THUNDER BAY — Leaders in Thunder Bay are grappling with a sharp decline in voter turnout in Monday’s municipal election, after a strong majority of eligible voters stayed home.
Just 42.58 per cent of the city's 83,679 eligible voters cast a ballot.
That well exceeded the average of around 36 per cent turnout in local elections across Ontario, which was down from 38.3 per cent in 2018 and the lowest since 1982.
It’s still cause for concern, say local leaders, with Thunder Bay’s turnout falling by more than eight per cent from 2018, when it hit 50.8 per cent. Turnout has fallen below 40 per cent in past elections, however.
“We are a little bit disappointed,” said city clerk Krista Power of this year's results.
In an interview earlier this week, she was at a loss for what more the municipal government could do to boost participation.
“We did provide a ton of opportunity for people to vote, whether it be in person, via drive-through, or the internet ballot,” she said.
“At this point I’d say it’s nothing we’ve done, in the sense we had a really robust campaign to encourage the vote… I don’t really have a reason why people don’t vote — I think it’s unfortunate if they don’t.”
Around 63 per cent of voters cast their ballot online, nearly identical to the breakdown in 2018.
The number of ballots cast in the mayoral race fell by 13.8 per cent compared to 2018.
In ward races, vote totals dropped by between 11.3 and 12.8 per cent in McIntyre, McKellar, Northwood, and Red River.
The Current River ward saw a smaller decrease of 7.9 per cent, while Neebing (down by 16.6 per cent) and Westfort (18.2 per cent) saw the biggest drops.
Westfort Coun. Kristen Oliver said she’s unsure why her ward saw a larger decline, which came despite a competitive race in which she narrowly secured re-election over challenger John Collins.
It came as a surprise on election night, she said.
“When I was looking at the numbers, comparing them to 2018, I kept saying, ‘There’s 600 votes that don’t seem to be going to either myself or any of my opponents.’”
Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds, who handily won reelection with a larger vote count than in 2018 despite lower turnout, called falling rates of participation in elections a “crisis” that should be taken seriously.
“Historically, Thunder Bay compares well to other municipalities,” he said. “I guess we should be happy, but the fact that only half of the people exercised their franchise to elect their leaders is concerning.”
Zack Taylor, an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario, said the low turnout in municipal elections is part of a much broader trend.
“Across all of the western democracies, at all levels, we’ve seen declining turnout for about 40 years,” he said.
Local elections consistently attract lower turnout than provincial and federal races, despite municipalities often “bend[ing] over backwards” to promote them, according to Taylor.
That’s largely because voters lack the “shortcut” of political party affiliation to navigate their choices, he said.
“Our non-partisan local elections kind of demand more of the voter … and that’s why across the board, municipal voter turnout has been lower than it is at the provincial and federal level for many years,” he said.
“Political parties are important shortcuts for voters — they tend to have an idea of what a Liberal or a Conservative or a New Democrat or whatever is likely to do if they take office, so they don’t have to do as much research on the specific positions or characteristics of individual candidates.”
Taylor said races seen as more competitive tend to drive higher turnout.
He also speculated the pandemic and a cluster of recent elections may have contributed.
“I do wonder if in our current moment, coming out of the COVID pandemic, coming on the heels of a provincial election, people might just be fatigued,” he said.
Oliver also pointed to “voter exhaustion” as a partial explanation.
“Just having conversations with people … I think there’s some voter exhaustion. We’ve seen a federal election, a provincial election, and a municipal election basically in the last 13 months. I think there’s some level of fatigue that’s driving this.”
“Sadly I think to some level, too, we just take the freedom we have to vote… for granted,” she added.
While campaigning, Oliver said she also ran into a large number of residents who felt they weren’t informed enough to make a decision.
“I think that’s sort of reflective of where I as a councillor … should likely be looking at ways where I could engage voters a little bit more throughout the four-year term,” she said. “It’s something I’m exploring myself right now … to look at how to best utilize my ability to have discussions outside of election time, so people do feel they’re engaged and part of the process.”
Foulds agreed candidates have a role in encouraging turnout. He himself took to the social media platform Tik Tok for the first time during the campaign in an effort to connect with new audiences.
He believes the city should also consider new ideas to make voting more accessible.
“There are some places [where] election days are on the weekend, [or] elections happen over a couple of days in a row,” he said. “I think everything has to be on the table.”
While he’d like to see those ideas explored, Foulds praised the city clerk’s office for its existing efforts.
“I think our voter turnout would have been even lower if they hadn’t have been as innovative with the type of opportunities to vote they presented, including internet voting, advance polls, drive-thru voting,” he said.
