LETTER – Wards would engage the public, allow for much more debate

I was delighted to read your article about the ward system this morning (Oct. 13, 2026), mostly because you mentioned my name but also because this ward thing sounds super cool (this is me pandering to Gen-X); some might even call it awesome (pandering to millennials); it clearly slays all other systems (Gen Z).

Okay, I jest, but it’s long past its time we started using the ward system in B.C. I see no reason that B.C. should remain the last province not to use wards in municipal politics.  Only Lake Country, which isn’t a city (four unincorporated communities which merged into 1 district municipality in 1995) use wards, but that’s it.  Many areas use hybrids where wards and at large are combined as Lake Country does (four ward councillors and two at-large councillors).

Prince Albert, Sask. is the same size as Penticton and they use wards.  Brandon, Man. is the size of Vernon and they use wards.  Campbellton, NB is the size of Merritt and they use wards.  Every community in Nova Scotia uses wards, so please can we do away with the only big cities use wards nonsense?

We wouldn’t need more councillors, hell we have too many as it is.  Surrey has nearly seven times our population and they have eight councillors, equal to what we have.  Burnaby is nearly 3x our size and they have eight also, as does Richmond which is 2.5x our population.  Delta, Chilliwack and Maple Ridge all have about the same population as we do and they all function well with six councillors.  Eight is just an arbitrary number; it’s not set in stone.

The reason I’m pushing for wards is because they engage the populace to a far greater extent, they allow for much greater debate and they take big money out of the equation to a large extent.  Combined they form a better informed and more active electorate.

Firstly, it’s just easier for the elector; by selecting one of usually three or four candidates to choose from makes it a much easier process than selecting up to eight from a pool of 25 plus.  This allows the electors to engage more vigorously in what each candidates platform states and who each candidate really is.

Secondly each ward could have their own rigorous debates, the candidates could go back and forth on topics which would show their true colours.  A two hour debate would allow for 30 plus minutes for each candidate to speak.  With our forums we’re lucky if we get five minutes and there is no back and forth.

For example, just over a week ago at the McDonald Park community forum each candidate was given two questions to respond to.  Each answer was limited to a one-minute response time (this was in addition to opening and closing remarks making four minutes in total).  I began addressing the question and then turned to O’Reilly, pointed to him and ripped into him for placing these grossly over budgeted ice rinks just a mile down the road from his industrial property.

I’ve not heard one person in town claim to like this location.  This is a topic that needs to be spoken about and no one more than O’Reilly needs to provide an explanation as to why the costs keep going up and the number of ice surfaces keeps going down.  Yet under this format he was allowed to hide from answering, he couldn’t have done that if there was only 2-3-4 other candidates.

Further to my point, my next question quickly followed regarding street safety.  My standard answer is that we need more police, is this not painfully obvious?  This should be a city priority but this council continues to sweep it under the rug, ‘next year, we’ll hire more next year’.  Again half way thru I turned to O’Reilly and ripped into him and his council for actively engaging in closing “The Loop”.  Yes it was a controversial day space but it was improving each year and day spaces have proven time and time again to reduce drug use, save money by reducing the need for costly first responder intervention and reduce petty crimes.  Day spaces are the most cost effective way to lower crime which I’d think would be a goal of the city since we ranked in the top three crime-ridden cities in the country for each of  the past four years and we’ve just again delayed hiring more police officers.

Soon O’Reilly got to respond to his question and his opening remarks were, ‘Closing the Loop was the proudest accomplishment of his last four years on council’.  The room went silent.  He was clearly flustered.

O’Reilly’s answer required a response, but none was given.  In a ward system with 2-3-4 others on stage they would have hammered him on this and the audience would have gotten a clear indication of who these candidates were, what they stood for and how they react under pressure.  There would have been no place for O’Reilly to hide.  This opportunity was lost.

Thirdly, wards reduce big money influence.  Sure the developers could pick their candidate and spend lavishly but ultimately the candidate has to perform on stage.  They would have to stand alone and think on their feet whilst their peers judged them.  When the spotlight is on, there’s no place to run.  But with one-minute answers and 30 minutes before your next there’s a literal maze to get lost in.

We don’t even have debates, today we have forums where candidates are served prepared questions days beforehand and candidates read from prepared scripts.  And with each forum most candidates just rehash the same script.  I’ve been to eigh of them and I don’t think too much has been accomplished aside from the Castanet/Chamber of Commerce forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTEZQJD9C1Y .   Again, in a ward system the number of voters is compressed but so is the number of candidates, the volume rises and the spotlight gets hot for the witless in these debates.  The true mettle of the person begins to show.

Maybe it’s only coincidental that we, as the only province without ward voting also have the lowest municipal voter turnout at just 31 percent over the past five municipal election cycles.  The Community Charter allows each municipality to be self determinative of wards.  Maybe it’s time we investigated how and why other similar sized communities have gone this route rather than continually deferring it like we have with the police.

MAC GORDON