Abstract
Very little is known about the nature and extent of political participation at the local level in Canada. Three types of information are available. First, some information exists on turnout rates in local elections. The most systematic evidence in this regard is that collected by the Canadian Federation of Mayors and Municipalities. In a 1957 survey of 122 cities and towns, they found that turnout averaged only 38.3 percent in elections held in 1956.1 In a follow-up survey of 14 urban centres with populations exceeding 100,000, they calculated turnout to average 41.3 percent in elections held in 1965 and 1966.2 Similar low rates of t.urnout have been found to exist in local referenda elections (Hahn, 1.968; Sproule-Jones and Van Klavern, 1970), as well as in a study of three of the 11 ward elections in Metropolitan Toronto in 1969 (Hough, 1970). The turnout rates are, it
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