just want to point out how your voting record doesn't reflect how the real world impacts you.
The clean water in your tap, the road through your town, the sewage treatment plant that takes care of your poo - that's local government.
Local government effects your day to day life more than any other level of government in the country.
That downtown development you like / don't like? Local government
Cultural events getting street closures / making your town more interesting? Local government
The other levels of government effect your life day to day in far less ways.
Provincial = healthcare / PST / some vehicle / insurance issues
Federal = GST / income tax
Voting locally has so much more impact!
This is true, but the problem with municipal elections is that they don't get all that much press and unless there is a big local issue to divide the candidates they all can sound the same. It is hard to get people excited about it when most don't see any of their faces until election time.
I have only lived in Squamish for a year and a half so I went through the local rags to bone up on the candidates before the election and they all said the exact same shit. The only big issue that was discussed a lot was their view on the LNG plant and they don't have any real impact on that decision anyway. In the end that is how Heintzman won the mayoral race. I just hope she doesn't waste much time on it.