Editor, The News:
Voter apathy, you say?
How about candidate apathy?
At the recent Democracy Fair at the ACT, only 18 out of a possible 26 candidates in attendance.
Furthermore, I have diligently scanned the local newspapers and have only seen a few ads, almost all from the incumbents. So how are we to decide on any wannabees, who are unknown to most potential voters?
Maybe the incumbents, none of whom showed up at the Democracy Fair except for Mayor Ernie Daykin, know something.
With 26 candidates for six positions, who is going to bother to sort it all out, meaning that many will just vote for the names they know. In other words, stay with the status quo.
Well, that’s not for me. I definitely want to see some changes and there are a few candidates who appear to have a vision for progress and are willing to push the establishment.
It could be that a number of these hopefuls feel that the internet is the only way to go, but they are sadly mistaken. If we were to examine the demographics of who are the 29 per cent who voted last time, most likely it would, by and large, be the older generation, who probably don’t Twitter or Facebook or what-have-you.
One wonders if the only incentive is the lucrative pay being offered these days to our politicians.
For sure, the voter apathy is real and disturbing, but so is the non-effort by many of the candidates.
Walter Verwoerd
Maple Ridge