{"id":31827,"date":"2022-08-25T16:30:42","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31827"},"modified":"2022-08-25T16:30:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:30:48","slug":"town-eyes-targeted-communication-to-boost-awareness-of-ward-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/town-eyes-targeted-communication-to-boost-awareness-of-ward-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Town eyes \u201ctargeted communication\u201d to boost awareness of Ward system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This October\u2019s Municipal Election will be a very different one than in years past for Aurora residents as the Town adopts a brand-new Ward system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out is the old system in which residents were, most recently, able to vote for one mayoral candidate and up to six members of Council. This time around, residents will still be able to vote for one mayoral candidate, but just one Council candidate to represent their specific communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the biggest change from elections in years past in terms of how the electoral system works,\u201d says Town Clerk Mike de Rond, noting in the weeks ahead the Town will focus on \u201ctargeted communications\u201d to \u201cmake sure residents are aware of the new system and the change they haven\u2019t experienced before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot to get across to people,\u201d he continues. \u201cSometimes they are a little bit apathetic but we\u2019re doing everything we can to make sure they\u2019re aware of adopting a Ward system and, going forward, this is how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adopting the new Ward System was a decision made by the 2018-2022 Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While residents in the previous municipal election voted against adopting a Ward system in a Town-wide referendum, the outgoing Council decided that the time was right to adopt it and hired consultants to define six wards Town-wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court of Canada\u2019s Carter Decision [in the 1990s] talked about when you\u2019re re-aligning electoral districts and you\u2019re subdividing territory these are the principles you align with: the overarching one is rep by pop (representation by population),\u201d says de Rond. \u201cAll of our wards are supposed to be the same population \u2013 difficult to be that close, but plus or minus 15 per cent is the accepted variance on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other criteria included obvious landmarks such as the railway line that bisects Aurora as well as communities of interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you think of stable neighbourhoods on the west side of Town in older Aurora versus the newer area in the northeast, those aren\u2019t really compatible so you don\u2019t put them in the same ward if you can avoid it,\u201d says de Rond. \u201cConsultants sat down and used population projections from reputable sources and came up with this. It is, in their estimation, the fairest way. It was the decision of Council to adopt a Ward system but [the consultants] were here saying, \u2018If you want to adopt a Ward system, here\u2019s what we think is the fairest model.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Ward system was a hotly debated topic across the community, and while its implementation was greeted both positively and negatively, de Rond says the Town may see some benefits once candidates are duly elected and find their places at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a single point of contact,\u201d he says. \u201cOur customer service staff will tell you right now they get people all the time asking, \u2018Who is my Ward Councillor?\u2019 Well, \u2018Here are your six options plus the Mayor.\u2019 This is going to be a lot simpler. There is one person to go to and just have your questions answered or have your issue aired to let them know this is what\u2019s happening. Other than that, the government is still seven members coming together to make a decision but I do think the single point of contact is something that residents will see as a difference going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVoters will find the experience of voting isn\u2019t so different than it has [been] in the past. It\u2019s exactly the same as 2018. Internet voting in the advanced period ends the day before the election. You\u2019ll still get your voter notification card in the mail that says if you want to vote online here\u2019s how you do it, if you want to vote in advance at the Seniors\u2019 Centre here\u2019s the times, and if you want to vote on voting day here\u2019s your voting location and you can vote with your paper ballot counted by tabulator. The difference is instead of a list of 20 councillors and it says \u2018Vote for Six\u2019 it will be \u2018Vote for One.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the upcoming election, candidates, and the Ward system, visit www.aurora.ca\/en\/your-government\/elections.aspx<\/a> or email the Clerk\u2019s office at elections@aurora.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This October\u2019s Municipal Election will be a very different one than in years past for Aurora residents as the Town adopts a brand-new Ward system. Out is the old system in which residents were, most recently, able to vote for one mayoral candidate and up to six members of Council. This time around, residents will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2022-08-25-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8hl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-09 14:42:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}