An Air Of Excitement

An Air Of Excitement A Candid Conversation By Theresa Grant Real Estate Columnist With an election on the horizon, those who follow local politics or are actively involved tend to perk up just a bit. There is an air of excitement, perhaps hope in some cases, that there will be positive change coming. One thing that stands out though, and stands out is an understatement, one glaring fact surrounding our local elections is voter turnout. For some reason we have a bad case of voter apathy here in Oshawa. In the 2022 election for example only 18.4% of eligible voters actually voted! So, out of a population of 175,383, with 121,885 of those people eligible to cast a ballot only 22,456 turned out to do so. That begs the question, what in the world is going on in Oshawa? The 2022 turnout is actually the lowest turnout in Oshawa history. That’s not only sad but a little scary. What can we do to change that number? I would think the first order of business would be to try and ascertain why that number is so low and go from there. Are people just flat out fed up? Do they think their vote doesn’t matter? Is it a case of convenience? Would online voting or voting by phone increase the number of people willing to cast their vote? These are things that truly need to be looked at because the election of our local municipal government is the closest to each one of us personally, and the one that affects our day to day life far more than any other election. Yet, more people tend to turn out for a federal election than their local ones. In 2014 The Town of Ajax introduced online voting and in doing so they saw their voting numbers increase from 25.4% to 30.4% that election year. I admit convenience is important. People are very bust today with several working more than one job, many working split shifts and overtime where they can get it just to stay afloat. I understand that on a tight schedule, getting yourself over to a polling station may not be the easiest thing to fit into a busy day. In Oshawa, the highest voter turnout ever was 1960 with 51.7 % of voters turning up to the polls to have their say. Yes, it was a different time and a different generation but surely the voters of 1960 would have passed down the importance of marking your ballot and having your say to their children. To not vote is to say you don’t care. We must care, this is our city and however good bad or indifferent it is, comes down to the people that make up our city and our attitudes. We can do better people. Let’s do better together!