Back in May the Town of Collingwood decided to continue the at-large system where councillors run in the entire town, instead of just their wards. In addition, they also decided to demolish historic wards.
Let me first explain what a ward is. A ward system divides a municipality into sections (called wards, obviously). Councillors are elected by residents in their wards. The at-large system sees councillors elected by all voters. At-large systems are an exception for councillors. For Collingwood residents it means that each resident will vote for 7 Councillors, 1 Mayor and 1 Deputee Mayor. That’s an awful lot of votes to cast in a single election :).
This got me thinking … what makes a ward system better than an at-large system. Here are my thoughts :
- Every area of the town / region deserves representation. Without wards a single segment of town population, a special interest group or a densely populated part of town may be able to elect all councillors, leaving others with no representation. In case of Milton it means that all candidates could just appeal to residents of Hawthorne Village and nearby (new) communities, and completely ignore older parts of town
- Running in a ward makes councillors more accountable to neighbourhood voters. Imagine if all Councillors came from the same part of town
- That leads to this point: the ward system prevents (or at least greatly minimizes) the undesirable possibility of having all councillors come from the same area of town
- Wards can represent the diversity of the town (old Milton vs. rural Milton vs. new Milton. Farmers vs. commutors), allowing each ward to elect its own representative. Without it a homogenous group of councillors can be elected to represent an otherwise heterogeneous town
- Wards make it much simpler to judge candidates. Imagine having to select 7 councillors out of 20 candidates, instead of 1 out of 3.
- Election debates are unworkable in an at-large system
- Citizens who need help know exactly who to contact and can hold them directly accountable at election time. This is one reason why I did not even like how Milton picked two Councillors from each ward. I like one ‘butt-in-line’
- Printing election materials and lawn signs for the entire town is cost prohibitive, not to mention highly confusing (imagine if you had to cast 11 votes)
- Your councillor likely lives, drives, walks, and shops in your neighborhood. This gives councillors a better understanding of neighbourhood issues and allows them to be proactive in dealing with neighbourhood problems
- Wards allow new blood to enter the race. Incumbents often have a lot of advantage, having gotten a lot of name recognition during their tenure. At-large system penalizes new-comers who often do not have the resources to market themselves town-wide
