This appeared in the Guelph Mercury after the 2003 Guelph Municipal Elections. Steven Petric for the 2003 Guelph Mercury Community Editorial Board.

On November 10th, a very small percentage of you used
your right as a citizen in a democratic country to
voice your opinion and voted for who you felt was the
best people to lead our city over the next 3 years.

The choices made on that day by those few thousand
eligible Guelph voters could have a major impact on
your life and the future of our city.  These choices
of “change” may make our city a better place to live
or may make it much, much worse.

With only about 37% of Guelph’s eligible voters
casting a ballot, the
majority of Guelph residents didn’t bothered to use
their democratic right as a citizen to voice their
opinion and actually went out and voted.  Remembrance
Day was the very next day and to see this huge waste
of
democratic rights that our troops fought and died
for was a huge dishonour to these people. With
everything our
city is facing over the next few years, many citizens
are asking
the same question: Why did so many people not go out
and vote? There have been a few people who feel that
most people where suffering from “voter fatigue”
on the heels of a provincial election, but also
hearing
many young people say  that “They
(Elected Officials) are just going to ignore us
anyways so why should we bother to vote?” There could
be hundreds factors, no one will really ever know.

It is very upsetting to hear many of our young people,
the future of this city and country, to not care about
local government. Municipal Politics has always been
seen as unimportant by the majority people, yet in
reality
it is really the most important level of direct
government. Your city council serves your
neighbourhood, provides those essential services like
community centres, garbage pickup, road repair,
property taxes, water and much more.

There are many issues affecting our city, from
Wet/Dry, Library and City Hall expansion, a aging
infrastructure, transit at capacity, youth involvement
at City
Hall and so much more. We may see any one of a variety
of municipal projects, staff and/or services reduced,
cut or delayed in 2004 and beyond. Next February, when
the budget comes down, it will be too late to discover
that those you elected weren’t the right choice or
that you should have used your right to vote for
someone else. If in May you don’t like your tax bill
or the reduced services at a Community Centre, it may
be too
late to be able to do much more than grumble.

The tough decisions facing Guelph will be the
responsibility of the people that only a small
percentage cared enough about to elect to lead this
fast growing city over the next 3 years. There needs
to be improvement in voter turnout including, for
example, reviewing our Ward System or adding a ‘Phone
Ballot’ with regular polls but I feel that the most
important thing that should be done is connect with
next generation of voters and taxpayers. Get them
involved in the planning of
our city so that they understand the Municipal
Government’s role and its importance in daily life.

Guelph Mercury Youth Editorial Board member Kate
Nelischer  raised some great points in her editorial
on November 18th. She is the daughter of Lise Burcher,
a newly elected Ward 5 City Council member, and was
able to see and feel the election and the issues we
face as a community. I am very proud to see her take a
strong interest in what is going on in Guelph and the
choices that are made by our City Councillors that
will, in her words, affect all young people in Guelph
because they are the ones who have to live with those
decisions made by council for a very long time.

Our past council endorsed the implementation of the
‘Community Youth Strategy’ It is a action plan that
will has a enhanced vision for youth and a
community-based plan that focuses energy,
creativity and community resources on youth
development. It gives Guelph’s young people a stronger
voice for advocating for decisions that affect them
and their future.

It is very important that our newly elected Mayor and
the entire Council uphold this strategy physically,
financially, and expressively. Youth must and should
be consulted more in the decision making process, not
just at City Hall, but within the entire community.
Youth should have greater respect and empowerment
because this is their city too.

Guelph City Council has seen a dramatic shift. We now
have a council that has moved to the Right of Centre
with a mayor who has the political resemblance of the
‘Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher. I know there will still
be unrest on
council with the Left and Right wings of council. I
would hope that all members be more open-minded, know
the facts and come to
the table with balanced and objective views that will
work for
both sides of the political fence. Many of us are
tired of the political rhetoric that is found on all
levels of Government.

The community, at least a small
part, choose change and I would hope each council
member will make the right choices that will work for
all of our citizens, from 1 to 100, today and
tomorrow.