Comment is Free, but Facts are Sacred
April 1, 2015 | 
Author
Facts and Comments – by Roger Stonebanks, citizen journalist
Last November, most of us in the Capital Region chose not to vote at all in the municipal elections for mayors and councillors and that included seven of the eight out of 13 municipalities in the Region that held referenda on amalgamation or governance or other such wording. Only in North Saanich did a majority – barely – go to the polls. Still, in a democracy, decisions are made by those who vote.
Since the Nov 15th election there has been much commentary and some over-simplification about the amalgamation/governance referenda results. As a noted British journalist, C.P. Scott, once said, “Comment is free but facts are sacred.”
Community Development Minister Coralee Oakes has commented that the referenda questions were “quite mixed” in the eight municipalities. So too were the answers. What did we do when we voted? To refresh ourselves as the debate continues, here’s how we voted last November – and on what (plus some comments):
SIDNEY – “Are you in
favour of a provincially funded study to investigate the feasibility, costs and implications of amalgamating the three municipalities of the Saanich Peninsula?”
YES, 2,566; NO, 1,232; eligible voters 9,100.
NORTH SAANICH – “Are you in favour of a study, provincially funded, to investigate the feasibility, costs and implications of amalgamating the three municipalities on the Saanich Peninsula of Sidney, Central Saanich and North Saanich?”
YES, 2,881; NO, 1,727; Eligible voters 9,055.
CENTRAL SAANICH –
“Should the District of Central Saanich petition the Province to fund a cost/benefit analysis of an amalgamation of Central Saanich, North Saanich and Sidney?
YES, 3,588; NO, 1,489; eligible voters 14,242.
Commentary: These three referenda are clear and so are the results – a study or cost/benefit analysis, funded by the province, of amalgamation of the three peninsula municipalities.
SAANICH – “Do you support Council initiating a community-based review of the governance structure and policies within Saanich and our partnerships within the Region?”
YES, 21,437; NO, 2,780; eligible voters 80,986.
Commentary: Saanich council held out against pressure for some sort of referendum – then decided, unanimously, on the question above. It carefully – and deliberately – avoided the word “amalgamation.” This resulted in those who favoured amalgamation voting for it (perhaps because it was as good as it was going to get), those who opposed amalgamation voting for it (perhaps because “amalgamation” wasn’t mentioned), as well as those who simply thought that a community-based review was a good idea, and may not have had an opinion on amalgamation at all.
VICTORIA – “Are you in favour of reducing the number of municipalities in Greater Victoria through amalgamation?”
YES, 18,351; NO, 4,601; eligible voters 69,624.
OAK BAY – “Are you in favour of the District of Oak Bay being amalgamated into a larger regional municipality?”
YES, 2,184; NO, 3,594; eligible voters 14,107.
ESQUIMALT – two referenda, (1) “Are you in favour of the Township of Esquimalt exploring options to achieve efficiencies by further sharing some services with other municipalities?” YES, 3,731; NO, 578; eligible voters 14,545; (2) “Are you in favour of exploring the reduction of the number of municipalities within Greater Victoria through amalgamation?”
YES, 2,905; NO, 1,404; eligible voters 14,545.
Commentary: The first question is about shared services – not amalgamation. The second question only sought to explore amalgamation but note how support for it drops and opposition grows compared with the shared services referendum.
LANGFORD – “Are you in favour of the City of Langford being amalgamated into a larger regional municipality?”
YES, 2,222 (9%); NO, 2,209; eligible voters 23,864.
Commentary: Clear question, clear answer – but it passed by only 13 votes.
View Royal, Highlands, Colwood, Metchosin, Sooke – councils did not hold referenda. Eligible voters 34,505.
Commentary – because these voters were never asked – we can never know what they thought.
Overall the percentage of eligible voters that voted yes – on whatever their question was – was just 21%
Election results source – Civic Information BC/Elections BC – www.election2014.civicinfo.bc.ca For news updates on amalgamation/governance – Saanich Voice Online – www.saanichvoiceonline.ca
Posted in Community News
5 Responses to “Comment is Free, but Facts are Sacred”
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Some very important statistics for your readers:
Overall, municipal election 2014 voter turnout in the 13 municipalities increased by 26%
Central Saanich voter turnout increased by 9.5%
Sidney voter turnout increased by 38.4%
North Saanich voter turnout increased by 28.2%
Saanich voter turnout increased by 40.9%
Langford voter turnout increased by 35.9%
Esquimalt voter turnout increased by 68.3%
Overall, for the 8 municipalities that had a non-binding governance review question on the ballot, voter turnout increased by 32.4%
Further information can be found here:
http://www.amalgamationyes.ca/voter-turnout—comparison-of-2014-and-2011.html
One more comment, to correct the misleading information in Stonebanks’ column:
Of the 80,000 voters who voted in municipalities where there was a question on the ballot, 60,000 of them voted YES. The actual % of YES voters was 75%.
To correct the deliberately misleading and grossly oversimplified [mis]interpretation of Amalgamation Yes and Ms. Ewing Mr. Stonebank’s presents a far more nuanced analysis that is both accurate and far more objective than the stale propaganda of AY.
The facts are that the results of the various questions are not the overwhelming Yes that AY would have us all believe; far from it. In fact, only the City of Victoria vote to gobble up whatever it can in a voracious pursuit of tax money is distinctly, unequivocally a Yes vote. Which exactly what most logical people would expect – those who expect to, or believe they will, benefit are in favour. Everyone else, not so much.
And yet a further comment on this article. If one looks only at eligible voters, the election results would also call into question the validity of ALL the successful mayoral candidates.
Across the 13 municipalities, successful mayor candidates only received 18% of the votes from total eligible voters.
Central Saanich mayor received 21%
Saanich mayor received 18%
North Saanich mayor received 25%
Sidney mayor received 14%
So while it is agreed that voter turnout needs to be increased, the most important measure of the success of the referenda question(s) was the ratio of favourable responses to the # of eligible voters who actually voted, which was 75%
Cheers.
People voted in can be voted out again after their term, if their actual contribution doesn’t match their advertised one. That option isn’t easily available if the results of any governance changes don’t match their advertised hype. I’m looking forward to the community led governance study that Saanich will undertake, which has the potential to be a more wholesome process than the one ‘solution’ to vaguely identified ‘problems’ that’s being offered by special interest groups.