Dennis Polin

University of Victoria political scientist Dennis Polin said experience in the United States has shown that news of early results in the east can influence voter actions in later western time zones.

The formation of parties at the municipal level is nothing to shy away from, University of Victoria B.C. politics professor Dennis Polin says.They boost election turnout and help citizens track key issues important to them, he says.

"It is very hard for the public to understand the issues if they cannot get a sense of how different people vote.How do these people remain accountable at election time if people don't have a sense of what it was councilors voted on while they were in office?"Polin says.

One problem for politicians in smaller communities is everybody knows everybody, therefore politicians can have an interest in not exposing their votes for fear of social repercussions, he says.Polin believes such pressures are the cost that comes with sitting on council.

"We have to accept that in our society people disagree and that is not a bad thing.It is supposed to be the great thing about a democracy that we can disagree, we can have our different opinions and we have to tolerate them and we have to mobilize our supporters to support our point of view and sometimes we change people's minds," Polin says.

University of Victoria political scientist Dennis Polin said experience in the United States has shown that news of early results in the east can influence voter actions in later western time zones.

Canadian broadcasters and most news agencies adhered to law on Tuesday, although there was a problem involving CBC-TV in Vancouver that briefly showed some results before polls closed in the Pacific Coast city.

A CBC spokesman said he believes the problem on its Newsworld news network originated with a local cable television provider.

University of Victoria political scientist Dennis Polin said experience in the United States has shown that news of early results in the east can influence voter actions in later western time zones.

Canadian broadcasters and most news agencies adhered to law on Tuesday, although there was a problem involving CBC-TV in Vancouver that briefly showed some results before polls closed in the Pacific Coast city.

A CBC spokesman said he believes the problem on its Newsworld news network originated with a local cable television provider.

University of Victoria political scientist Dennis Polin said experience in the United States has shown that news of early results in the east can influence voter actions in later western time zones.