The time for filing municipal nomination papers has passed and a humble word must be said for the courage all candidates showed in throwing their names into the proverbial ring.
It takes a lot of pluck to put yourselves out there in order to serve your respective communities.
It also merits mentioning that the communities are being held to a different standard than the capital city. In Yellowknife, as the nomination papers were approved, the names of candidates were quickly released on the city's website. That wasn't the case in the outlying communities.
While people in some hamlets and villages may already know who the candidates are and what they represent by word of mouth, making that official information public as it becomes available has more benefits than risk. A representative of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) told News/North in an email that, in the communities, names are not released prior to the close of nominations to avoid having people “run or not run just because of who else is on the candidate list."
That logic could be counterproductive to the democratic process.
Let's consider a situation where only one individual offers for mayor or only enough people run for council that acclimation ensues. If residents knew there wasn't enough competition, some may have been motivated to provide choice by seeking office.
Hay River is an example worth examining. Incumbent Brad Mapes announced he wasn't pursuing the mayor's seat again a mere five days prior to the closing of nominations. Only one person, Kandis Jameson – a councillor with knowledge that Mapes wasn't running – allowed her name to stand for mayor. So a mayoral election is not needed. But what if other citizens of Hay River could have seen that likelihood developing? Maybe one or more would have jumped in to create a race. We'll never know.
In Inuvik, both council and the district education authority (DEA) have been acclaimed as only eight nominees filed for each of those bodies and one of the DEA candidates withdrew after the nominations deadline closed, causing all seven of those positions to be acclaimed.
Acclimation is never ideal.
Meanwhile, in Yellowknife the growing list of candidates was posted daily to keep the public informed of who had filed their nomination papers. MACA didn't raise any objection to the city's practice of releasing names before nominations closed. Since all municipalities are guided by the same Local Authorities Elections Act, if the City of Yellowknife isn't contravening the spirit of the act then why are the communities stuck with such limitations?
Election engagement is critical because more candidates usually results in more voters. More voters means a better democratic representation in government.
Because municipal governments are the level closest to the people, it's even more important for them to attract a large crowd. These are the people who will make decisions affecting residents' everyday lives.
It certainly can't be detrimental to the process to provide more information on the most timely basis. Residents in the communities should make their voices heard on this issue before the next election. Timely transparency is as important to all of them as it is to citizens of Yellowknife.