{"id":3954,"date":"2026-03-19T15:05:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmajority.ca\/?p=3954"},"modified":"2026-03-23T14:46:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:46:34","slug":"municipal-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmajority.ca\/en\/municipal-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I care about municipal elections…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…and why you should, too<\/p><\/h3><\/div>

Version fran\u00e7aise disponible ici<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

I’m privileged to be living in a fairly walkable, bikeable neighborhood, but most weeks I still take the bus or the streetcar to go to a dance class, see a concert, play Dungeons & Dragons (<\/span>stay tuned if you want to play too!<\/span><\/a>), or grab some coffee with friends on a patio. I work from home most of the time, but when I need a break from my office corner, I can go hang out at my local library one block over. Last year, I took a sewing class at the community centre, something I had been wanting to do for years. Now I can sew my own clothes (not very well though; maybe I need to take another class!). I\u2019d walk to the community center through a park, and it was always packed full with people of all ages using the soccer and the track fields, or just hanging out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While I’m often preoccupied with big, province or country-wide questions like healthcare, education, or international trade and relations, <\/span>there is so much of my day-to-day life that is affected by decisions made right here, by my local government, at the municipal level.<\/b> Public transportation and infrastructure, business and development, zoning regulations, community services and programming, parks & recreation, there literally isn’t a day that goes by without municipal themes popping up. I’m still leaving out things like garbage management, snow removal, local law enforcement, and more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2026 is a huge year for municipal elections, with <\/span>local governments being elected in NB, ON, MB, BC, PEI, SK and NT.<\/span><\/a> What local governments take care of may vary a little province to province and community to community, but it’s always about quality of day-to-day life \u2013 <\/span>the quality of YOUR life, as a young person living, working, spending money and time in your community.<\/b> Yet, voter turnout in municipal elections is on average the lowest of the three levels of government (municipal, provincial, federal). In some wards (aka electoral districts in a local government election), it is abysmal, with as low as 2.5% turnout in some communities (<\/span>NB 2022 Local Government Elections Report<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At New Majority, we think you should be part of shaping what your daily life looks like. <\/b>And who your councilors are, who your mayor or reeve is, the policies they’ll support and the decisions they’ll make at city council; that’s going to have an impact on your daily life. We’ll never tell you who to vote for: you should be making that decision for yourself. What we’ll do is help you make a plan to vote, figure out the logistics together to make it super smooth sailing for you to go vote and have your say on these municipal matters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can’t vote yourself, or want to go the extra mile?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n