By this time next year, British Columbians will be experiencing their first days under newly elected mayors and councils. Voter turnout has been dismal in most municipal elections since the terms of mayors and councillors were extended to four years in 2014.

At a time when attention to municipal politics has peaked in British Columbia, citizen participation remains low and cynicism has increased. Some of the sitting councils were elected with ballots cast by fewer than one third of eligible voters.

The most recent election in New York City, where voter turnout went from 23 per cent in 2021 to 40 per cent in 2025, provides an example of how a seemingly dormant public can be motivated by something different than platitudes.

Some may point to the complexities of the system to explain why many eligible voters in Metro Vancouver stay away from the polling stations on October’s third Saturday. The ballot can be long—due to the low threshold for candidate registration—and the choices can be too confusing for a public used to voting for one person at a time when choosing their provincial and federal lawmakers.

When we recently asked Metro Vancouverites about municipal politics, just over........

© BIV