Hey look, news!

This article appeared in Monday Magazine's "The Week" today, written by Danielle Pope.

Blog your city fears away

In the name of voter participation, one community member is doing his part to generate interest around the city’s council by-election.

Simon Nattrass, who ran for city council in 2008 at age 19, has traded in his election hat for one focused on raising public awareness around municipal politics and getting people the information they need. Nattrass has started a new blog focused on any and all media surrounding the upcoming by-election. The site, found at victoriavotes.ca, is a mission in fostering the informed vote.

“We ask, ‘Why don’t people vote?’ but when you think about it, it’s all to do with access to information—and clear access at that,” says Nattrass.

While Nattrass garnered most of the site’s information from media outlets, political bloggers and the City of Victoria’s website, he said he found it often frustrating to navigate through a half hour’s worth of pages to reach the info he was looking for.

Natrass plans on housing all the city councillor information he can find on the blog, as well as host private interviews with the candidates to answer some burning questions not yet treated by the media. The blog also lists when and where to vote, as well as information about advance polls and polling stations.

“I’m already involved [in politics] and committed, but for people who aren’t, there’s no way they want to spend that kind of time looking for information,” he says. “Elections could be a much greater catalyst for community engagement than they currently are.”

At least someone is paying attention.

Posted in: News,Victoria Votes