Mayoral Candidates:
Zubair Sheikh
Mark Ziekle
Cary Tarasoff
There are 6 mayoral candidates in the 2020 race. The 3 of us standing in front of you today do not benefit from the name recognition that the incumbent, past mayor and ex-minister enjoy. As such, we are uniquely positioned to recognize systematic flaws in the civic democratic process.
The question we have come together today to pose is:
“How do you make space in civic elections so that everyday people (like us) are engaged and motivated to step up as candidates to serve and that citizens care enough to cast their vote?”
COVID-19 has really highlighted issues. There are a few candidates that have bought so much share of the advertising voice out there that it is almost impossible for others with less (or any) 3rd party funding to be heard. That is where community radio, citizen and business groups (like CFCR, LivableYXE, the USSU and the NSBA for example) have really been able to contribute to democracy, and they have most definitely helped to level the playing field.
However, unfortunately, too many times in this race, we have seen mainstream media making default assumptions about which candidates in the race matter the most, without any polling information or individual policy analysis to back that up.
I think all of us here today would agree that democracy is built upon ideas and it requires engaged citizens to participate in it to be truly successful.
If those ideas are not reaching the eyes and ears of citizens because either candidates cannot afford to reach them effectively OR the media fails to include those ideas in their roundups or forums equally – then it is all of us who lose in the end. The last civic election had a 40% turnout, which, although much higher than the previous civic elections, is still far from where we all agree it needs to be. As a City, we should be aiming for more, and we all have our part to play in that.
Policy changes are needed and leaders collaborate to bring solutions.
As such, we have 5 recommendations and hope whoever occupies the mayor’s chair come November 10th will commit to making these changes.
1. Lower campaign maximum mayoral marketing Budgets.
At $0.75 per capita, $229,000 is a huge sum of money for most individuals. Access to money & privilege should not be a barrier to anyone wanting to step up and put themselves forward to serve this city. We recommend $0.25 per capita, or a $76,000 maximum. In addition, we also would like to see a lower individual donation threshold of $100. This would further discourage the influence of corporations, unions and political parties in our city election.
2. Positive discrimination. Our multi-cultural diversity should allow equal participation in our democracy.
3. Citizen Engagement We suggest providing training workshops for citizens to learn about municipal governance and how they can be engaged
4. A Voters List For The City. Voters lists are required for Federal and Provincial – this should also extend to civic elections.
5. Creation of a media gallery for elections. We recommend the gathering together of all media outlets, with both mass media (newspaper, TV, radio) and community-based media (community radio, citizen advocacy groups). We ask them to collaborate and to come up with a set of standards for fairness of coverage, debate formats and transparency on any polls conducted.
REGINA MAYORAL CAMPAIGN BUDGET – SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER AT $68,776
