On Oct. 22, McMaster students headed to the polls, voting in their respective wards for councillor, mayoral and trustee candidates, respectively. Despite improvements overall for the city, the numbers suggest that student turnout continues to falter.
Overall turnout this year for the city was up from the 2014 municipal election turnout, with 38.6 per cent of eligible voters compared to 34.02 per cent casting a ballot.
Ward 1 also saw an increase in turnout with 8,944 ballots cast, resulting in a 42.52 per cent turnout. This is an improvement from 2014 and 2010, when turnout was at 40.74 per cent and 40.70 per cent, respectively.
Age and McMaster-specific voting stats are not available, but city-wide and poll-by-poll results in Ward 1 offer a glimpse into how many McMaster students voted.
Binkley United Church, Dalewood Elementary School and Temple Anshe Sholom are three of the closest polling stations to campus. In 2014, these three stations counted 1,725 combined votes. This election, that number was at 1,784.
However, this year, a new polling station at the Church of God Hamilton also registered 312 ballots.
McMaster has around 31,000 students. Even if all the votes at the four closest stations were students, the combined 2,096 votes cast at those polls is under 10 per cent of the student population. If only 10,000 Mac students live on campus or in student housing, 2,096 votes would still fall well short of 30 per cent turnout.
Because many students live in other wards and may have voted there, it is hard to measure student turnout completely accurately. However, the polling numbers seem to indicate that student turnout still remains low in student housing areas, with small to modest improvement from 2014 to 2018.
Before the election, the McMaster Students Union ran a MacVotes campaign to encourage students to head to the polls. On the day of, MacVotes continued tabling and walked students to the polling stations.
MSU vice president (Education) Stephanie Bertolo said that candidate campaign staff told MacVotes that a large number of voters at Dalewood Recreation Centre and Binkley United Church registered on the day of the election. Many of these were likely students who had never voted in Hamilton at their current address.
“Overall, I believe we ran a very successful campaign,” said Bertolo. “Many students engaged with the campaign both online and at our table, asking us questions about how to get out to vote.”
Nonetheless, the city-reported polling numbers suggest that the campaign was only somewhat successful in increasing student turnout, at least for this election. One way to potentially improve student turnout is to have more convenient polling stations for students.
During the 2006 municipal election, there was a polling station on campus. However, the station was pulled in 2010 and has not been reinstated since.
Newly elected Ward 1 Councillor Maureen Wilson said in a statement after the election that she supports a McMaster polling station.
“Not having a voting poll at McMaster University campus is not in the best interest of our city, our nation or our democracy,” Wilson said. “We must normalize voting and make it easier, not more difficult.”
Despite the MacVotes team’s increased push to promote voting, it appears many students still opted not to vote. While the underlying factors and reasons for not voting are unclear, is is fair to say there is a lot of work still to be done to motivate students to get civically engaged.
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In the Oct. 22 Hamilton municipal election, Ward 1 was wide-open with 13 candidates looking to be councillors for the first time, while the mayoral race was largely a contest between pro-LRT Fred Eisenberger and anti-LRT Vito Sgro.
Maureen Wilson captured 42 per cent of the of the almost 9,000 votes cast. Jason Allen, Carol Lazich and Sophie Geffros followed with 17, 12 and 10 per cent, respectively. Sharon Anderson, Ela Eroglu and Sharon Cole came last in the results.
Wilson has been involved at various levels in the Hamilton municipal government and local groups. She had also served as chief of staff to the Hamilton mayor from 2000 to 2002.
Wilson’s main campaign focuses were safer streets, affordable housing and improved transit. She is also a staunch supporter of the LRT project.
Specific steps Wilson has proposed to take in order to address housing issues include promoting purpose-built student housing and calling for the government to waive development charges on affordable units. She also believes that the government needs to invest more in public transit.
In a statement released following the election, Wilson said that accountability and unity are key for Hamilton to continue moving forward.
“It is time for Hamilton to move forward with a progressive urban agenda,” Wilson said. “A failure to do so will mean that Hamilton risks falling further behind on issues directly related to economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, inclusivity and our efforts to make sure Hamilton the best place to raise a child and age successfully.”
An inspiring part of the Ward 1 race was the presence of two relatively young candidates: Sophie Geffros and Harrison White.
“We are losing the confidence and attention of our youngest residents,” Wilson said. “Sophie Geffros and Harrison White ran outstanding campaigns and it is the city’s best interest to ensure that they and other like them stay involved and are encouraged to participate.”
In the mayoral race, Fred Eisenberger was re-elected for a second term as mayor with a 54 per cent majority, defeating main challenger, Vito Sgro. Sgro gathered 38 per cent of the votes. No other challenger finished with more than 2 per cent of the 139,000 ballots cast.
Despite Sgro’s momentum, Eisenberger actually finished with a higher percentage of votes than he did in 2014, when he won with just 39 per cent of votes.
Eisenberger’s campaign was largely focused on sustaining progress in Hamilton. His priorities are economic development, affordable housing and infrastructure renewal.
During his term, Eisenberger started a 10-year anti-poverty plan to increase affordable housing. Homelessness dropped 25 per cent from 2016 to 2017 on Eisenberger’s watch, according to a city survey. Nevertheless, many of the problems associated with gentrification, such as poverty and income polarization, have continued intensively.
Nevertheless, as the campaign wore on and the field narrowed to Eisenberger and Sgro, the LRT project became the one defining issue.
“For those that wanted to create a referendum, they actually got one,” Eisenberger said. “And the referendum is pretty clear. It’s 70,000 plus majority of people saying we want to move forward on LRT. I think city councillors need to listen to that.”
While he faces a city council that remains divided on the LRT project, Eisenberger is confident that councillors can work together.
“I’ve always worked together with council. Always have and always will,” said Eisenberger. “We will continue to do the great and important work the city of Hamilton needs to get done.”
Important times lie ahead as LRT and affordable housing projects promise to reshape our growing city.
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