City considers multi-language election ads
A report suggests the city should reach out to new Canadians with multi-language advertising as one way to increase voter turnout
The City of Calgary wants to increase voter turnout in future elections, and it plans on reaching out to new Canadians to do so.
In a report going before the city council on Monday, returning officer Barb Clifford spells out a strategy that includes more voter outreach for immigrants, youth and the homeless.
The city also wants to increase multicultural communication by publishing information about the electoral process in various languages. That would include translating the same election advertising we now see in English language media to other languages if the proposal is accepted by council.
Clifford told Metro she couldn’t name the specific languages the city would target, adding it depends on the available non-English media in the city.
Up until now, the city has only ever published non-English advertisements in a local Chinese language newspaper.
Clifford said there has been a lot of research done asking the question why certain groups such as youth don’t vote. She said none of that research provides meaningful answers or solutions.
Her solution is just to reach out and ask those communities.
“We need to talk to them (outside of election years) and ask, why don’t you routinely vote? What are the issues?” she said.
Other proposed ways of increasing voter turnout mentioned in the report include online or telephone voting, but the city cannot use those methods due to the Local Authorities Election Act.
In a report going before the city council on Monday, returning officer Barb Clifford spells out a strategy that includes more voter outreach for immigrants, youth and the homeless.
The city also wants to increase multicultural communication by publishing information about the electoral process in various languages. That would include translating the same election advertising we now see in English language media to other languages if the proposal is accepted by council.
Clifford told Metro she couldn’t name the specific languages the city would target, adding it depends on the available non-English media in the city.
Up until now, the city has only ever published non-English advertisements in a local Chinese language newspaper.
Clifford said there has been a lot of research done asking the question why certain groups such as youth don’t vote. She said none of that research provides meaningful answers or solutions.
Her solution is just to reach out and ask those communities.
“We need to talk to them (outside of election years) and ask, why don’t you routinely vote? What are the issues?” she said.
Other proposed ways of increasing voter turnout mentioned in the report include online or telephone voting, but the city cannot use those methods due to the Local Authorities Election Act.
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