparable to those received by candidates for mayor.

Such references seem to contend that those who win councillor seats have a bigger mandate than the mayor in civic elections. An ArmchairMayor reader has correctly pointed out the fallacy of this assumption.

If candidates for the council were eligible to receive only one vote from each elector, the comparison would have relevance, but that’s not the case. I’ve been trying to explain this to people for many years.

I recall a City councillor in years past who liked to point out he received as many votes as the mayor. Each time he brought this up, I’d point out his mistake but he preferred to view it his way.

In Kamloops, there are eight City councillors and one mayor. Each voter can mark their ballot for up to eight councillors. Some people pick only a few; others check off the full number of eight. That means that a successful candidate may well be the second, third or even eighth choice of an individual voter. Whether or not a candidate wins election depends a great deal on who else each voter picks from the list.

This in no way demeans the success of a candidate; it’s simply the way the system works. If a ranked-vote system were in place, in which voters numbered their choices in order of preference, it would be possible to calculate with some degree of accuracy just how popular the candidate was.

On the other hand, mayoral candidates can receive only one vote, or none, from each elector because there’s only one mayor. One could argue in favour of a ranked system for mayors as well but, either way, it’s impossible to properly compare the popularity of mayors versus councillors in civic elections. Unless, I suppose, there were at least eight candidates for mayor as well.

The current system works just fine. But each time Kamloops voters go to the polls, they actually take part in two separate elections — one for mayor and one for councillors. Trying to compare the outcomes is a wasted exercise.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.