I’m an immigrant from Iran. I lived in my hometown of Tehran until my mid 20s. I then moved to Syilx (Okanagan) territory for a PhD program in Interdisciplinary Sustainability Studies at UBC-O, and now live on the territory of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

I was in middle school when the “Green Movement” erupted in Iran. The Iranians had mobilized around a set of ideas for incremental reform within the regime and had voted in record numbers for a reformist candidate, but were rewarded with clearly rigged results. They took to the streets, chanting “Where is my vote?”

The protests were brutally cracked down, and in the decades since, Iranians have rightfully radicalized. The chants calling for fair elections gave way to those saying “down with the entirety of the regime.” Many cycles of protests and crackdowns, each bloodier than the last, followed. Wars that we used to think were always empty threats, became real.

The political contexts of the home I was born in and the home I’ve chosen are very different. But I brought with me two simple lessons that I think are useful here and now.

1. Voting is one step along the path to shaping our communities. If the goal is to build a world that is better and more just, voting for candidates who seem more likely to strive for that is an easy and low-stakes thing to do. But against the powerful forces that wish to maintain inequalities and systems of domination as they are, voting needs to be supplemented with stronger tools – ways of harnessing our collective people power that ensure our votes can’t be ignored.

2. Democracy is not to be taken for granted. Even though voting is just one of the tools we have, it wasn’t always available to us, and many people fought for it to come to be. The people who try to build collective power are always at risk of being harmed by their governments. The more authoritarian the government, the deadlier its crackdown. While our governments here in Canada are not perfect, there are forces that wish to erode even more the imperfect democracy that we have. We cannot lose the progress we’ve made.

I got the chance to exercise these lessons – participating in imperfect electoral politics along with building people power with the aim of strengthening democracy – when I got involved with the student union at my university. I had been active in several environmental, labour and global solidarity grassroots student groups, and saw how little support we had from our well-resourced student union. So I led a multi-year campaign to try to make our student union more responsive and accountable. This took the form of issue-based campaigning during elections, running for office, signing petitions, mobilizing AGM participation, and ultimately establishing a parallel student union.

I learned that getting involved in local politics, as opposed to provincial or national politics, has several advantages: A single person can make a bigger difference, the effects of each action are more immediate and the work of the institution is more personally felt. This is why I’m so excited about leading Dogwood’s Municipal Elections Campaign!

Municipalities (cities, districts, townships and villages) have a huge impact on our day-to-day lives, but too few people pay attention to them. Only 1 in 3 British Columbians vote in municipal elections, compared to around 75 per cent for federal elections.

Focusing locally, we can make a real difference! Not only by mobilizing our communities to get informed and participate in the election, but also by building our power and making our communities more democratic, more accessible and more ambitious. Together,we can make sure self-serving politicians and industry influence have no place in our city halls and town councils.

With that aim, Dogwood is planning a campaign during the upcoming municipal elections to stand up for climate action, Indigenous rights, real affordability solutions and against lobbyist influence. It’s not just about casting a vote. More than that, it’s about making democratic participation a way to build a healthy, resilient community – something we especially need now as the world becomes a scarier, more uncertain place. We can have nice things! But only if we show up.

But first, we want to know your thoughts about municipal elections and what local issues you’ll be thinking about when you mark your ballot. Take our municipal election survey here, if you haven’t yet!