Candidates vying to be Halifaxs next mayor combat apathy and lack of awareness – Halifax [Video]

Candidates running to be Halifax’s next mayor are fighting apathy and a lack of public engagement with municipal politics, experts and candidates say.

“I think that Haligonians, and probably a lot of Canadians generally, are checking out of local politics,” Alex Marland, a professor and political scientist at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., said in a recent interview.

“The irony of it is that municipal politics is actually becoming more important in people’s lives as cities get bigger, as the tax base increases, as cities are asked to do more and more.”

A poll conducted between Sept. 24 and Oct. 2 found that almost half of Halifax voters couldn’t name a single candidate in Saturday’s mayoral election.

The survey of 383 eligible Halifax voters conducted by Atlantic polling firm MQO Research found that 46 per cent of respondents either drew a blank or named someone not in the race — …