It has been nearly four years since municipalities had their last election, which means it is time for another. Across Alberta residents will converge upon local gymnasiums, community centres, and churches to cast their votes for councillors and the mayor.

In many ways municipalities are the most directly responsible for the happiness and prosperity of their residents. Municipal elections should never be an exercise in who has the most, biggest, or best looking signs.

Everybody knows why generally speaking it is important to vote, but I wanted to lay out a few specific  considerations to prospective voters ahead of this years’ election.

1. Get to know who the candidates are

Take a few moments to learn about who the candidates are. What kind of past experience or qualifications do they have that will enable them to do the best possible job? What is their platform and how does it align with your vision for the community?

2. Vote with business in mind

Businesses are not entitled to a vote, but consider that in Red Deer, business pays a little more than twice the tax on the assessed value of the property compared to a residence, employ Red Deerians, and provide the goods and services we all rely on. So, perhaps consider how the candidates stance may affect the ongoing and future prosperity of business in your City.

3. You can vote strategically

In Red Deer you can vote for up to eight candidates, but you don’t have to! If only four of the candidates align with your beliefs, you can just vote for just them and increase their chances of getting elected.

4. How they plan to grow the municipality and manage competing demands

Most municipalities rely on perpetual, ongoing growth of the tax base to finance their capital plans and operating budgets. This is because the alternative is even higher tax increases than we are used to.  So how does the candidates platform attract new residents and business, and retain the current? Do they have a strategy to address the different social issues? How will they balance the wants and needs of citizens (such as a new swimming pool) with maintaining a competitive and attractive tax rate?
 
The above blog can be summarized by an excellent Franklin D. Roosevelt quote: “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
 
We invite you all the attend the all candidate forum for the council and mayoral candidates for the City of Red Deer October 4^th at 6:00 pm at the Harvest Centre, Westerner Park.
   
As well make sure to stay tuned to ourselves and the local media for more information about the upcoming candidates.