The following column reflects the opinion of the author and the author only.
I’ve watched the entire series of Gilmore Girls time and again throughout my teen and adult life. The Town Hall meetings of Stars Hollow – a fictional small town in Connecticut, where most of the story is set – is an integral part of the show, and also one of my favourite subplots. It’s where town members gather for updates on town festivities, new installments to the town like traffic lights…and at times also to vote on who will be Stars Hollow’s main troubadour.
Canada consistently reports low voter turnout rates both on federal and provincial levels, and with each rewatching of the show, I am convinced that modern politics is yearning for some kind of revival of town halls to deepen the relationship between the public and elected officials, beyond door knocking during an election cycle.
The least likely age demographic to turn up to vote are 18-24-year-olds, with ‘disinterest’ cited as the most common cause. In the 2021 federal election, 66 per cent of 18-24-year-olds voted, a two per cent drop over 2019, but higher than 2011 when only 55 per cent of young people turned up to cast their ballot.
Ontario’s provincial elections in June 2022 recorded the lowest voter turnout in the history of the province. Approximately only 43.5 per cent of eligible cast their ballot, which means just 4.6 million votes cast out of 10.7 million registered voters.
CTV quotes Vandana Kattar, a former strategist in the Prime Minister’s Office, who believes the reason for low voter turnout is the lack of engagement between politicians and Ontarians. There’s a fundamental lack of motivation to turn up for elections.
During my own time as an organizer for a non-partisan organization, getting out the youth vote for the 2019 federal election – where I spoke to hundreds of students at Seneca College, Western University and University of Saskatoon – one of the most common frustrations I heard was: “But what’s the point?”
What this sentiment boils down is the distance the electorate feels from elected officials. In saying, ‘what’s the point,’ what people are saying is they don’t understand me, they don’t get my issues. The metaphorical distance between elected politicians and the people is too large, making folks feel like they don’t have a voice.
This distance is the very antithesis of a healthy democracy. The core tenet of democracy is “by the people, of the people, for the people”, making elected officials nothing more than representatives of the interest of the public. But as cities grow in population density and the ratio of elected City Councillors, MPPs and MPs decreases, then how exactly are elected officials a true representation of the people?
Ahead of the 2018 municipal elections in Toronto, Doug Ford – then newly elected as premier of Ontario – slashed the number of wards to 25 from 47. However, between 2014-2017, an independent consultant reviewed Toronto’s ward boundaries to ensure everyone is fairly represented at City Council; each ward has approximately the same number of people; neighborhoods and communities of interest are preserved; and each ward’s history and physical or natural features are considered. The Council voted for 47 wards taking these factors in consideration.
More wards results in more decentralization of power, strengthening municipalities that are the closest government to the people. Consider wards to be like classrooms – slashing councillors results in one teacher essentially handling a bigger class size, where everyone loses out – teacher and students. Students get less face time with the teacher and their unique needs are left unmet. And teachers are left overworked and overwhelmed.
In this year’s municipal elections, seven Toronto City Councillors, including Ana Bailao and Mike Layton, announced they won’t be seeking reelection. Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus of politics at Toronto Metropolitan University, believes Premier Ford’s decision to slash the number of wards – “nearly doubling the size of constituencies” – is a big reason for taking the exit door.
He says: “The volume of work means they are less in touch with the people they joined politics to serve. I think a lot of councillors were starting to feel that they were getting cut off from the kind of appealing street-level grassroots quality of local government.”
The whole point of decentralization is that no one person – so-called head of the state – Prime Minister in the case of Canada – cannot oversee the needs of over 38 million people. Hence provinces and premiers, cities and mayors and city councillors.
Modern politics needs more elected officials, not less. Especially at the grassroots level – the level that is most concerned with people’s day-to-day – transportation, education, health. What people want is to know who their elected official is, meet with them and share their concerns and grievances, along with ideas.
What Toronto was 30 years ago, isn’t the Toronto we know now. The demographic is markedly different as is the economy – there’s more gig work; more people are juggling 2-3 part-time jobs; housing prices are up but wages remain stagnant. Unmet needs of the larger public are bound to create despondency, and result in decreased political engagement.
What democracy needs is more citizen participation between those on the metaphorical hill (and literal), and the public. Contemporary politicians could do with full run through of Gilmore Girls – Stars Hollow may just have been a small fictional town, but it sure knew how to run town halls to keep the people engaged.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
