The official start of Quebec’s municipal elections for 2021 was Sept. 17, but the actual race began on Oct. 1 after the Sept. 30 deadline for nominations. By that first day, more than 50 per cent of all mayors won by acclamation, meaning they ran unopposed and were elected by default. Thousands of councillors took seats across Quebec with absolutely no competition.
A lack of democratic competition isn’t the only problem; voter turnout for municipal elections across Quebec is abysmal compared to provincial and federal elections, consistently landing below 50 per cent turnout. Unfortunately, there is no reason to expect this election to be any different.
It is a peculiarity of our democracy that most people are more interested in voting for the prime minister than for any other position in government. People will say they are voting for Trudeau or O’Toole or Singh when the only people actually voting for these candidates are in their home ridings of Papineau, Durham and Burnaby South, respectively. Apart from that, no one votes for the prime minister in the general election. Canadians feel that the people at the top tier of government have the most impact on their lives and turn out to the polls accordingly.
More than any other layer of government in Canada, municipal government has the most direct effect on our daily lives. After all, our municipal government is responsible for local roads, garbage, recycling the fire department. Our mayors and councillors work to protect our local environments and they allocate funds for parks and recreation. They are in charge of the very water we drink.
They can create sprawl or density, beautify a neighbourhood or let the community rot through inaction. They can encourage local small businesses to thrive, or they can kill them by inviting a big box store to the community. In a genuine sense, municipal government decisions fundamentally affect the character and life of the places in which we will spend most of our lives.
Municipal governments are by far the largest form of government in Canada. According to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, “Municipalities account for 99.6 per cent of all governments and 95.8 per cent of all politicians in Canada (even excluding school boards and special purpose bodies).”
So the question remains, why are so many candidates, in some cases even entire councils, chosen by acclamation?
There seem to be two schools of thought on the subject.
The most obvious is that this is a symptom of cynicism and disinterest. People either don’t care or don’t think they can make any difference. They want to be left alone to live their lives rather than get involved in community politics.
The other is that the incumbent mayor or council has done so well that no one wants to run against them, like a vote of confidence. Newly re-elected Campbell’s Bay Mayor Maurice Beauregard said as much in a recent radio interview. All of Campbell’s Bay council was elected without opposition earlier this month. Seven out of 18 mayors in MRC Pontiac won their municipal elections unopposed.
The problem of acclamation seems to be most acute in smaller communities. A study of Quebec municipal elections by Western University researcher Amanda Gutzke, which used data from the 2017 elections, found that communities with smaller populations tended to have more elections won by acclamation. Almost 75 per cent for communities under 500; the percentage declines reaching its lowest at 25 per cent for communities between 4,000-5,999.
The most obvious explanation is that a smaller population will inevitably result in smaller participation in municipal politics. There just aren’t enough people for a diversity of candidates in an election. Then of course there is the closeness of the community itself. Siblings or cousins aren’t likely to make a challenge for mayor. After all, blood and friendship are forever. A run for mayor might only be for a single term.
There are always outliers, of course. For example, Rapides-des-Joachims, with a population of 156, has four people running for mayor, though two councillors were elected without opposition.
So, it shouldn’t be surprising that in an MRC like ours, many councils and mayors have already been elected by acclamation.
Regardless of the reason, a government without opposition isn’t very democratic at all. In fact, opposition is fundamental to the process.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once said, “Democracy is messy, and it’s hard. It is never easy.” It is messy, of course, because everything is open for debate and can and should be challenged. Democracy isn’t about uniformity; it is about conflict, a clash of ideas and opinions thrown into the soup of public discourse. So that, while people might disagree with what is produced, at the very least, they had their say.
No one has said anything when our representatives are acclaimed.
Jorge Maria
