Municipal Elections: Misunderstood and Signficant

--- THIS BLOG HAS BEEN ABANDONED. OUR NEW HOME IS: THE WEASEL SOAP BOX ---

Tomorrow, Monday November 13, 2006 is an important day for the city of Toronto and its outlying suburbs. It's the mayoral, as well as city councillor and school trustee election.

This is, fundamentally the most important level of all three governments because it is the one closest to the people, it affects is the most, and it does the most for us on a daily basis.

While we the people of Toronto are being neglected by the tax-cut happy Conservatives who will do nothing for the average Canadian citizen, the city council is doing more for us. They're sending out the snowploughs to keep the streets clear, they're sectioning off money to fund our public transit and much more to try and make do with what little we have.

The city has the most responsibilities, but the least amount of funds.

People are cynical and think the city is run by foolish, corrupt politicians.

This isn't true. While corrupt politicians exist at each level, the source of the city's funding woes truly lie with the provincial and federal government. They receive the biggest slice of the taxes from the city of Toronto, and give almost nothing back.

We're the busiest and the largest of all the Canadian cities, but we're taken for granted.

It's because people see the city as powerless that they refuse to go out and vote; they believe that nothing can be done to change the way the city looks and feels.

But, that's wrong. If you place your vote in the box, even for one person, you're making it known you care about the city just as much as the province and federal government.

I missed the last municipal election because I didn't give a damn.

I changed my mind since. Why? I read a book, an interesting one... I might have written about it in a previous blog, Speaking Out by NDP leader Jack Layon, a former councillor for the city of Toronto.

One thing that struck a note with me was just how much the city does for us compared to the provincial and federal governments in terms of social services, ranging from transit to upkeep of civil infrastructure.

There are so many services that the city funds that we just don't know about because we never hear about. We simply expect it to be there because it always has.

But, if they disappeared then we would more than notice.

Even if you don't think it'll make a difference, you should still vote. Why? Because we have the ability to do that.