Brandon political watchers 'literally in a state of shock' after disappointing 17% voter turnout

Shocking, disappointing, dismal — all words used to describe Brandon's 17 per cent voter turnout in this week's civic election.

It's a statistic Rick Chrest — who was acclaimed mayor of Manitoba's second-largest city for a second term — thinks the newly elected city council should have a discussion about, but he stresses it's not the norm.

"I'm certainly very disappointed to see that level [of voter turnout]. Our community does get engaged whenever there is an issue," Chrest told CBC News on Friday.

"I don't want to … understate or overstate the significance of this and we're certainly going to take a look at this."

Voters in Brandon elected councillors in eight of the city's 10 wards this week, as well as a slate of school board trustees. Councillors in the other two wards were acclaimed.

The 16.86 per cent voter turnout — 6,185 ballots cast, with 36,675 eligible voters — marks a drop of more than 50 per cent from the 42 per cent turnout in the 2014 election.

Voters elected for status quo 

Kelly Saunders, an associate professor in Brandon University's political science department, was also taken aback by the result.

"Everyone around here is literally in a state of shock about what this says about the quality of our democracy here in Brandon," she said. "It says it's not very good and that's really disturbing."

Saunders said she asked the students in one of her classes on Thursday morning who voted. The majority said they did.

She said people may have been less willing to vote this time around if they expected the status quo at city hall, even as the city faces issues like an affordable housing crunch or a methamphetamine crisis.

"It's hard to sort of sell people on the importance of voting when they don't see the actual results," she said.

Voters who did cast ballots largely voted for the status quo, she said, with eight incumbents returned to city council.

She said the fact that there was no mayoral race may have also played a factor in people staying home on election day, even though the mayor is only one vote of the 11 at the council table.

"There was a lot happening on the ground, and yet people just seemed to be turned off even from the races going on in their own wards," she said.

Candidates weigh in 

Two of the people who ran in this election — both elected to city hall — also believe the lack of a race for mayor kept people from the ballot box.

"The big factor I think … [was] there was no mayor's race and there were no big issues in Brandon," said John LoRegio, who was re-elected in the Meadows-Waverly ward.

LoRegio said issues such as the meth crisis didn't come up while he was campaigning. People in his ward were more worried about infrastructure, such as back lanes, he said.

"At the end of the day, I think a little bit of it was that people were happy with what council had done already over the past four years, said Shaun Cameron, who was elected for the first time in the University ward.

"And I think part of it was there was no mayoral race."

Some Brandon residents CBC News spoke to on Friday gave a number of reasons of why they didn't vote — such as lack of knowledge about the candidates and of the issues facing the city.

Voter cards mailed 

Chrest said the city undertook a number of initiatives before the election to raise awareness, like mailing voter information cards to each household to ensure people knew about the election and voting locations.

"I don't think there was a lack of visibility," he said. "The streets were still filled with election signs. You really would have had to have been out of town to not know there was an election going on."

He said the city will look at ways to improve engagement with people, which could include consulting with other municipalities.

"We certainly are not going to be complacent to sit back and do nothing and shrug it off. That's not the kind of city Brandon is," he said.

"I think everyone knows that we have a very active, dynamic and engaging community and this is a little bit of a speed bump."

With files from CBC Manitoba's Radio Noon.