Carol Auld, MA 09, was appointed for a 10-year term as a returning officer for Elections Canada.
Returning officers are appointed for a 10-year term by the chief electoral officer of Canada, to whom they report directly.
Looking to the upcoming 2015 federal election, Auld plans to call on her background in media studies, her work with community-based initiatives and her experiences working on municipal and provincial elections.
“My Concordia education gave me the critical analysis skills to understand structural problems,” she says. “From my experience working on a grassroots level, I have an understanding of what it takes to organize and mobilize a community.”
As returning officer, Auld will set up an office and hire hundreds of people to work the voting stations and oversee ballot counting on voting day.
In her new role, Auld is focused on ensuring that everyone in her riding understands where they sit on the newly distributed electoral map.
Every 10 years, explains Auld, the electoral district boundaries are redrawn to reflect population changes. “This makes for a situation where people on two different sides of the same street can be divided into different ridings,” she says.
“My riding in downtown Toronto is one of the most populated in Canada,” she says. One of her goals will be to create a communications plan to reach the largest number of voters in her constituency possible.
Auld is a firm believer in the power of democracy to level the political playing field.
“It’s all part of setting the framework of engaging in this process we call democracy. Every Canadian citizen has the right to cast a vote. Whether they use it or not is another story.”
Auld hopes to encourage eligible voters to ensure their registration is up to date and that they have accurate information about any electoral boundary changes that may affect them.
Her primary message to Canadians: “Make sure to get out and vote come election day!”