Editor, The News:
Wow, how exciting: five candidates for one mayoral position, 26 candidates for six council positions and 12 candidates for five school board trustees.
That’s 43 names to go through for a total of 12 positions.
And almost all claiming that they are running because we need big changes and that they are just the right person to accomplish this.
Well, congratulations, you are accomplishing the exact opposite.
How many people do you think are going to do their due diligence and seriously wade through the pile of information to elect just the right ones for the job?
The actual result of this endless list of candidates will be that most of those who do go out to vote will throw up their hands and vote for the names that are familiar to them, namely the status quo, and we end up with mostly the same people we have now.
And do you still wonder why we have such a low turnout of voters?
Is it not perfectly clear that it is for the same reason: they can’t be bothered spending the time to sort things out and shrug their shoulders with a ‘who cares, nothing changes anyway.’
How I wish that many of you would not be in it for personal gain or recognition, but truly be interested in the public good.
If that were so, most of you would support the few candidates who have the best chance of unseating the old guard so that we would indeed get the change we say we desire.
Walter Verwoerd
Maple Ridge