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With close to 100 people running for 24 city council seats in the five largest cities in the Thompson-Okanagan, voters may have had a good excuse to stay home on election day.

After all, how many people have the time or interest to sort through a minimum of a dozen candidates in order to make an informed decision?

It got so bad in Kelowna that, with 32 candidates for eight available seats, holding an all-candidates forum was logistically impossible. While there were several mayoral debates, voters had no chance to see council candidates square off.

That may not actually have been detrimental since forums are not the most effective way to reach the electorate.

“Research shows the most effective campaign strategy is face to face contact,” Hamish Telford, a political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, told iNFOnews.ca. “Door knocking is still the most important strategy that candidates can pursue in an election, followed by a phone contact by a real person – not a robo call – especially if it is the candidate.”

Kamloops had 22 people vying for its eight seats, which was a bit more manageable but still a challenge for voters.

The region’s smaller cities had fewer candidates with 17 in Penticton and thirteen each in West Kelowna and Vernon. There were six seats up for grabs in each city.

But reaching people at home is not so easy these days since so many work during different hours of the day and more and more live in secure apartment buildings. Phoning too, is a challenge when so few have land lines.

If they can find a way to do it, the effort can pay big dividends.

“People have a very, unfortunately, negative perception of politicians these days – they’re all crooks and corrupt and so on and so forth,” Telford said. “But most of them are not. Most of them are just law-abiding citizens who feel strongly about their community and want to make it better.

“So you knock on a lot of doors and you may not get many answers but those voters you do get to meet will be much more likely to vote for you than voters that you don’t meet. When a citizen actually meets a politician they go: 'Oh she was pretty nice." And they think that person’s the exception so, since she was the exception and she was nice, they'll vote for her.”

That strategy seems to have worked for Kelowna mayor-elect Tom Dyas, according to his campaign manager Adam Wilson.

“Almost every single house in Kelowna was either door knocked or campaign material was left there,” he said. “Tom personally, between him and his sister, probably knocked on 10,000 doors or 12,000.”

Not only did they have that face time and were able to build a contact list, it also helped shape the winning campaign’s talking points.

“We learned the issues from Tom’s door knocking,” Wilson said. “Obviously, he framed the issues from Day 1 but, through door knocking and talking to people, we were able to pin down the top issues which were crime, traffic and how high those two things were in relation to the high tax rate that people were experiencing over the last eight years.”

READ MORE: Are political parties meddling in Kelowna elections?

Knocking on thousands of doors is not always practical so attending meet-and-greets is becoming more common or candidates can stand outside shopping malls or liquor stores, Telford suggested.

Another option would be to bring in a ward system, as is used in Lake Country. But that’s the only such system in B.C.

“I’ve lived in B.C. now for 30 years,” Telford said. “I find this at-large system quite bewildering.”

Currently, voters choose candidates from the same pool as all other voters, but in a ward system, a jurisdiction is separated into smaller areas and candidates declare for each individual area.

An at-large system would work if there were strong parties in each city, he said. That happens in Vancouver. Surrey has started running slates but it’s not happening in other B.C. cities.

“A ward system would help voters make sense of it,” Telford said. “Rather than learn about 32 candidates you only have learn about three or four who are running for council in your ward. When you’re talking about a small geographic area, like a ward, the candidates running for council, at least those who are serious, will be able to drop off flyers at a lot of houses in the ward. You’ll have a chance to meet the candidates running in your ward.

Dale Bass advocated for a ward system in Kamloops when she ran, successfully, for council in 2018.

This year, four Kelowna city councillors joined forces just before the election to promote a ward system. None of them got elected.

READ MORE: TOO MANY CANDIDATES: It may be time for a ward system in Kelowna

While only Lake Country has a ward system in B.C., local governments only have to pass a bylaw to change how they elect councillors, according to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

"Changing from an ‘at large’ election to neighbourhood constituencies or wards is a significant shift for any community to make," it said in an email. "Any municipal councils considering this change would be advised to undertake public consultation to engage the community in a discussion about such a change. This could include, for example, open houses, public opinion polls or surveys and may include a form of elector approval such as a referendum to gauge community support.”

Any bylaw that is passed would still have to be approved by the Ministry, it said.

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