Discontent versus Complacency

Today's Morning Star story on the amalgamation petition's deadline had Bruce Shepherd, society rep, stating the group would work through the weekend tabulating results and prepare for next week's meeting with Eric Foster, MLA.

"(Bruce) would not speculate on how many signatures have been received," offers the newspaper.

Mr. Shepherd was quoted to say "Total-wise, I think we're good.  If you look at the turnouts for the last few elections, for what we did I think we have a good turnout compared to those."

Excellent point.

In fact, low numbers might even be better.

Huh?
How so?

Look back at voter turnout during the City of Vernon elections in 2011...a dismal 31% of eligible voters chose to exercise their right.

Only slightly higher, the District of Coldstream saw a 33% voter turnout that year, down a staggering 19% from the 2008 local election.

How could a low turnout/signatures be considered a good thing?

Well, scientists and researchers have concluded that a high turnout is generally seen as evidence of the legitimacy of the current system.

So, the natural extension then--as it applies to the amalgamation petition--is that a low collection of signatures is evidence of dissatisfaction with the current system.

Or is that a double negative?

Even Wikipedia knows amalgamation--or the newer word "unification"--is cheaper:    "The act of merging two or more municipalities into a single new municipality may be done for a variety of reasons, including urban growth, reducing the cost of local government and improving the efficiency of municipal service delivery."


A big tip of the wine glass to officials of the Society for the Future Governance of Greater Vernon. 

"Their work has only just begun," offers Kia.

Comments from the online petition are listed in this blog entry started on September 12, 2013.