More important than who is elected is the participation of a majority of voters.

By Medi Shams, Shahrema Persian weekly magazine Columnist
Saturday July 07, 2022
Translated from the Persian article June 23, 2022

You must be wondering which election I am talking about. And if I tell you this is about the 2022 Toronto municipal election on Monday, October 24, maybe you would like to know why we should talk about it four months in advance. You may be more surprised if I invite you to participate in a campaign now.

We are right to believe that it is hard to attract people's attention to an event that will happen far from now. Especially when it is about elections that, over time, we pay less and less attention to and when it comes to the municipal elections, many of us believe it isn't worth thinking about them.

Political parties are involved in provincial and federal elections, which have a long history, and people are familiar with them. Parties have power and benefit from the financial support of the public and the government. As a result, it does not take long for the candidates to introduce themselves and mobilize people toward the elections. However, we see even at these two levels, participation is declining.

Municipal elections are non-partisan, and each candidate acts independently. Therefore, the decision-making and registration of candidates are easier, starting about five months before the elections. This year, candidate registration began on Monday, May 2 and will continue until Friday, August 19. Early elections will start on Friday, October 7, and will continue for a week until Friday, October 14. And finally, elections will be held on Monday, October 24. Election signs must be collected in the following three days by Thursday, October 27.

By the end of the four-year term in 2014, Toronto had one mayor and 44 Councillors. In that election, candidate registration began in January, ten months before the election. One of the candidates managed to join the city council with only 18% of the votes in her riding, which was the lowest percentage of votes in the history of Canada.

In July 2018, Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford, one month after winning the June 2018 election, reduced the number of ridings from 44 to 25, equal to the number of provincial and federal ridings. As a result, wards 23 and 24 of Willowdale became ward 18, with a population of about 118,801 and 75,841 voters.

In the 2014 municipal election, John Filion in ward 23 and David Schiner in ward 24 won the election with 14,128 (55.29%) and 10,716 (55.17%). David Mousavi was second behind John Filion with 7951 votes (7951). With 40.28% of the votes, John Tory defeated Doug Ford (33.73%) and became the mayor of Toronto. In 2014, 55% of eligible voters participated in the municipal election.

In the 2018 election, John Filion, with 8104 votes (31%), succeeded in keeping his Councillor position which he had held since 1981. Eighteen candidates competed in that election, five of whom were from Iranian backgrounds - David Mousavi, 1596 votes, fourth place; Sam Moeini, 1289 votes, seventh; Saman Tabasinejad, 1189 votes, eighth; Farah Aslani, 187 votes thirteenth, and Hamid Shakeri, 122 votes fifteenth place.  

To date, three candidates have registered for the current municipal elections. Michael Sosdovo is the first candidate to register on May 2, Lily Cheng on June 13 and Marcus O'Brien Fehr on June 14 after John Filion announced on June 12 that he would not seek re-election this fall.

This year, Willowdale's circumstances prompted me to get the community's attention several months before and change my attitude. It is safe to say that we will have fewer candidates in this ward because, with the resignation of John Filion after forty years in politics and service to the people, the main competition will be between Lily Cheng and Marcus O'Brien Fehr. In the 2018 election, each of them announced their candidacy in one of the two Willowdale ridings. John Filion endorsed both. But due to changes in the number of ridings and other reasons, John Filion changed his mind and returned to the election. As a result, Marcus Fehr withdrew and supported John Filion, and Lily Cheng continued to run and finished in second place with 5,149 votes (20%).

By supporting all candidates, I intend to initiate a non-partisan campaign to promote the participation of the people of Willowdale. One of the reasons for the declining voter turnout in elections, especially in municipal, is the negative image that people have of politicians and even of councillors.

Although the two main candidates may be very different in terms of experience and characteristics in the coming municipal election, there is no doubt about their competence and merit. In this circumstance, it would be in the interest of all to focus on how to increase the turnout, which could allow us to have a representative with a high level of support. Especially since both candidates have no prior experience as city councillors, we can not expect them to face the greedy developers in an area like Willowdale, which is experiencing maxim development.

Therefore, I intend to focus our attention on this issue and dedicate my weekly articles to the elections. I have set up a website, Facebook page and Twitter account under the title "Willowdale Vote!". This is, for me, the beginning of a non-partisanship campaign to promote voter participation that will continue even after and until the next election.

Not only do elections, the voting system, political parties, and democracy need to be reviewed and reformed, but we must realize that we cannot see the change we want until our attitudes toward the neighbourhood and neighbours change. Our citizen role and obligation do not start and end with casting a ballot. We must realize that without our permanent support, our representatives will not be able to face the profiteers who exploit society's weaknesses for their maximum benefit.

What John Filion wrote in his April newsletter is not limited to the weaknesses of the city council and the provincial appointed courts' unfair bias in favour of developers. He has a message that speaks to the law's shortcomings, the system's weaknesses, and the dangers threatening democracy.