Advocates, councillors call for greater engagement in Sask. civic politics [Video]

In municipal elections, Regina hasn’t seen more than a 50-per cent voter turnout since 1988, and Saskatoon turnout regularly falls short of 50 per cent.

Jory Vermette of LiveableYXE helps deliver civic election flyers to saskatoon residents and says better voter engagement starts at the civic level.

“My personal philosophy is if you can get people out for things that are important to them in their community and you can get them to engage with the decision makers at the community level, whether that be ccouncillors or council as a whole itself, you will see momentum drive up to want to engage with politics at a higher jurisdictional level,” Vermette said. “So at the provincial level, on the federal level.”

Regina city councillor Andrew Stevens isn’t running in this election, and says low civic engagement is ironic when it affects voters more than other levels of government.

“Across Canada, historically, …