Is it time all Alberta school boards, municipalities, and other boards with elected officials have mandated recorded votes?
We believe the answer is yes.
Every constituent has the right to know where their elected representative stands on a particular issue and what better way to gauge then by looking at their voting record.
The federal and provincial governments automatically record how each member votes on every piece of legislation, yet for some reason, municipalities, school boards and other local boards, it has been left to their individual discretion.
On the local level, the Town of Barrhead and Woodlands County records how councillors vote, while the County of Barrhead and Pembina Hills Public Schools (PHPS) just record the outcome, unless a member specifically asks for a recorded vote.
However, we believe knowing how an elected official votes at the local level is just as important as it is at the provincial or federal level. Perhaps even more so.
It is this level of government that the voter has the best opportunity to effect change. At the federal and provincial constituency level, most ridings are not decided by tens or even hundreds of votes.
For example, Arnold Viersen, who won the Peace River – Westlock riding for the Conservative Party by more than 20,000 votes. Although not quite as extreme, Glenn van Dijken won the Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock riding for the Wildrose Party by more than 900 votes and now that the Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose are unified under one banner, in the next provincial election that margin, if voting trends remain constant, will be considerably more.
That means regardless of what party you vote for, often at these levels, one individual vote doesn’t have a lot of weight, but at the municipal and school board level that isn’t the case.
Take in point, the battle for Woodlands County Fort Assiniboine/Timeu councillor which was decided by just one vote. Or more recently in Peachland, B.C. where the election for mayor was decided by essentially pulling a name out of the hat after the two contestants received the same number of votes.
When one individual vote can mean so much, do you not want to know where your local elected officials stand on a given issue and the best way to gauge that is past performance, i.e. their voting record.
Sometimes, even when a recorded vote rule exists, an elected official, if they believe the issue is especially contentious, will ask for a vote to be recorded. The problem is, what is important to one constituent isn’t necessarily what another person finds important, which is why every vote should be recorded and it shouldn’t be left to the individual municipality or school board.
