{"id":23141,"date":"2022-10-19T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=23141"},"modified":"2022-10-17T09:32:31","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:32:31","slug":"open-space-student-votes-pointless-in-fractured-crd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2022\/10\/19\/open-space-student-votes-pointless-in-fractured-crd\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Student votes pointless in fractured CRD"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was pointless for students to vote in the municipal election because chances are you live in a completely different municipality than where you go to school and the routes you take to get there each day. When considering the divisions of the 13 municipalities of the Capital Regional District, a system that serves just over 400,000 residents, we see that many people\u2014including students\u2014are robbed of their ability to have a say on matters that are important to them within their daily lives because we generally do not work, study, or play within a single municipality and yet only have a vote in the one where we live.<\/p>\n

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Consider affordable housing and reliable transit, examples that were correctly cited as being important to students in this newspaper before the election.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result of the ever-increasing cost of living, students are being pushed further away from their campus when having to decide where to live. If you come in to either Camosun campus from the Westshore communities, you traverse through two or three separate municipalities before reaching your destination. If you did cast a ballot in this past election with an eye to housing plans that addressed affordability, it\u2019s likely that none of the candidates you selected would have any impact on housing decisions around your campus. Does it matter that you took the time to carefully select candidates with effective housing proposals only to see that they are limited to create change on a postage-stamp-sized parcel of land where you go to eat a meal and lay your head?<\/p>\n

The housing crisis highlights the need for reliable public transit as most students cannot afford a vehicle of their own and are required to commute across the CRD. Transit is a local issue, with municipalities determining the infrastructure available within their jurisdictions. But, even if the municipality you live in takes transit seriously, that doesn\u2019t help your route when it goes through one that doesn\u2019t and is actively throttling traffic throughout their jurisdiction. You can\u2019t effectively address transit when your options are limited to those responsible for the part where you get on the bus and travel for a few minutes before entering another municipal jurisdiction with its own agenda that you are shut out from having a voice in. Does it matter that you researched the transit policies of each candidate to decide who would best serve you as a student when most of the route you depend on is closed off from any meaningful input on your part?<\/p>\n

Local government is supposed to be about bringing mundane but tremendously important services closer to the people who rely on them. It\u2019s for this reason that taking the time to research candidates and vote in local elections is very important. But until we have a truly regional democratic system which reflects the realities of life within the CRD, do you really think your vote will have an impact on your life?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was pointless for students to vote in the municipal election because chances are you live in a completely different municipality than where you go to school and the routes you take to get there each day. When considering the divisions of the 13 municipalities of the Capital Regional District, a system that serves just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,275],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","category-october-19-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t