Every four years, British Columbians are asked to choose the people who will make decisions closest to home. This October, that opportunity comes again. On Saturday, October 17, 2026, voters across British Columbia will elect mayors and councillors, regional district directors and school trustees. Local elections often attract far less attention than provincial or federal contests. Too many people still do not know exactly what they are voting for, who is responsible for what or why their local ballot matters. That’s where civic literacy comes in.
Civic literacy is the knowledge and understanding people need to participate meaningfully in public life. It means knowing how governments work, what elected officials are responsible for, how decisions are made, where public money goes and how local citizens can hold their representatives accountable. It is more than knowing the names of political leaders. It is the understanding of who has the authority to make decisions and who does not. It is knowing our participation strengthens democracy. That distinction matters enormously on Haida Gwaii.
There is no single mayor, council or government that “runs” all of Haida Gwaii. Governance on Haida Gwaii is a multi-tiered structure that blends municipal administration, regional cooperation and Indigenous sovereignty. The incorporated municipalities on Haida Gwaii include the Village of Masset, the Village of Port Clements and the Village of Daajing Giids. Each village has its own elected mayor and council. Residents outside these municipalities fall within the North Coast Regional District’s electoral areas. Electoral Area D covers Tlell, Tow Hill, Lawn Hill and Miller Creek. Electoral Area E primarily includes Sandspit. The Haida Nation has its own governance and jurisdictional relationships that are distinct from municipal and regional governments. Residents of Old Massett and Skidegate have their own Band Councils’ governance.
Municipal councils deal with the nuts and bolts of community life: local bylaws, taxation, municipal services, infrastructure, land-use decisions, budgets and other responsibilities established under provincial legislation. The North Coast Regional District provides regional services and governance for its electoral areas and participating municipalities.
Local government can sometimes seem distant because its decisions do not make national headlines. However, local decisions can be intensely personal. They can affect housing and development, roads and infrastructure, water and sewer systems, recreation, emergency planning, local taxation, community facilities and economic development. A municipal council may not determine provincial health policy or federal fisheries policy, but it can have a profound influence on the condition in which people live.
The same is true of school trustees. Haida Gwaii’s School District 50 has its own elected Board of Education. The district serves communities across Haida Gwaii, including Masset and the surrounding area, Port Clements, Daajing Giids, Sandspit and Skidegate. Our School District relies on elected trustees to shape the public education environment for local youth.
One of the easiest mistakes a voter can make is to fill out the municipal portion of the ballot and ignore the school trustee election. That would mean leaving one of the most important local decisions in the hands of fewer voters.
School trustees are not simply honorary representatives. They are elected members of the Board of Education and are responsible for governing the school district and making decisions about public education within the district. Their work includes matters such as the district’s budget, policies, facilities and the overall direction of public education. These decisions reach into classrooms, schools and families.
For parents and grandparents, the trustee vote deserves the same attention as the mayoral race. For students and young people, it is a vote about the institutions that shape their education. For everyone who pays taxes or cares about the future of the community, it is a vote about a major public investment.
Local elections often see lower turnout than provincial or federal ones, but the stakes are just as high. Local elections deserve attention because local government is where democracy becomes tangible. It is where a budget becomes a road project, where a policy becomes a bylaw, where a school-board decision becomes a classroom reality and where a community’s priority becomes spending decisions. For Haida Gwaii, the October ballot offers voters a chance to choose people who will help shape the next four years of life in our communities.
A ballot is not just a piece of paper. There is a tendency to think that one vote cannot change much, particularly in a small community like ours but local elections can be decided by relatively small margins. More importantly, voting is not simply about predicting who will win. It is about choosing who will exercise public authority on your behalf. A ballot is a delegation of power. When residents stay home, they do not escape local government. They simply surrender their opportunity to help choose who makes those decisions. The people elected in October will inherit the responsibility for decisions that may last well beyond the excitement of election night.
On Haida Gwaii where communities are small and decisions are felt immediately, every vote carries weight. Whether you are concerned about housing, roads, sewer treatment, emergency preparedness, youth programs, recreation or cultural education, your ballot is a tool for shaping the future of our islands. A healthy democracy depends not only on people having the right to vote, but on people understanding what their vote means. That is civic literacy.