Kitimat Puts Two Dogs on the Mayoral Ballot to Pull Voters to the Polls
Kitimat, B.C., has a turnout problem: only 21 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in the last municipal election. The town's response is to add two canine candidates to the mayor's race, hoping the dogs draw more residents — children included — into the voting habit. It's a publicity stunt with a plaintive core. A dog on a ballot doesn't fix anything structural about local democracy, but it does make the ballot something people talk about at the dinner table, and households that discuss the dog race may end up discussing the actual one. Whether a joke candidacy converts into turnout is an open question; turnout novelties tend to get credit for attention rather than votes.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The 21 per cent figure is the real story. A stunt can get a family to open the voter information mailer, but the dog isn't on the hook for what happens after that.
Cheap cynicism undersells it. The appeal here is explicitly aimed at children, and kids who follow a novelty race grow into adults who know when municipal elections are.
Both can be true: the gimmick works as civic theatre, and the underlying apathy stays exactly where it was. I'd rather see the town publish turnout next cycle than celebrate the dogs.