Where the hell were the voters?

Man, this municipal election totally stunk. Seriously - 28% voter turn-out in Fort St. John - yet Hudson's Hope had 70% turn-out, and Dawson Creek, which has 5,000 less people than FSJ had a 40% turn-out? What is going on? Okay, it was snowy and the roads were icy . . . but they were in Dawson and the Hope too.

This annoys me. Obviously. Whatever the results of the election, it was all part of the democratic process, but how can you have a properly democratic process/election, when nobody shows up to vote? I hope they realize, that if they didn't vote, they have absolutely NO right to complain about what goes on in city council.

Of course, the people who will complain the loudest, no doubt will be the ones who didn't vote. I mean, isn't that always the way?

As for the actual results, I supposed I'm mostly pleased with how it turned out. Most of the people I voted for got elected. It's kind of funny though, three of the councillors elected got more votes than either of the mayoral candidates. What does that tell you? Not necessarily that people think that either Jim Eglinski, or mayor-elect Bruce Lantz will do a bad job . . . but rather that more people have more faith in some of the councillor choices, than our choices for mayor.

I tend to think so too.

I'm not saying that I thought Jim did a bad job as mayor. He didn't do as badly as some people would have you believe. Besides, he was only one of 7 people on city council. He only had one vote. He just happened to be the guy who everyone blames. Such is the life of a mayor. And Bruce Lantz is, politically, an unproven entity. You know who I thought would make the best mayor, out of all the people who ran for Fort St. John City Council? Bruce Christensen. After reading the interview with him in the paper and listening to him on the radio, it's clear (to me anyhow) that he would make a good mayor. And he was one of those who got more votes than the mayoral candidates. He got approximately 300 more votes than Bruce Lantz, who is our next mayor. Of course, Larry Evans got even more votes, but I think he does a great job right where he is. As a city councillor.

So we'll see how the city fares over the next three years. I can, and will, complain whenever council does something I don't like - as is my right, since I voted. But I tell you right now, we'd better get a new fire hall, and soon. That is one piece of capital spending that is absolutely necessary. Oh yeah, they'd better hurry up the people who own the Fort Hotel - that thing is an eyesore and needs to be demolished asap. A controlled burn, or a few sticks of dynamite could've fixed that months ago.

Thanks for reading, as always.