Vancouver Voting: Everyone Deserves a Seat at the Table!

 Vancouver Voting: Everyone Deserves a Seat at the Table! 🪑🌍

Hey Vancouver! 🌆

Did you know that right now, some voices in our city never get heard? 😢
The way we vote for city councillors—called at-large voting—means the biggest groups usually win, and smaller communities can get left out. 🏙️💔

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🌟 Imagine Your City Like a Big School!

Your city is like a huge school 🏫, and we need student council members 👩‍🎓👨‍🎓 (like the mayor and councillors) to make big decisions.

Right now, all the students in the whole school vote for all the council members 🗳️. This is called at-large voting.

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😕 Why Some Students Don’t Get Heard

• Some groups of students—like the chess club ♟️ or the art club 🎨—are smaller than the whole school.
• Even if these groups have great ideas 💡, their voices get drowned out by the bigger groups 📢📢📢.
• That means they might never have someone on the council who really listens to them 👂❤️.

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🏆 Kennedy Stewart’s Idea

Kennedy Stewart, who used to be mayor of Vancouver, says:

“This isn’t fair. Everyone deserves a voice!”

He wants to change the rules so smaller groups (like minority communities 🌈🤝) can get their own councillor.

One way to do this is a ward system:

• 🟦 Divide the city into smaller zones or neighborhoods.
• 🟩 Each zone picks its own council member.
• 🟨 Now even the smaller groups have someone speaking for them 🗣️💖.

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💖 Why It Matters

• Right now, the loudest voices win 📣📣, and some people feel like their ideas don’t matter 😢.
• Changing the system could make the city council fairer for everyone 🌍✨.
• It’s tricky, though, because changing the rules is a big deal ⚖️ and people might argue about how to divide zones 🗺️.

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✅ In short:
Right now: biggest groups always win 🏆.
With a ward system: everyone, even the smaller voices, gets heard 🎉👂🌈.

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Vancouver, this is about your community, your neighborhood, your voice. Let’s make sure everyone has a seat at the table 🪑🌍!