VIU Students’ Union starts campaign to inform students of the effects the local election could have on them

Rivoire (pictured) said students have reported housing, public transit, and access to services like healthcare and food donations as top priorities. (Lauryn Mackenzie/ CHLY 101.7FM)

With general voting day around the corner in Nanaimo and across the province, Vancouver Island University Students’ Union (VIUSU) is taking on a campaign to help students understand how local governments affect their everyday lives.

“I think the pitch that I would make for students is that voting in the municipal election impacts them more than they may think,” said Callum Rivoire, director of external relations at VIUSU.

“I wouldn't say that students don't know that there's an election happening, but I would say that students don't necessarily know when it's happening and what the impact of the municipal election is,” Rivoire said.

Rivoire said they have been hearing from a lot of students who know a local election is happening, but don’t understand how local governments work or impact their lives.

“The ‘Your City. Your Vote’ campaign, has been running for the entirety of the semester so far, which has been intended to help raise awareness of what the municipal government actually affects, as well as the voter information that's needed,” they said. “So things like the dates of the elections for early and in-person voting, how to vote, where to vote.”

As part of the campaign, VIUSU has posted on their website all the information a student may need to be able to vote, as well as to find out who the candidates are in their area. Rivoire has also heard from many students who are planning on voting.

“I know some students who have straight up gone as far as campaigning for specific candidates on campus,” Rivoire said.

Rivoire said students have reported housing, public transit, and access to services like healthcare and food donations as top priorities. VIUSU suggests students make a list of topics that matter most to them and then figure out what candidates best align with those priorities. 

“We're encouraging students to make a plan for their voting; to have an idea of what they're interested in before going and looking at the candidates,” Rivoire said. “So it's not just looking at the candidates and finding the one you align with most. It's going in knowing what you care about.”

Rivoire said this can help students sort through the over 40 candidates running for mayor and council in Nanaimo.

“Oftentimes [you can] get lost and overwhelmed looking at all the different policies and promises that candidates make,” Rivoire said. “So if you go in having a plan of what you care about most, and then finding a candidate that aligns most with that plan is going to be a lot easier and less overwhelming.”

They said the snap provincial election call has caused a shift in priority, and local elections are being overshadowed.

“They're both very important elections. It isn't a be-all end-all, that if you vote in one you can't vote in the other, or one affects you more than the other,” they said. “They just affect different parts of your life and different parts of policy and changes that'll be made for students' lives.”

Rivoire said it is important for students to be aware how much the results of a local election can affect them.

“A lot of these decisions are overarching and long-term decisions that students may not see the impact of right away, but those impacts down the line do directly affect their daily lives,” they said.

As well they said students need to recognise how much their vote can impact who will sit on a city council or regional district or school board.

“It's important for students to understand that their vote matters as much in this election as any other election,” Rivoire said. “These kinds of decisions can make a candidate win by one vote, by two votes.”

Michael MacKenzie is the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at  Vancouver Island University. In an interview on Midcoast Morning, he tells host Joe Pugh that young people are typically less likely to vote in any election.

“This is especially true with respect to municipal elections because many young people are moving around a lot,” MacKenzie said.

He said while many of his students are from Nanaimo, he also sees many students from elsewhere less motivated to vote in Nanaimo.

“They're here; they're going to do their degree; they live here, they are entitled to vote because they have an address here, and they're Canadian citizens,” MacKenzie said. “But maybe they really feel like they're part of a different community.”

As a political studies professor, MacKenzie said he teaches his students how politics connects with the issues that matter most to them.

“I don't tell them how to vote. We talk about lots of issues, and I don't shy away from taking my own positions on issues. But I create an environment for my students to take their positions on issues, and I'm happy to disagree and talk through those disagreements with my students,” he said. “I certainly tell them to vote. I think that that's important, and I encourage them to be active in various ways.”

He said it is important for voters to stay informed on where candidates stand through local news.

“This information is available to people in Nanaimo, and it's you know if you have an internet connection, a lot of it's freely available,” MacKenzie said. “If you have a radio, it's freely available. So we do have news and information available.”

But Mackenzie strongly cautions people against only using social media for candidate information.

“I think it's toxic, and there's very few editorial processes that that govern that space,” he said. “It's very hard for people to navigate it well. There's some good information, I don't doubt that, but there's a lot of bad information, and there's no real effort to coordinate what people put up there.”

General Voting Day for the local election is October 17th with advance voting on October 14th.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

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