Friday, November 15, 2013

Some Arts, some crafts, a little food and maybe even a ballot cast...

Prince Rupert's residents will make their annual trek to the Civic Centre on Saturday, ready to find that just right gift among some of the offerings of the Kaien Island Craft Fair.

Circling the Gymnasium exploring the tables, some 80 of them there for the viewing, sampling (and the artisans hope purchasing) the variety of home made gifts and food stuffs available.

As they do the tour of the Craft Tables, the City is hoping that those that are eligible to vote, take a side trip to the Auditorium and cast a ballot in the Prince Rupert City Council by-election.

The campaign for NDP MLA Jeniffer Rice's open seat on City Council, has made for a rather low key affair, with a one night public forum and a few advertisements making up much of the campaign.

The six candidates for office, will be hoping that by 8 PM Saturday night, that they have managed to get their message across in the short run up to election day.

What those messages may is a bit of a mystery however, for the most part all offered up some variation of the theme of seeking a more open and transparent council, the talking point that always seems to arrive whenever Prince Rupert's residents go to the polls.

How they would wish to achieve that though wasn't made very clear during the campaign.

Much of what we know about the six, is from their short notes in their advertising campaigns, or by way of their campaign signs that dot lawns and public spaces around the city.

For the most part, success when the vote total comes in will most likely depend on how well they managed get the vote out among their most active followers.

Those candidates that have set the best foundation for their campaign and bring strong support to election day, should one would think find the most success on Saturday.

Voter turnout will be an interesting thing to review, one of the reasons that the Craft Fair holds the third Saturday in November spotlight, is the hope that the Municipal electoral process gains a spin off benefit from all of those residents gathered in one place.

That theory will get a pretty good test this time around, By-elections for the most part generally see voting patterns decline.

As we reviewed on the blog back on October 29th, the voting public sometimes doesn't put a lot of interest in by-elections.  That review of the recent example of Coquitlam, which like Prince Rupert was looking to replace a Councillor departing for the Legislature, found that there wasn't much of a stampede to the polling booth.

Whether Prince Rupert can improve on their result will be known sometime Saturday evening.

You can review some of the items of interest that popped up during the last few weeks from our By-election backgrounder.

Voting takes place at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre Auditorium, the voting booths open at the up at 8 AM on Saturday, closing at 8 PM.

Results will follow shortly after the polls close.

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