Changing the Way Hamilton Votes

With an election looming in one year from now, The Bay Observer decided to explore the implications of moving to a city-wide system of electing councillors instead of the current ward system. Opponents of the ward system point to the practice of  councillors focusing on  their own ward issues, often putting the city’s bigger issues aside. Is it time to consider voting for councillors at-large, or having a board of control?  Andrew Sancton is a political science professor at the University of Western and author of Merger Mania: The Assault on Local Government and The Limits of Boundaries: Why City-regions Cannot be Self-governing. Although some Canadian cities do have such voting structures, he cautions Hamilton about it. 

“I know that Hamilton struggled through amalgamation and the legacy of pre-existing municipalities,” said the professor, “and those towns cried out to retain local representation. But communities like Vancouver, Thunder Bay and London have done well with their own hybrid versions of at-large systems.” London'smunicipal government is divided among fourteen ward councillors and aBoard of Control, consisting of four controllers and the mayor.  Historically, the Board of Control was introduced during a period of expansion so the ward councillors could deal with ward issues while the board dealt with problems affecting the entire city. He points out that cities with an at-large component have considered reverting to ward-only ballots, “but at the end of the day the electorate seems to be satisfied with a mix of local and at-large,” said Mr. Sancton. Thunder Bay offers yet another hybrid governance model slightly different. The present municipal government is headed by a city council elected every 3 years, consisting of a mayor (elected at large) and 12 aldermen (5 elected at large, 1 from each of the 7 wards). Council policies are administered by 10 departments and 5 boards or commissions.