Shame on those who didn't bother to cast ballots

Three quarters of Nanaimo voters didn’t give a rip about how Saturday’s election turned out. That’s the number who stayed home and let one quarter of eligible residents make the decision about who will govern our city for the next four years.

Over the past year we’ve heard a lot of complaining about city council, specifically large property tax increases, along with ill-conceived spending. But it appears that talk is all it was.

The new council has enough left over from the current one to keep them busy. A lot of people were and are concerned with crime, homelessness and mental health issues. Granted, it’s up to the province but unless the city stirs the muck nothing will happen. That’s what has been the history of this issue – move it out of the spotlight and maybe it will go away.

On election night we got the preliminary results with total votes cast for each candidate. A more revealing figure with 18,664 ballots cast, is on what percentage of those ballots did were their names checked off. 

A lot has been made with “topping the polls” getting the most votes among all candidates. Paul Manly, who topped the polls, was checked off on 55.5 per cent of the total ballots, something to remember over the next four years. Hilary Eastmure, the eight-place finisher, was supported by 30.2% of voters. Don Bonner, who finished ninth, got support from 29.6% of the voters.

So, if you’re running in an election with 29 candidates you have to strive to get at least one third of voters supporting you in order to have a chance to win.

Mayor candidates percentage of vote 
Leonard Krog, 12,390 – 66.3%
Tasha Brown, 4,207 –    22.5%
Agnes Provost, 792 –    4.2%
Brunie Brunie, 723 –      3.8%

Council candidates percentage of vote
Paul Manly, 10,366 –               55.5%
Sheryl Armstrong, 10,260 –  54.9%
Ben Geselbracht,  8,383 –     44.9%
Ian Thorpe, 8,040 –                 43.0%
Erin Hemmens, 7,497 –         40.1%
Janice Perrino, 7,131 –         38.2%
Tyler Brown, 6,805 –              36.4%
Hilary Eastmure, 5,650 –       30.2%