A ward election system in Lethbridge is off the table after council voted to rescind a previous motion, which would have created a commission to investigate the idea. Council voted 7-2 at its Dec. 13 meeting to look at a new variation of an at-large system instead. The motion to rescind, came from Councillor John Middleton-Hope, who came forward with a proposed new, Lethbridge specific system.
The new system would see the city split into four areas and two councillors appointed to represent each on a one year term. Councillors would still be elected with an at-large system and would cycle through representing each of the four areas in their term.
”I see this as an opportunity to move forward with changes in the way in which representatives in this city are elected. I think that’s important — it still retains most of what we were expecting out of what we were expecting out of the ward system; however, I think what it does is it provides us with a very much made in Lethbridge approach,” Middleton-Hope said.
A question was posed during the last election, which asked voters if they would like the city to investigate a ward election system and 55 per cent said yes. Councillors Belinda Crowson and Jen Schmidt-Rempel voted against the rescindment and investigating the new proposed model. They argued the commission could work out concerns with the potential ward system and give an opportunity for residents to be a part of crafting the election system.
“This shouldn’t be and isn’t about what council wants — it’s about what residents wanted,” Crowson said. “They asked us with 55 per cent of the votes to look into a ward system. We looked to our experts, which is the city clerk’s department, and said create a model that we can look into. They created this beautiful made in Lethbridge model, not a made in council model.”
Schmidt-Rempel pointed out that it is rare for a community to have the opportunity to give a fulsome discussion about local politics, which the ward commission would have allowed.
“If citizens are to hand their trust to the representatives sitting around this table, then citizens should also determine the process and mechanisms of how we select who gets to govern us. That’s missing out of this. Posing a ballot question and then ignoring the outcome risks alienating voters, which will further erode voter turnout, civic engagement and citizen participation,” she said.
Councillors who voted in favor of the rescindment argued that voters did not have enough information on ward systems when they answered the question.
“The ward system isn’t going to achieve what folks wanted — more transparency, more accountability, etcetera. I think there are other systems, better systems and let’s explore those,” said Counillor Jeff Carlson.
The new election system idea will go to a governance standing policy committee for further discussion before coming back to council.
READ MORE: Lethbridge’s long history of not implementing a ward election system