EDITORIAL – Do tiny towns really need their own mayors and councils?

 An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

DEMOCRACY can be seriously ridiculous at times.

I’ve already ranted about people who run in two elections at once. The mayor of Lumby, for example, was elected as an MLA a week after winning in the civic election. Now he must resign as mayor, and voters will have to go back to the polls to elect a replacement.

What if we banned people from running in two elections? Does that make too much sense?

Then there’s the dual candidacies of people who run both for school board and municipal councils in the same election. If they win both, they can serve on both, pulling down two paycheques.

Shelley Sim, for example, is the new mayor-elect  of Clearwater, having defeated incumbent Merlin Blackwell. She’s usually gotten herself positions both as school trustee and councillor. As of yesterday, Sim is both the next mayor of Clearwater and the North Thompson  trustee on the Kamloops school board.

She won the school board job after tying Lee Onslow in the civic election. The winner was declared by drawing names from a hat, basically. Now Onslow, poor thing, will be pulling in only one paycheque instead of the two she’d hoped for — she’s a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board.

Sim gets a fourth term as trustee, two of them gained by acclamation. She didn’t even have to run against anyone in those ones.

Meanwhile, over in Lytton, the mayoralty was also decided by a draw. Incumbent Denise O’Connor was beaten by challenger Jennifer Thoss after a judicial recount and draw.

A grand total of 90 people voted for mayor in that election, so Thoss won by attracting all of 45 votes, plus the draw. With those votes, Thoss has all the authority and prestige of any other mayor, including Kamloops’ Mike O’Reilly, who won with 13,235 votes. Or Pete Fry in Vancouver, who pulled in 98,748 votes.

Such a disparity seems ridiculous. Lytton’s turnout was pretty good, considering the town’s population is a little over 200. Maybe a population bar should have to be reached before communities can incorporate. (The Vancouver Island village of Zeballos, which few of us have ever heard of, has something around 120 residents.) Maybe tiny towns should have a single director elected to the regional district instead. Does a town like Lytton really need a mayor and council?

A bit of trivia: a few years ago, regional districts toyed with the idea of calling their board directors “Rural Mayors” because they actually carry more authority than municipal mayors in some ways.

Maybe it’s a reaffirmation of the democratic system that a handful of people can have their own mayor, that a tiny municipality can elect a mayor and council with far fewer voters than most regional district rural areas.

Or, maybe it’s democracy over-reach.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and was 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.