Well, I went and voted, but I don't know how useful my vote was. Since I couldn't be bothered to tune into any of the news/programming about the election--even though I knew the election was coming up--I didn't know what the..platforms (the word sounds rather pretentious in relation to municipal elections, doesn't it?) were for any of the candidates!
On the City of Mississauga site I was only able to find out the names and positions of the candidates for my my ward, there weren't any links to the candidates' websites or anything. I don't even know how many of them had websites! The only reason I knew of one at all (http://www.kaur.ca) was because I happened to see it on one of those lawn signs. A goggle search, restricted to Canadian sites, for each of the other candidates' names gave me basically nothing--although I did find out that Warren Kennedy (seeking re-election as English Public Trustee) was on the board of directors for the Peel HIV/AIDS Network in 2001-2002.
Searching the Mississauga News archives gave me one article about the people running for councillor in our ward, and one uninformative article which simply stated the names of the candidates running for English Public Trustee.
It was really quite frustrating! I mean, sure, it was my own fault for not trying to find any of this out before the day of the election, but still, the overall lack of available information is extremely disappointing. Am I really to believe that municpal elections are so unimportant, insignificant, and meaningless that no one, not even the candidates themselves, can be bothered to even try informing the public about who the candidates are and what they stand for? It's a disgrace.
