Barriers to voting make it difficult for newcomers to vote in Calgary municipal elections, city says

Canadians born outside of the country are less likely to vote in municipal elections, according to the City of Calgary.

And it's trying to do something about that.

This month, city officials are launching an online survey, focus groups and consultations with immigrant organizations to find out what's keeping newcomers away from the ballot box.

"Some of the questions cover things like an individual's interest in local government services, their knowledge of local government, and where they found information from the last general election, which was October 2021," said Andrew Brouwer, the deputy city clerk.

"Why they voted or why they didn't vote … and if they didn't, would they vote again in the future."

The goal is to help get more new Canadians interested in voting during the next civic election, which is set for 2025. The city hopes to reach 2,000 people through the survey.

But it goes beyond interest.

Factors such as accessibility, transportation, limited access to information and even a sense of disenfranchisement can deter new Canadians from casting their ballots on election day, according to Centre for Newcomers CEO Anila Lee Yuen.

"Voters not necessarily feeling like what they are seeing in terms of the candidates … in terms of the platforms, whatever it is that they are relevant to their current needs, or they don't feel like their voices are going to be heard," she said.

"There's large portions of our population that really feel disenfranchised, don't feel that their vote is going to count. So all of those different factors collectively lead to newcomers not voting."

After doorknocking in last year's election campaign, Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal came to believe the city should do more to educate newcomers about local government if it wants them to get involved.

A lot of the sentiments he says he heard at the door amounted to residents feeling that their votes wouldn't count, or that for politicians, it's just a job and that voters' views won't matter to them.

"One of the, you could say, underlying themes was a distrust of elected officials," Dhaliwal said.

"It's hard for them to understand what exactly does a municipal politician do."

In last year's municipal election, the total voter turnout was 393,090 — meaning that around 46 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.

With members of newcomer groups perceived to be the least likely to vote, barriers to voting need to be broken in order to make the process more accessible, according to Lee Yuen.

"There could be cultural nuances and differences in play, but overwhelmingly it really is the physical barriers to voting .... like the actual physical barriers in terms of of work, in terms of scheduling, in terms of ... babysitting and childcare needs, transportation, access to the information." 

"Those are predominantly what we had seen at the Centre for Newcomers," she said.