Richard Park on my Blog

When I posted about Richard Park, who was running for Victoria city council, I was stunned at the volume of comments that came about.

I only allowed some of them to be posted because many of them were vitriolic or libelous.

The core of the issue seems to be issues related to the Canadian Federation of Students and elections issues at UVic for the student society.

I was involved with student politics in the 1980s when I was at UVic. It still amazes me at how seriously we took it all. How much we thought what we did mattered to anyone or anything. How we were hard done by. The constant feeling or need to see everything in terms of factions.

Most of us seemed to become drunk on our first chance to wield any power and refused to accept that fairness mattered.

Seems student politics are the still same, though even more organized than before at UVic. And it seems CFS is the bigger and more organized form of it.

It amazes me how much money the students are paying to keep the UVSS and CFS afloat in return for what seems to be almost nothing concrete. We kidded ourselves in the 1980s that the mandatory fees students had to pay were justified by the services, but the reality is that the vast majority of students get nothing from the fees they have to pay.

Most of the students are at the university to get an education and are completely ignored by the UVSS. CFS is even more distant from the student needs. Is it really right to expect the students to pay for the UVSS and CFS when they have no choice in the matter? I remember going through a lot of doublethink to be able to live with the idea that the fees that were charged of the students were a reasonable thing.

The fees that have to be paid by fulltime students for the recreation services, the UVSS, the bus pass and I am not sure what else, is something in the order of $400 to $600 per year. I am not certain why more students are not complaining. Only the dental/medical coverage is something you can opt out of.

Recently several student societies in BC have chosen to leave CFS, among them Simon Fraser undergrads and UVic grad students. By all acounts, the campaigns very heated. I wonder if the same might come to UVic some time soon?

Building a Vision for the City

The time has come for the largest municipalities locally to start a planning/visioning process to set the context of what the city will look like over the next fifty years.

It is Victoria and Saanich that need to do this because they are the local governments large enough in population and area to be able to set the tone for what the region will look like. The combined population of the two is close to 200 000 people, almost 2/3s of the regional population. Victoria and Saanich are home to almost all of the office space, the two major post secondary institutions, and much of the retail. What these two municipalities do will have the largest possible impact on the region.

Victoria and Saanich have gone through various planning processes for many neighbourhoods, the problem is that these plans are not dealing with the bigger picture. They are not asking the sort of values questions that are needed so that we know where to go with the city. When there are statements of values, they are too vague and do not have details of strategies of how to achieve them. They also do not look far enough into the future.

There are several hard things that need to be addressed in any planning, there are problems because there are decisions to be made. Any planning process that says the status quo is likely to continue is one where the people did not make any real decisions. It is a document that will not do anything more than make work for some consultants.

An example of a process that did something different is Vancouver's CityPlan. This was an amazing planning process that Vancouver started to undertake in 1992. The process is still underway in different neighbourhoods of the city. In the initial process Vancouver managed to have about 4% of the people actively take part in the process. The city did some innovative things to get people involved in the process. The one that really impressed me was the Ideas Fair, a chance for anyone to put forward their ideas for the city, but it also talked about the social aspects of the city through cultural presentations.

No one has ever tried to really engage the people in this region of what we want our future to look like. There are big questions to ask:

• Our population is growing - where will the new people live? 4000 people each year.
• How do we improve the environmental footprint of the city?
• How do we make the city affordable for people?
• Our population is aging, what will this mean for the future?
• What can we do to build better neighbourhoods?
• What do you want our city to be known for, what is our image?
• What do we need to do make us healthy people?
• What are our physical infrastructure needs for the next fifty years?

There are a lot more questions that could be asked but this is really part of a process that needs to be inclusive of the public.

Ideally I would like to see Saanich and Victoria do this together, but I am almost 100% that this would never happen. What would be a reasonable second option is if both municipalities did this at the same time and cooperated with some of the neighbourhoods that straddled the borders.

In an ideal world I would hope that Oak Bay and Esquimalt would do something similar, but that is really hoping for too much at all. The very nature of governance of the these smaller local governments means they are really too small to take a bigger picture view. As an example, Oak Bay has no industrial lands, virtually no offices, no gas stations, and takes no responsiblity for regional issues. How can a place like that do planning that considers the bigger regional picture?

My concern is that Victoria will not take on any bigger picture planning because of the issues of downtown. The homelessness issue may swallow up everything for the foreseeable future.

I really hope Saanich does start a process of visioning because it is at a major crossroads as a local government. As the region has grown, the core of the city has expanded. The denisty has risen and this is pushing into Saanich. With the development of the Town and Country mall into the new Uptown centre and with pockets of increased denisty along Shelbourne and elsewhere the nature of Saanich is changing.

Saanich has to plan now for the transition from a bedroom community to a something more. Other communities have managed to do this. In the lower mainland this has occured in Richmond, Coquiltlam and Surrey.

Yes for BC STV - Campaign in Greater Victoria

Once again I involved with Yes for BC STV campaign and we are getting an active group going here in Victoria. In 2005 I was deeply involved with the Yes campaign. We came so close last time, only a few percentage points short of 60%.

This time around we will be better organized than last time. We already have move volunteers involved than last time and lot of these are people that were not involved last time.

We will be running active campaigns in all seven of the ridings in the Capital Region with the goal being a strong get out the vote campaign. I believe that we can make up half of the ground we need to pass STV in this region.

As we get underway, I will be posting events and links here about the campaign.

Please consider getting involved as we can use all the help we can get.

Greater Victoria and sports

This is a long way off of the topics I have discussed for the last few months - Victoria and sports teams.

In Victoria there has been a patchy level of support for sports teams. When I was at UVic in the 1980s this was the era of the mens' basketball team winning year in and year out, seven years straight. I was at UVic at the time but never went to watch a game.

HOCKEY:
Victoria had a team in the Western Hockey League, the Victoria Cougars. The played here from 1962 to 1994 before moving to Prince George. People did not show to watch the games. Go even further back and we had a major professional team in Victoria that won the Stanley Cup in 1925, the last time any team on the west coast of North America did that.

Currently we have the Salmon Kings hockey team in the ECHL. They are marketing themselves but have lackluster attendance. I think it would help if the games were broadcast on radio or TV.

We also have the Victoria Grizzlies that play in the BCJHL - a junior A league. Once again no broadcasting and no buzz in the city. We also have a Major Midget team, the South Island Thunderbirds.

We also have five teams locally in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League, though this is junior B. Junior B does not produce a lot of players that go onto more of a hockey career.

There is a lot of hockey to watch in this region, but no one really paying attention to all of it, and certainly no buzz about any of the hockey other Cleve Dheensaw at the Times Colonist.

I think it is time for UVic to start a varsity hockey team and to build several sheets of ice out at UVic for the campus community and Gordon Head. It strikes me as a great thing for Saanich and UVic to partner on.

BASEBALL:
Next spring we are supposed to see a new team playing, the Victoria Seals of the independent minor Golden Baseball League. In the last 30 years there have been four attempts to have a minor league professional team here and each one failed very quickly.

SOCCER:
We currently have the Victoria United of the PCSL, a third tier league. We did have a team in the Canadian Soccer League, but that is no more. UVic does well in university soccer most years.

We have a lot of people playing in a lot of sports at an elite level, but the public seems uninterested.

We have numerous athletes that live in this area that have won Olympic medals. The Pacific Sports Institute at Camuson has an amazing set of people that train there, the best in the world.

There is no talk about the teams on local radio, there is no local radio call in show for sports and no local broadcast. There are no forums or online groups that deal with Victoria sports teams.

We are short of facilities to watch the teams. Watching Vikes basketball at UVic is not the greatest spectator experience I have gone through. I was there watching the Vikes play the Trinity Western Spartans on Friday night and it was not full, it looked like less than 1000 people.

Royal Athletic Park and Centenial Stadium are 'alright' to watch sports at, but not great. Langford is now talking abtuo adding a stadium with 1600 seats and the velodrome in Colwood will make way for a larger stadium than that. Still, none of them can play host to a large crowd, not that we get them. Maybe better facilities will help, but I am not certain.

If you go to Kamloops, you can not help but notice the Blazers of the WHL. The Blazers sell out 6400 seats in a town 1/3 the size of our city. In Victoria you could miss all of the sports, including the best the world that train on Elk Lake.

I know that a lot of you will think that sports are not important to us at all. I disagree, sports are a way for a community to build a common idenity. So much of our society is beamed at us from the rest of the world. Bars are full when Canucks play, but they are not a team from here. Take a look at Regina and the Rider Nation - they can support a CFL team and they build a social capital between people in the community through the football games. Victoria has more people than Regina, but no one talks about having a CFL team here.

UVic is a Canadian university that constantly has winning teams. The univeristy does very little to encourage the students to take part in this as a community - the games are free for students to go to!

At the summer olympics, a lot of Victoria residents won medals. Why did we not have a parade down Government street for them to laud their efforts?

Support of our local sports teams is a sign of how healthy our community spirit is. I see Victoria's community spirit on life support.

OPEN HOUSE: Learn More About Victoria's Steel Water Main Project

I thought this looked interesting. Most people do not think about the underlying infrastructure of the city. We just assume it will be there and will work - magical thinking. Here is the notice from the city

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

An 8 km section of the City of Victoria’s water distribution system is being rehabilitated.
The majority of this work will be completed between December 2008 and August 2009.

The work will take place in Fernwood, Hillside/Quadra, and South Jubilee. At times,
the neighbourhoods of Oaklands and Rockland may be indirectly affected due to re-routed traffic.

Two open houses are planned for the public to learn more. Registration is not required.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Thursday, November 27, 2008, 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Fernwood Community Association
1923 Fernwood Road

For more information, visit:
www.victoria.ca/steelwatermain
or call 250.361.0443

Michelle Harris
Coordinator, Corporate Communications
City of Victoria

Depaving in this City

I recently came across the group called Depave. The idea is to work on reducing the amount of land that is covered by pavement or concrete. This is an idea I have been thinking about for some years because the urban environment is so full of impervious surfaces.

Between roads, parking lots, and buildings, a very high percentage of the land in an urban setting is covered with something. If the ground is open the sky there there are many benefits to the community. More plants can grow and this traps more CO2. The rain can soak into the ground in more places and reduce the amount of water going into the storm sewers. This protects from flooding and makes flows in streams more consistent.

I see the idea of depaving as a something in the similar vein as the movement to daylight creeks.

Here are some quick ideas of areas in this region where we could easily reduce the amount of pavement.

I like the idea of Cloverpoint being closed to cars. The loop at the bottom covers 1.3 acres of land.

Mount Tolmie makes sense, one could get rid of at least one side of the drive over the mountain. The access from the north side is 650 metres long - another 1.2 acres of land.

How about getting rid of pavement in Beacon Hill? Do we really need to have that full network of roads in the park? There are 4.4 km of paved roads in the park. 1.6 km og this is Arbutus Way, Bridge Way, Heywood Way, the road from Douglas to the lake, and Lovers Lane - none of them needed in the park that I can tell. That is 3.3 acres of land.

Rithet Street in James Bay is very wide. It is about 13 metres wide for the street, 17 metres with the sidewalks. Niagara Street to the north of it is 8.7 metres and 12 metres wide respectively. You could gain about 1/4 of an acre if Rithet were the same width as Niagara.

Is Beach drive needed through the Golf Course? That is 600 metres of road that is not needed with an area of 1.5 acres.

These suggestions would reduce the area of pavement in the city by 7.5 acres

Anyone else with ideas of where we could depave?

Getting Elected - What You Need To Do

I was asked in a comment to post on what I would do to get elected. I will give my thoughts on what it takes to get elected to a mid sized local government such as Victoria or Saanich.

What I am writing applies to people that are not incumbents. You can read here how well incumbents did in 2008 in the Greater Victoria area.

You need a team.

No one can manage to run in an election and have any chance of getting elected unless you have a team behind you. You need at least 30 to 50 people willing to help you get elected, more people than that would be better. 200 is a reasonable number to try and aim for as a team of supporters.

First person you need on your team is a campaign manager. This person needs to be in place long before the election and needs to be in full control of the campaign. You have to find someone you trust to surrender control of the campaign to. The campaign manager will get the leaflets designed and printed, will look after the schedule, will seek media, will manage the money, will keep you from burning out. This is not something to debate, you should never run your campaign because your job is to meet people and get elected. Someone else has to take on everything else and you have to defer to them.

The second person you need is a fundraiser. You need someone long before the election that is willing to call all your friends and family and get money from them for your campaign. This person has to focus on getting you the money to run a real campaign and have it in the bank by labour day.

The third person you need is a volunteer coordinator. If you have a team of more than 30 people, someone has to keep them in order and keep them doing useful tasks.

The fourth person you need is a media person. This person will write for you, they will put out press releases, letter to the editor and more. They will also coordinate your online presence.

Name Recognition

If no one knows who you are, there is no chance of getting elected. If someone is serious about trying to get elected in 2011, they need to start now and get their name out into the public realm.

Name recognition has to be more than just people knowing your name, they have to have some idea of who you are and what you are about. You need to promote yourself constantly.

You have to figure out how to stand out in the crowd. You have to be noticed. Media stunts are always good. Have a group of people sit down over beers and come up with one new and innovative thing your campaign can do each week.

Get prominent people to endorse you. Their name will give you standing among people that know them. Make sure you let people know who is endorsing you. Even better is if you can get them to introduce you to their network of friends.

Money

You need enough money to have a presence in the campaign, but you also need to have that money in place before the election starts.

Having signs up early and on lawns is important. Signs cost money and take time to be made.

You need to get 100 000 to 200 000 leaflets/brochures made. You need them ready early and you need to get them out to people. There are over 60 000 voters in Victoria and each person needs to get your brochure. Many people need to see several things from you before they remember you.

Advertising in the media - early in the campaign it makes a big difference, later it is lost with everyone else. A full page ad in the TC in mid October will make people take notice and push you to the top of the list of potential winning candidates.

Minimum of $10 000 is what you need, $20 000 would be better.

Personal Contact

You need to meet as many people as possible and you need to make sure they remember you. If you can get 8000 to 9000 people remember you, you have a strong chance of getting elected.

You have about 30 seconds to make an impression, be certain of what you say in that time. You need to have a clear and comfortable short message you can say in that time - this is not the time to ad lib. You may need to have four of five different ones depending on who you are meeting.

You can personally meet about 300 to 400 people a day. In a month you can reach your goal of 9000 people. It is a brutal process to meet that many people, but if you can do it, you can win.

Always campaign with several other people and have them intervene and talk to anyone wanting to talk more than a minute. In an election you do not have time to sit and talk with each person out there for fifteen minutes.

Answering questionnaires is not meeting people, it is tool used by many candidates to get away from the grind of shaking hands and meeting people.

All candidates meetings are not useful if you have a huge list of people running. Taking an evening to go to a venue where you speak for at most a few minutes to a crowd of people that has mainly made up their mind is not an effective use of your time. In three hours you can shake as many hands in a location like the Cook Street village as the whole audience at an all candidates meeting.

Voting Strategies

One of the downfalls of running in the local elections is that a person that votes for you also tends to vote for a lot of your competitors. If you do nothing about this, every vote you bring in will give the sitting incumbents about half a vote. In Victoria in the last election the average person voted for six council candidates. Each vote you get is five for the competition. You become the author of your own defeat. There are two ways to deal with this.

First strategy is to ask people to only vote for you and no one else. This is called plumping and is very important in making sure you gain ground in the election. You have to make sure your core supporters only mark you on the ballot. Getting 500 ballots without sharing your vote is vital to gaining ground on the others. People will not like this and think it is an unfair tactic - I know this from elections in ran in 1999 and 2002 when I was the top loser each time. I asked people to only vote for me and met resistance from my closest friends.

The second strategy is a much better and that is to run as a slate. If you are running with three to seven other people, you know that a large portion of your extra votes are going to your allies. At the same time their extra votes are coming towards you. You are managing the extra votes to you and your allies benefit. A slate with the name on the ballot will do best of all with this. To get a slate name on the ballot, the group has to be together and have 50 supporters by the start of August.

Find This Book

If you can, find Tony Gargrave's "How to Win an Election: The Complete Practical Guide to Organizinf and Winning any Election Campaign"

Tony was a CCF/NDP MLA for about 20 years. The book is not recent, but the advice is all still completely relevant. I lent out my copy some years ago to someone and have no idea where it is.

Your campaign manager should read this book and understand it.

Plan Early
Trying to get elected is not something you can decide to do at the last minute. It takes time to put a campaign together, to find the volunteers and to raise the money. If you are thinking about running in 2011, you need have your campaign in place and ready by the end of the spring in 2011. You need to start floating the idea past people long before then.

Ordering election materials and signs over the summer means it is ready on day one and odds are you can get a better price.

Test Yourself
You need to know if you can campaign, it is not easy for most of us to do and you need to know if you can do it. Here are some tests:

• Next time your are sick, go out for a 2 hour walk and pleasantly greet everyone you meet. No election stops for your illness and once you are council you are not expected to take sick days.
• Find a venue with a lot of people milling about and spend an hour shaking people's hands and introducing yourself. You can say you are thinking of running for council and would like their thoughts on the city or something else. The test is to see if you can really go up to strangers and introduce yourself.
• Make a list of ten friends and family and then call them and ask if they would be willing to donate $100 to you if you run for council. If you can not ask, you are going to have a lot of trouble raising the money you need. If you can not ask for $100 with a straight face, you will have trouble raising money. If you ask and they say no, you are not going to have the support you need to get elected.
• Find a councilor and shadow them for a week and see what is involved with being on council. It is much more than the council meetings. If the work load is too much for you or the type of work is not something you like you know it is not something you should do.

Final Comments

I have run for local office three times and lost three times. I know I do not like to do the shaking of hands thing. I am an introvert by nature and I have a thin skin, two reasons I am unlikely to ever run for office again.

The public does not like to disappoint candidates so will often say they support you or will fudge their words so you think they are supporting you when in fact they are not going to. You have to accept that people are being less than truthful with you.

I have been a campaign manager four times and I enjoyed it a lot more than being the candidate. Consider being the campaign manager for someone you like and want to support, it takes a lot of time during an election but you get to have a strong personal impact on the election and council.

Even if you do everything I said above, your odds of getting elected are not great. Losing really sucks, it feels like a public snubbing. I ran twice in a small town and it was much more personal when I lost because I knew everyone.

Election is over- Back to other things, lets start with Cuthbert Holmes Park

We have our new councils and there will now be a break for two years before anything starts at all with the local elections. Time for me to get back to blogging about my ideas and visions for this city, let me start with the Cuthbert-Holmes park.

Cuthbert Holmes park is a decent sized park close to the core of the city. It is right next to Tillicum mall, Silvercity and Pearkes Rec Centre. It covers an area of about 75 acres. It is badly underused.

The park has some nice forest trails to walk along through the park, but it is generally ignored by Saanich. Here is my list of what the city could do to improve Cuthbert Holmes:

• Build a decent kids playground on the eastern edge close to Tillicum mall and another on the western edge close to the parking lot that comes off of Admirals.
• Have signs indicating the park is there. The small playground on Qu'appelle street gets a sign, but this big park gets nothing.
• Offer chip trails for running and exercise stations like were done in many parks in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• Clear out all the blackberry bushes, around 15 acres of the park is overrun with them. This area is dead to native plants and the public.
• Make better connections between the park and others. There needs to be something at Highway #1 and Admirals/Mackenzie to connect the northwest corner of the park with the Galloping Goose trail. The trail up Colquitz Creek is not signed at all. There is no indication in Pearkes that the park is there and that it is outside the backdoor. There is a playground just over a bridge from the park on Ker ave but no indication in Cuthbert Holmes that is there. A connection between Cuthbert Holmes and the Hampton fields would also make a lot of sense
• How about some basketball courts, a few tennis courts and some other facilities for adult sports activity? How about a place for pickup road hockey?
• Add some tables on the mall side of the park so people can sit outside and enjoy the place.
• How about some annual community events in this park? Encourage a few festivals.
• Create an outdoor stage area for concerts
  

There is nothing in what I am suggesting that is expensive or would take a long time to do. Doing these things would make this park a focus of the community as opposed to the black hole it is becoming.

I know a lot of people that will not use the wooded area alone or at night due to fear. There are areas where people are building shelters for themselves and making it unpalatable to go for a walk. The park is a community divider at the moment - the people on the various edges do not see this place at the centre of their community.

2008 View Royal Election Results

View Royal

Graham Hill mayor by acclamation

Council - 4 to elected

1. Andrew Britton       1103 - incumbent
2. John Rogers          1088 - incumbent
3. David Screech        1031 - incumbent
4. Heidi Rast            765
5. Barb Featherstonhaugh 689
6. Trevor Van Dykhuizen  414
7. Christian Hauer       168

Saanich 2008 Election Results

These are the 2008 Saanich Municipal Election Results

Mayor

1. Frank Leonard 11972 (inc)
2. Harald Wolf    4665

Council - 8 elected

1. Judy Brownoff  11342 (+2966) (inc)
2. Susan Brice    11246 (+2649) (inc)
3. Vic Derman     10805 (+2331) (inc)
4. Vicki Sanders  10418 (+3613) (inc)
5. Leif Wergeland  9860 (+1461) (inc)
6. Dean Murdock    9079 
7. Wayne Hunter    9031 (+2102) (inc)
8. Paul Gerrard    8474 (+2828)
9. Rob Wickson     6970
10. Patrick Chenier 6423 (+3221)
11. Victor Hughes   2726

Numbers in brackets are change from 2005 results

Other Election Results for Saanich

2011 2008 2005 2002 1999 1996 1993 1990

The power of incumbency

In the region we had 50 sitting councilors run for re-election, only six of them lost. The core of the region did not see a single incumbent lose. The Peninsula saw the most lose, four out of fourteen running. Sooke was the only other municipality where any sitting councilors were defeated. When one adds the nine incumbent mayors, 60 incumbents ran and 51 were elected.

In the council races, North Saanich saw the defeat of Bob Williamson.

Central Saanich's Zeb King was defeated, which surprised me as I thought he was popular in that area.

Sidney saw Tim Chad come seventh and 130 votes away from retaining his council seat whereas Garry Crispin finished over 1000 votes out of a council seat.

Sooke saw Brenda Parkinson and Rick Amour defeated.

The race for the mayors was a bit more open. The region has six new mayors out of thirteen. Three sitting mayors were defeated, Mark Cardinal in the Highlands, Ted Daly in North Saanich and Chris Clement in Esquimalt. Seven incumbent mayors were elected again.

In total, 70 people that sat on a council from 2005-2008, 55 of them were elected to sit on council again. That is 80% of the people that sought to be elected again succeeded.

In total there are 34 new people serving as councilors and 2 new people serving as mayor.

2008 Oak Bay Election Results

Oak Bay

Mayor

• Chris Causton 4519 - incumbent
• Ron Telfer     365

Council - Six elected

1. Nils Jensen       3205 (+332) incumbent
2. Tara Ney          3084
3. John Herbert      2928 (+349) incumbent
4. Pam Copley        2848 (+527) incumbent
5. Hazel Braithwaite 2843 (+887) incumbent
6. Allan Cassidy     2664 (+382) incumbent
7. Chris Smith       2652
8. Michelle Kirby    2024
9. Corey Burger      1167

Numbers in brackets are change from 2005 results

Voter Turnout in the Region

Here is the turnout numbers in our region, take them with a grain of salt as no municipality has an accurate voters lists. Only in two elections did a majority vote and in five less than one in three voted. Saanich is once again at the bottom with only slightly more than one in five.

• Metchosin - 54.8%
• North Saanich - 52.5%
• Sooke - 43.7%
• Sidney - 36.1%
• Oak Bay - 36%
• Central Saanich - 33.4%
• Colwood - 27%
• Victoria - 26.9%
• Esquimalt - 26.9%
• View Royal - 23.3%
• Langford - 22.9%
• Saanich - 21%

I had the turnout numbers from last time, but I can not seem to find that at the moment. When I do, I will add it. I will also add the Highlands when I find them.

How do we get people to vote in the local elections?

The Biggest Winner of the Night - Stew Young

Stew Young was acclaimed as mayor but he also had the biggest election win of anyone in the region.

Langford had a very clear division between the people on the mayor's side and the Langford Team put together by Steve Hurdle. I had thought it would have been a closer election that it turned out to be, but when the dust settled the people of Langford had overwhelmingly endorsed the vision and direction of Stew Young.

For every vote the Langford team got, the mayor's team got two. That is a landslide.

Langford is a place where I do a lot of my shopping and I live in the City of Victoria. I personally like the development of Langford and what Stew Young has done as a mayor, though I have some issues. The criticism of Steve Hurdle of the low degree of civic engagement by the council is a valid one from everything I can see.

I can understand the desire to work quickly and cohesively but I know you get better buy in for decisions when you engage more of the public. Stew Young should see the election results as a vindication for his vision but should also see that enhanced community engagement will support his vision.

I do believe that Langford would have benefited from the election of Steve Hurdle. I do not agree with him on a lot of issues, but I know he would have brought a thoughtful and sober second thought to decisions. He could have been a constructive foil for Stew Young that would have enhanced the development of Langford.

I am interested to see how the Langford continues to grow over the next years. Goldstream avenue is a street that has been transformed into walkable and human scale place. Millstream road has provided us in the region with a compact single destination for all the big box stores that we want. I have seen no place in BC that has done big bax store thing as well as Langford has with the Millstream road area.

One big issue Stew Young is pushing, as are a lot of people on the westshore, is the idea of light rail transit. I remain unconvinced of the case for the idea. My single biggest concern is that the cost to build an LRT is very expensive and the cost to operate is not something I can see this region being able to sustain.

Quick Analysis of the Victoria Election

The results for the candidates for council split into several groupings:

1) The people elected. There are a couple of tiers here, but in general the winners were clearly ahead of all the other candidates on the ballot. Yes, Charlayne was almost 4000 votes ahead of Chris Coleman and John Luton, but in general there was a very clear group that won the day.

2) The gap between eight and ninth was close to 2300 votes - a huge difference, one that I have not seen in Victoria before. Rob Randall came ninth, but miles behind John Luton. The candidates placing 17th to 9th were separated on average by about 100 votes each. They were all people that put a serious effort into getting elected and they all fell very far off of the mark.

I had not expected there to be such a huge gap between the winners and losers. I believe this is due to the fact that the public had no easy and effective way to find out who anyone was. I also know that the candidates ran as individuals which meant that for each new person they got to vote they effectively made sure the better known people got more votes as well. Someone like Rose Henry or Susan Woods that campaigned hard effectively was also campaigning for the people that won the election.

3) The rest, not quite fair to put 18th place finisher Richard Park in this category, but he was over 600 votes short of 17th and almost 800 ahead of 19th. I know that a number of the candidates that finished at the bottom here tried very hard and put in a lot of effort. I expect to see Richard Park, Simon Nattrass, Joseph Boutilier, and Chris Munkacsi make very serious attempts to get elected next time.

Tavis Dodds is someone I expected to finish in the top 20, not 25th. Suzanne Carroll is someone I thought would finish in the bottom five, not 22nd.

Candidates for a future election need to think about what it takes to get elected. The 14 or so people campaigned hard to get elected this time but finished so far out of the money need to spend some time learning more about campaigning skills and election strategies. In meeting the candidates in this election, the one single thing I noticed is that most of them need to learn a lot more about how to run an election campaign.

2008 City of Victoria Election Results

Mayor
1 Dean Fortin       7706 - sitting councilor
2 Rob Reid          7105
3 Steve Filipovic   1411
4 Saul Andersen      172
5 Kristen Woodruff   149
6 Hugh Kruzel        107
7 Georgia-Anne Jones 106
8 Ron Taylor          83

Council - 8 to be elected

1 Charlayne Thorton-Joe 9887 (+1729) (inc)
2 Pam Madoff            9017 (+644)(inc)
3 Sonya Chandler (Green)8002 (+1870)(inc)
4 Lynn Hunter           7926 (MP 1988-93)
5 Geoff Young           7276 (+129)(inc)
6 Philippe Lucas(Green) 7042 (+1967)
7 Chris Coleman         6102 (-505)(inc)
8 John Luton            6002
9 Robert Randall        3737 
10 Wayne Hollohan       3624 (+897)
11 Rose Henry           3372 (+33)
12 Tim Van Alstine      3216
13 Pieta VanDyke        3109 (on council 88-90)
14 John Farquharson     2992
15 Barry Hobbis         2962
16 Susan Woods          2798
17 Jane Lunt            2667
18 Richard Park         2029
19 Diana Smardon        1259
20 Joseph Boutilier     1194
21 Simon Nattrass        950
22 Suzanne Carroll       943
23 John Turner           942
24 Gregory Hartnell      852
25 Tavis Dodds           728
26 Nick Baker            679
27 Christopher Gillespie 542
28 Chris Munkacsi        495
29 Robert Allington      433
30 Patrick Jamieson      411 (-509)
31 Allen Jones           393 (-463)
32 Denis Oliver          311
33 Jon Valentine         257
34 David Shebib          229
35 Jonathan Le Drew      158

Numbers in brackets are change from the 2005 election results

Election Results

I will post as full a report as is possible tomorrow.

From the quick view of what I have seen so far, very few incumbents have been defeated for council positions.

I had thought that the race in Langford would have been closer, but the Mayor Stew Young's slate won a resounding landslide in the election. Steve Hurdle of the Langford team came closest, but he was close to 25% short the last winning candidate, the rest of the Langford team were quite aways behind that.

North Saanich seems to have voted strongly against the vision of Ted Daly and the North Saanich Association of Voters.

Saanich has finished almost as I expected, though I do not have the full details yet.

In Victoria I do not know any detailed results, but it looks like Dean Fortin has won as mayor is a narrow race. Looks like the existing incumbents along with Lynn Hunter, Philipe Lucas and John Luton on the council.

Where to Vote - When to Vote

Voting is today from 8 am to 8 pm - You can vote at any polling station in your municipality

Where to Vote in the City of Victoria

• Burnside-Gorge Community Centre - 471 Cecilia Road
• Central Baptist Church - 833 Pandora Avenue
• Fairfield New Horizons Centre - 380 Cook Street
• George Jay School - 1118 Princess Street
• Glenlyon Norfolk School - 801 Bank Street
• James Bay Community School - 140 Oswego Street
• James Bay New Horizons Centre - 234 Menzies Street
• Oaklands School - 2827 Belmont Street
• Quadra School - 3031 Quadra Street
• Sir James Douglas School - 401 Moss Street
• Sundance School - 1625 Bank Street
• Vic West Community "Y" - 521 Craigflower Road

Where to vote in Saanich

• Campus View El. School Gym - 3900 Gordon Head Rd
• Cedar Hill Middle School Gym. - 3910 Cedar Hill Road
• Cloverdale El. School Gym - 3427 Quadra Street
• Cordova Bay El. School Gym - 5238 Cordova Bay Road
• Doncaster El. School Gym. - 1525 Rowan Street
• Frank Hobbs El. School Gym. - 3875 Haro Road
• Glanford Middle School Gym. - 4140 Glanford Avenue
• Gordon Head El. School Gym. - 1671 Kenmore
• Hillcrest El. School Gym. - 4421 Greentree Terrace
• Lochside El. School Gym - 1145 Royal Oak Drive
• Prospect Lake El. School Gym - Prospect Lake Road
• Reynolds Secondary School Gym. - 3963 Borden Street
• Royal Oak Middle School Gym. - 4564 West Saanich Rd.
• Spectrum School Lunchroom - 957 Burnside Road West
• Tillicum Elementary School Gym. - 3155 Albina Street
• Victoria Pacific Rim Alliance Church - 792 Townley St.

Where to Vote in Oak Bay

• Emmanuel Baptist Church - 2121 Cedar Hill Cross Road
• Monterey Centre - 1442 Monterey Ave
• Monterey School - 851 Monterey Ave

Where to Vote in Esquimalt

• Esquimalt Municipal Hall - 1229 Esquimalt Road

Where to Vote in Central Saanich

• Municipal Hall - 1903 Mt. Newton Cross Road
• Central Saanich Cultural Centre - 1209 Clarke Road

Where to Vote in North Saanich

• Saanich Peninsula Presbyterian Church 9296 East Saanich Road

Where to Vote in Sidney

• The Shoal Centre - 10030 Resthaven Drive

Where to Vote in View Royal

• View Royal Elementary School - 218 Helmcken Road

Where to Vote in Highlands

• West Firehall - 1564 Millstream Road

Where to Vote in Colwood

• Colwood City Hall - 3300 Wishart Road

Where to Vote in Langford

• Ruth King Elementary School - 2764 Jacklin Road
• Millstream Elementary School - 626 Hoylake Road

Where to Vote in Metchosin

• Metchosin Muncipal Hall

Where to Vote in Sooke

• Edward Milne Community School - 6218 Sooke Road

Where to Vote in Juan de Fuca Electoral Area

• Malahat Fire Hall - 935 Whittaker Road
• View Royal Elementary School (Gym) - 218 Helmcken Road
• Willis Point Community and Fire Hall - 6933 Willis Point Road
• Otter Point Fire Hall - 3727 Otter Point Road
• East Sooke Fire Hall - 1397 Coppermine Road
• Shirley Community Hall - West Coast Road
• Port Renfrew Elementary School - Parkinson Road

Fair Voting BC Launches Electoral Reform Blitz in over 40 Communities.

Volunteers across the province getting started early for May 2009 Referendum

Vancouver, B.C. (November 14, 2008) -- Fair Voting BC, a non-profit organization dedicated to electoral reform, is getting ready for B.C's Referendum on Electoral Reform by launching a provincial information blitz on Saturday. Volunteers will be handing out information on the Citizen Assembly recommended BC-STV to people as they leave municipal voting areas.

"We have hundreds of volunteers in over 40 communities from Fort St. James to Victoria", said Dan Grice, an organizer with Fair Voting BC. "With the example of the recent federal election still fresh in people’s minds, many British Columbians are determined not to let this one last chance for electoral reform slip away.”

Next May, British Columbian's will again vote on the adopting the recommendation of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, which received over 57% support in 2005. The assembly had recommended that BC replace the unpopular first past the post system with a better system known as BC-STV or the Single Transferable Vote that is currently used in the Republic of Ireland and the Australian Senate.

"In 2005, 58% of British Columbians united in preferring BC-STV to our antiquated current system, falling just 2% short of change," said Shoni Field, a Citizens' Assembly Alumni and Communications Chair for Fair Voting BC. "We know that once people learned about BC-STV they liked it, that’s why we’re so excited to have people getting out in communities across the province to help raise awareness”.

Backgrounder

Fair Voting BC is a non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to changing BC’s voting system to one that is fairer and puts voters first. FVBC has been working for electoral reform in BC for over a decade.

More information on the BC-STV Electoral System and the Proposed Referendum Campaign can be found at http://www.stv.ca

For more information:
Shoni Field, Communications Chair– 604-720-0541
Dan Grice, Campaign Organizer -- (604)-725-8913 -- dan@stv.ca

_____________________________________________________
30 people will be doing this in the Victoria area and I am pick up point for leaflets and contact for media about this in the Victoria area.

Bernard

If You are 18 or Older You Can VOTE!

I got this email from one of the candidates in the muncipal election, Joseph Boutilier. You can vote in the local elections at AGE 18, not 19.

Hey Bernard,

I was wondering if I could ask for your assistance in reversing a misconception about voter rights before Saturday. I have asked local media outlets to make a point of this also, but they have failed to report anything despite agreeing with me openly.

As an 18-year-old candidate and someone working to encourage a new generation of young voters to participate in democracy, I am facing an uphill battle. Now I find that I am also contending with a huge inaccuracy that's spreading among voters in Victoria and convincing many eligible young citizens that they cannot, in fact, contribute to the process. Rumors are that you need to be 19, not 18, to cast your
ballot, and that while I may be eligible to run I cannot vote for myself or anyone else. This is simply not true, as clearly stated on the City's own website. I appreciate that this unfortunate idea is most likely accidental and not of any mal-content. In fact, some have said it would be a political advantage for me to be in such a situation for the sake of publicity (although sign-destruction has received roughly 10 times more publicity). Two of the most important thing for me during this election are to encourage new voters and represent the youth of Victoria, and these objectives are not compatible with the kind of confusion we're witnessing at all candidate's meetings and community events regarding age. I spent long enough trying to determine that I was eligible to run while even incumbent councilors and mis-printed city publications suggested I was not. I don't want to spend any more time explaining my right to vote or run. Instead, it's time to to start talking about why I am, and why everyone 18 and over should vote.

Thank you for your attention to this issue. I trust that you will help me spread the word for the sake of our rarest and youngest voters.

Best,

Joseph

Here is the relevant text from the City website:

Resident Elector Qualifications

In order to be eligible to vote as a resident elector on Voting Day you must satisfy all of the following criteria:

• age 18 or older; and
• a Canadian citizen; and
• a resident of British Columbia for at least 6 months immediately before the day of registration; and
• a resident of the City of Victoria for at least 30 days immediately before the day of registration; and
• not disqualified by any enactment from voting in an election or otherwise disqualified by law.

Interesting facebook email I got from Kristen Woodruff who is running for mayor of Victoria, she is endorsing Steve Filipovic for mayor.

Kristen Woodruff Endorsing Steve Filipovic For Mayor Of Victoria

-

She's going around with Steve this morning to all the different media outlets. She's in the process of writing a press release which I will forward as soon as I get it. Steve does have a good write-up in MONDAY magazine and stands to win this election, partially based on the fact that Fortin and Ried have shot themselves in the foot with their stance on the Supreme Court ruling.

She writes, "I don't see eye to eye with steve on all issues, but I do agree with the kind of man he is. Honestly committed to protecting the people from the narrow interests of the business class, etc, etc."

So, ... there you go. There will be an official press release soon enough.

The News Group Papers and the Election

I have been disappointed by the News Group papers and their coverage of the local elections. I would have thought they are the one media outlet that would have looked into all the candidates, examined their platforms and given the public the information that is needed to make an informed decision tomorrow.

The Victoria News, Saanich News, Oak Bay News, Peninsula News Review, Goldstream News Gazette and the Sooke Mirror are the local papers that go into almost every mail slot in the city. They are focused on covering the local communities. So why are they not doing a lot more on the elections?

Langford has a very contentious election going on, I went to read more about it all on the Goldstream Gazette and found very little.

Victoria has 35 people running for council, two of them that do not even live in this area. Why has the Victoria News not investigated the background of the candidates? Why are they not focusing attention on the most serious candidates and letting us know about them?

The only local paper that has done some reasonable coverage has been Monday Magazine.

Information About This Blog

Since I notice that Jody Paterson mentioned this blog in her column today in the TC and since I see more and more new people are looking at it each day, I thought I would quickly explain what is on here.

As you scroll down the right hand side you will see links to many places. First is a set of places you can find more information about candidates. Then comes my personal recommendations of who I like in the local election. After this is the subject headings for posts. After this is the full list of all candidates in the region.

I have tried to find a link to each and every candidate running for office in this region, the name will be a clickable link if I found a website to link to. I have also put prominent endorsements and slates behind candidate names.

I decided to do this for the 2008 election because of the frustration I felt in 2005 when I was trying to find out about the candidates running in Victoria. I also saw the trouble friends of mine had when they ran in 2005 because they could not get the word out.

City of Victoria Candidates Worth a Mention

I did not get to meet many of the candidates that are running, there are simply too many and there are too many good candidates out there. Here are some people you may wish to consider that I have not met or know enough about:

John Farquharson - He and I have been meaning to meet and talk, it is a shame we have not had a chance to do so as I believe he is the sort of person that fits my criteria for support. Many people I know are voting for him. For me to vote for him, I would have to drop someone I already promised I would for. Consider this a thumbs up for him.

Rose Henry - She is campaigning much harder this time for council than last time. I voted for her last time and would vote for her if I could chose more than 8 people. She would add a lot to council if she was elected, but it could be a bumpy time with her on council.

Barry Hobbis - The harbour ferry man is someone I might be able to support, but I already have a list of more candidates than there are council positions. I did not meet him. He is supported by many people in the business community.

Wayne Hollohan - I had been meaning to meet with him and get to know him, but time got in the way. From what I hear, he would be able to serve well on council. Reports from some indicate he is more in favour of status quo than in favour of more development.

Tim Van Alstine - I do not know enough about him to know if he is someone I would be comfortable voting for. From what I hear, he is on the greenish left side of things and is more than able to be a councilor.

Pieta VanDyke - She was on council in the past and is a person fully capable of being on council. She strikes me as much more maintain the status quo than I like.

Election Signs

I like to show my support for candidates. Here is what I have up at the corner of Maddock and Harriet in front of my house.


To the candidates out there, if I have you listed as someone I support, feel free to put up a sign.

Tyee Articles on the Local Election

First two about Mike Hicks running for Juan de Fuca electoral area, first and second.

And a second about Alan Lowe's opinion on the candidates.

Steve Filipovic's thoughts on police hiring.

The Saanich Election

The Mayor's Race

Frank Leonard is being challenged by Harald Wolf for the mayor's seat. Frank Leonard has an aura of being undefeatable as mayor. Certainly for anyone to succeed against him they would have to put in a lot of effort and have to be a well known name.

Frank Leonard has been a decent and competent mayor of Saanich, but I feel Saanich is at a crossroads with respect to where it is going and where it should go. Saanich needs to work on the vision of the future. I like the people that are supporting Frank and would be voting for him if I lived in Saanich.

Harald Wolf, he is interesting and could make an interesting addition to council, but to run for mayor straight off is simply jumping in way too deep out of nowhere. He is clearly from the political left and is a strong green.

The Council Race

Susan Brice - I have known Susan for a number years now. The first time I met here, not that she remembers, was in the late 1980s when she ran for Social Credit in a by-election in Oak Bay. I was young and blindly opposed to the Socreds. Susan showed me that she was willing to listen to student activists and was not the enemy. As I have aged I have come much closer to Susan's politics. I was impressed with her as an MLA and cabinet minister. She listens well, she is intelligent and she has a strong but quiet vision of what a good local government is.

Judy Brownoff is running for re-election. She is strongly linked to the NDP. I have heard mixed reviews about her on council. I believe she will be re-elected, but if there is an incumbent that does not make it, I think she might be it.

Patrick Chenier is making a second run for council. He has a decent resume for someone wanting to be on council, but his campaign has not raised his profile enough to get him elected. Realistically he is competing with three others for the two vacant slots on council. His website lacks passion and he is being out campaigned by several other people trying to get elected for the first time.

Vic Derman is running for re-election. He is hard working, he is intelligent and he has a vision for Saanich. I have no doubt he will be re-elected. Vote for him.

Paul Gerrard is making a second run for council. I thought it was a huge shame he did not get elected last time. He is running on a slate with the mayor, but he has proven he can work with people across the political spectrum. He is the president of the two community associations in my neighbourhood. He has a drive and energy that will really be beneficial to Saanich. I believe he is the most likely of the new comers to get elected this time.

Victor Hughes is retired and running for council. He is pro amalgamation and generally has a platform that appeals to me. I do not think he has a realistic chance of getting elected this time.

Wayne Hunter is part of the mayor's slate and running for re-election. I do not know him personally but he has a strong resume for anyone sitting on council. He was the mayor of Central Saanich for two terms among other things. I expect Wayne to win.

Dean Murdock is running for council for the first time. He has the strongest campaign of the new comers and was in the race early. He expresses himself well, he knows what it takes to get elected, and is smart. My one concern about him is if he is doing this as a stepping stone to becoming an MLA or MP. If I were in Saanich I would be voting for him. I believe he will be elected.

Vicki Sanders is running for re-election and is working hard at it. I believe she will be re-elected.

Leif Wergeland is running for another term on council as part of the mayor's slate. This is a man that takes giving back to the community seriously - the work he does with the Compassionate Resource Warehouse is in my opinion actions speaking louder than words.

Rob Wickson another first time candidate and also from my neighbourhood. You can read my comments about him here. I see Rob finishing eight or ninth.

With only 11 candidates for 8 spots, the incumbents have a huge advantage from the electoral math. Most people want to vote all 8 votes that they have and this is a problem for new candidates.

For each vote a candidate manages to get, the other 10 candidates will get an average of 1/2 a vote. Most of these votes will go to candidates that are well known - effectively 3/4s of a vote each. If a new candidate gets 2000 friends and family to vote for them, each incumbent will likely get 1500 votes from these same people. A net gain of 500 votes is simply not enough to beat an incumbent.

It is this electoral math that makes name recognition and incumbency so important.

The Election in Langford

The election in Langford is the most interesting one in the whole region. The election could result in anything from no change at all to the status quo to an almost complete change in council and direction of council.

I look at the current council in Langford and see a complete lack of passion other than from Mayor Stew Young. In the case of Stew Young the passion he has of making Langford some where desirable for people to live is a wonderful testament to his vision. The problem is that for last several terms of council his positive passion for change often come out in a negative way. I honestly like what Stew Young has done with Langford, but I see the need for him to engage the community better.

When I met the Langford Team the first thing I saw was their passion for Langford. I can see that they have a drive to make Langford even better than it is now through an improvement in civic engagement. From everything that is out there in the media, there is a problem in Langford with how the council interacts with the community. The place has changed dramatically in the last decade, and for the better, but there too many people living in Langford that feel disconnected from their council.

I get a strong "us v them" from the last term of the Langford council. I have also seen anger coming from the Mayor against those that are not supporting all of his vision for Langford. The most recent example was the incident at the council meeting where he was telling Steve Hurdle to apologize to the staff about a comment on his election website.

In my opinion, Langford needs to put some more effort and energy into the cultural and social development of the community. Langford has done a great job of building the physical core of the community, it now needs to put some focus on the social aspect of community. There are enough people living in Langford that neighbourhood associations make a sense and would help with governance. It would also be helpful to have a place in the core of the community where groups could meet - it is not clear if the new Eagle Ridge Community Centre has an space for that.

Who will get elected? The ones I am reasonably certain of are Denise Blackwell, Steve Hurdle and Winnie Sifert. If I had to guess who is most likely out of the rest to fill the last three spots, it would be Ryan Hinton, Matt Sahlstrom, Lanny Seaton, Lillian Szpak, and Vern Trew.

Odds are that Stew Young will maintain a strong working majority on council with only a couple of 'opposition' members on council. My hope is that Stew Young will be able to recognize that someone like Steve Hurdle is a positive addition to his council and will help him improve Langford. The danger is that the council will not be able to work together and Langford may see three years of fighting.

The Campaign on the Peninsula

I have not been able to really follow this campaign in any sort of the detail I would have liked to. I have no comments on Sidney at all.

The interesting races are in Central Saanich and North Saanich. In both cases the primary issue seems to be about the future development of the municipalities. I have not said who I support or do not support because I do not know the issues well enough to understand the implications of the visions of the candidates.

Save Our Rural Land is a blog that gives opinions on who they think is in favour of protecting rural land.

North Saanich Online is the best source I have found talking about the election there.

One of the few formal slates in this region in North Saanich, that being the North Saanich Association of Voters.

Central Saanich Vision is a blog about the area.

Central Saanich has one of the visible candidate for mayor in Sean McNulty - few people have not seen his billboard on the Pat Bay Highway. Sean is also one of the youngest candidates running for office in the region.

Sue Stroud, running for council in Central Saanich, is someone I have known for many years. I know she is hard working and would be a good councilor, but I am not really in sync with her rural vision for the area.

I have found websites for almost all of the candidates in North Saanich, about half in Central Saanich and none in Sidney. Scroll down the right hand side for the links.

Citizen Canine Ratings

I am not going to list each and every group out there that surveyed the candidates, but Citizen Canine is one I will list.

I am an unrepentant dog lover. My wonderful dog Laika died a year ago. She was a well know part of the neighbourhood. She was better known than I was.

She was well trained, well behaved and lived for the last three years of her life in retirement here in Victoria - when I lived in the interior her job was to keep the yard free of bears a job she did very well.

I did not have a fenced yard and Laika enjoyed lying outside of the front of the house and watching the world go by. I walked her in downtown Victoria without a leash. I went for a drink and she would sit outside and wait quietly. Her behaviour was not an accident or a freak of nature, it came from the strong bond between Laika and myself.

A dog that is loved, well socialized and trained does not need to be leashed. Our laws around dogs are based on the idea that the dogs are a problem. It would make much more sense to require mandatory training of the owners and dogs than assume that all dogs are a problem.

Lots of endorsements and some comments

I am adding as many endorsements as I can about the candidates running in the region. In the last day I have added the TC, Monday Magazine and the Conservation Voters of BC.

I will try to do a round up of the election through out the region over the next day.

I apologize to those candidates that wanted to meet with me and we have not done so yet, I have a new born (OK, Max is four months old now so not really newborn), my father-in-law is living with us as he goes through his last stages of cancer, and my mother over in the lower mainland recently had a small stroke. So, I am busier with family stuff than I have ever been.

Anyone who wants to send me their opinion piece - something in the order of 300 to 500 words max about any aspect of the election in the region - I will try to post it here before election day. Send your comment to my email address - bernard at shama.ca

I have been amazed at the amount of traffic this small attempt to inform people has been getting - over 500 different people per day in the last two weeks. Yesterday was even higher.

Endorsements from the Conservation Voters of BC

(Victoria, BC) The Conservation Voters of BC (CVBC) announced its municipal election endorsements today. CVBC has chosen to endorse only within three selected municipalities: Victoria, Vancouver and Saanich. We have selected 2 mayoral candidates and 11 city council candidates.
“All the candidates endorsed have strong records on the environment and will make great contributions to municipal politics over the next three years,” said Christianne Wilhelmson, chair of CVBC. “Local issues are at the heart of sustainability and we believe these candidates will ensure a ground up approach to solving key issues like global warming.”
CVBC is a non-partisan organization and has chosen candidates based on carefully screened criteria.
CVBC has played an important role in helping elect environmentally minded candidates in previous federal, provincial and municipal elections. 16 of the 20 candidates it has endorsed have been elected. Conservation voters often campaigns on behalf of the candidates it endorses and has played a key role in tight races in the province.
Information: Christianne Wilhelmson , Chair (604) 862-7579
www.conservationvoters.ca

Endorsed Municipal Candidates
November 12, 2008

• Candidate Municipality Office
• Dean Fortin Victoria Mayor
• John Luton Victoria Council
• Lynn Hunter Victoria Council
• Pam Madoff Victoria Council
• Sonya Chandler Victoria Council
• Phillippe Lucas Victoria Council
• Gregor Robertson Vancouver Mayor
• Heather Deal Vancouver Council
• Andrea Reimer Vancouver Council
• Dean Murdock Saanich Council
• Judy Brownoff Saanich Council
• Vic Derman Saanich Council
• Rob Wickson Saanich Council

Ben Isitt's Endorsements

From: Ben Isitt <ben.isitt@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 3:00 PM

Dear friend,

I have been asked about my voting intentions for Saturday's municipal election in the City of Victoria. It has not been an easy decision but here are my choices -- candidates whose platforms, track records, and stated positions on the issues come closest to my values and my vision for a socialist, environmentally sustainable society. Ending homelessness and ecosystem loss are top priorities for me in this election.

Voters are faced with a crowded field. In future elections, a unified left campaign may provide the best means for moving our city and region in a progressive direction.

Ben

MAYOR

Steve Filipovic - for his courage to support a different path on homelessness, respecting the Supreme Court ruling and proposing the diversion of funds from policing toward long-term solutions

COUNCIL

Rose Henry - for her commitment as a social justice activist

John Luton - for his track record moving us away from a car culture

Sonya Chandler - for her work as an independent voice at City Hall

Phillippe Lucas - for his expertise on harm reduction strategies

Pam Madoff - for her record challenging ill-considered development and protecting Victoria's cultural heritage

Lynn Hunter - for her experience as a progressive legislator and track record on environmental issues

Simon Nattrass - for demonstrating leadership and giving voice to the concerns of young people

Diana Smardon - for her vision and forward-looking policy proposals for Victoria's future

SCHOOL BOARD

Peg Orcherton

John Young

Bev Horsman

Mike Hayes

Catherine Alpha

Starla Anderson

Tamara Malczewska

VOTE! SATURDAY, NOV 16 8am-8pm

Bring along two pieces of ID, one with your address

You must be a Canadian citizen, a BC resident for at least 6 months,

and a Victoria resident for at least 30 days.

Voting Places:

Burnside-Gorge Community Centre 471 Cecilia Road

Central Baptist Church 833 Pandora Avenue

Fairfield New Horizons Centre 380 Cook Street

George Jay School 1118 Princess Street

Glenlyon Norfolk School 801 Bank Street

James Bay Community School 140 Oswego Street

James Bay New Horizons Centre 234 Menzies Street

Oaklands School 2827 Belmont Street

Quadra School 3031 Quadra Street

Sir James Douglas School 401 Moss Street

Sundance School 1625 Bank Street

Vic West Community "Y" 521 Craigflower Road

What I look for in local candidates

I look for vision, passion and honesty.

The problem with the criteria I have is that I can not make a decision without knowing the candidate to some extent. Seeing them for a few seconds at an all candidates meeting or reading their information normally does not give me what I need to know about them. I have always taken time to personally meet candidates in all elections to get a sense of who they are, the downside of this is that I often end up campaigning for them - that is a downside because I normally do not have the time for that in my life.

I look for candidates that have a vision where they want their community to be. It does not need to be a huge vision of physical changes, it can be a vision of values that matter. I also look for a vision that is realistic and focused on the positive. Maintaining the status quo is a negative vision for me.

In the Victoria election I see Rob Reid as the candidate with a vision for the city versus Dean Fortin who I am not sure what his vision is beyond some values that he shares with almost everyone. I feel bad saying something negative about Dean because I like him as a guy, but I need to see that energy of a positive vision.

Passion is crucial for me in supporting candidate. I want someone that feels the need to work for the city we want. I would almost say that they have a calling in the most traditional sense of the word. I mean a positive passion, there are many people out there who have a passionate belief that is negative, as an example, the Council of Canadians approach to Americans. I want candidates that are excited to be on council, that wake up in the mornings and look forward to talking to people about the community, that are willing to advocate for what matters to people.

I look at the current council in Langford and see a complete lack of passion other than from Stew Young. In the case of Stew Young the passion he has of making Langford some where desirable for people to live is a wonderful testament to his passion and vision, the problem is that the last several terms of council have seen his positive passion often come out in a negative way now.

Vic Derman - there is a man with passion. I know a lot of my conservative friends will see him as a dangerous lefty, but his vision and passion is one that they could work with and thrive under.

Honesty is the hardest value for me to judge without having a long term connection to candidates. I go from the assumption that someone is honest until they prove me otherwise. There are people out there I would not support because I had some interactions with them, or people I know have had some, that were less than open and honest. I will not name them because I feel that simply goes beyond the sort of thing I want to talk about. Thankfully it is a rare person that is not generally honest.

So, that is the criteria I use. In the areas where I do not know the people well, I avoid making endorsements because I can not judge if they meet my most important values.

Leonard Slate TV ads

If you are interested in seeing them, they have been posted here.

Victoria's unique war memorial

Shelbourne avenue is nicely lined with trees at the southern end and at the northern end. In between there are some nice big old trees along the street. These trees were planted as a living memorial to each and every British Columbian that died in World War I. David Obee wrote a wonderful article about it earlier this year.

The project was not a small one - 1500 trees to be planted and plaques for each tree. The project took the better part of a decade to get close to completion and it was never actually all done.

I have been to many cenotaphs over the years and seen the bland, boring and lifeless monuments that they are. I have my own personal issues with remembrance day due to my pacifism that is driven by faith in God - to kill another human is to kill that of God within them. Each year my sons go to the Esquimalt remembrance day ceremony as part of the 3rd Douglas Scout group. Each I do not go because I do not know how to react to the ceremony and do not want to cause a problem or start a debate/argument about war and the military.

Since I read about the reason the trees are along the Shelbourne I have in awe of the vision and brilliance of it as a memorial. A monumental scale memorial that is living but has been created to remember the dead. The line of trees, one after the other, like soldiers marching to war. Each living tree being there for one man that died do long ago.

I would love to see the monument come back to life, to have the plaques on the trees for each person that died, to have the trees added that are needed to make it complete. I do not know how I start this given I have no spare time in my life, but maybe will send a request letter to the new Saanich and Victoria councils. Maybe when it is completed we could do the same for the people that died in the other wars.

After Catherine picks up the boys tomorrow, I am going to drive over to the Shelbourne and start to walk along the trees and contemplate each one of the being a young man from BC who in World War I died. I have looked for some tradition or ritual that I could do as a religious pacifist for a long time. I think the walk among the trees will be the one for me.

North Saanich All Candidates Meeting Report

This report on the big all candidates meeting in North Saanich comes from one of the candidates. Cairine Green does a job on her campaign website/blog of giving a good insight into the issues and concerns in North Saanich.

North Saanich has many things pulling it around in many ways. They are home to some of Greater Victoria's most rural areas with real functioning farms, and one farmer Ruby Commandeur running for council. Farming in this region is difficult for many reasons, one of the biggest is housing built close to working farms.

It is also the home to the region's most expensive houses and most NIMBY like people - the waterfront mansion owners in North Saanich make the Uplands look like they are in favour of mixed use diversity. The waterfront mansions in North Saanich are the most environmentally damaging housing in the region.

North Saanich also has some typical suburban neighbourhoods and of some important industrial/commercial areas for the whole region.

All of this leads to a serious debate about what the future of North Saanich should be. Clearly there are quite different views among the candidates in relation to the issues. The problem in local politics when there is such divergent ideas of where to go with things is that a simple majority of the council can radically alter the direction of the community. If the balance changes from election to election you will see a community in a long term 'civil war' and become very unstable.

Our current voting system of electing all the councilors at large on the same ballot with the pre-literate marking of the ballot with an X is a big problem because it means the community is often not really well reflected in the election results. Our local elections would function much better if were using STV.

Why I Would Vote for Rob Wickson

Rob Wickson is running for Saanich council. Last night we both met at the Gorge Pointe Pub for a beer so I could get to meet him.

I came in and saw that he had a Guinness in front of him - my winter beer of choice and a quick indication that we may have a lot in common. As we got into our conversation, it became clear that we do approach local politics in a very similar manner and agree on a lot.

What really impressed me is that Rob wants Saanich and the whole region to strive to be the best, for Greater Victoria to be what the world thinks of when they think of Canada. He has a passion to push our city to be great. He is not interested in settling for doing alright and maintaining where we are at.

He has not been on council, but he has been connected to politics long enough to know what is possible and what is not possible for a council to do. He has an energy and passion that would help boost the Saanich council to the next level.

I am also predisposed to him because he lives in my neighbourhood and have been very involved with the local community for years. His involvment with Smart Growth BC lead to some interesting local community design processes. These plans need to be implemented.

We also both studied history at UVic for the same reasons, the upper level seminar courses forced you to think, debate and analysis the material. We shared our Peter Baskerville stories - Peter expected excellence in critical thinking from students and for me defined the best of what a university education should be.

Rob is left of centre on some issues, but he is also a successful businessman that has headed the BC Chamber of Commerce. He wants to move us beyond the car based culture. He cycles most places. He is connected to a lot of New Democrats, but he certainly is not ideologically tied to the NDP.

I recommend voting for Rob. Check out his website for more about him.

Election Signs

Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have signs up for most of the candidates I am supporting. There should be about seven for Victoria and three for Saanich up. I will post a picture in a few days.

Candidates further afield I would put up their signs, but I do not want them to waste their signs in my neck of the woods.

I am going to put something up about the school board election as I am finally getting some real information about candidates.

More ads and where I saw them

Senior Living
Page 41 has an ad from the City of Victoria telling people about the election but nothing from any candidates

Victoria News Friday Nov 7th
Page 6 Pieta VanDyke with a small ad right above an ad from John Farquharson that is twice the size.
Pages 7,8 and 9 have information about candidates in the election.
Page 9 Richard Park and Barb Desjardins both have decent sized ads at the bottom of the page. Barb also has an on page 13, the rememberance day ad. Above them is a smaller joint ad from Bev Horsman and Mike Hayes for School Board #61. The top of the page has an ad for Bob McKie running for Esquimalt Council and Lynda Hundleby also running for Esquimalt.
Ali Gaul has a small ad on page 25, the sports section, which makes sense given her passionate involvement with Archie Browning Arena.

In the Rememberace Day insert, four candidates for office have placed ads.

Focus Magazine
There is a good article on page 48 where candidates from around the region were asked what their dream city is. I highly recommend reading, I wish there was an online version.
Charlayne Thorton-Joe has an ad on page 51, right at the end of the article.
Rob Reid has a small ad on page 45

Candidates complain about not being able to send out mailing

The Times Colonist had a story today about candidates complaining that their mailings were not going to every household because people are allowed to opt out of junk mail - the 1984ish euphemistic term Canada Post uses is unaddressed admail. The proper English language term for it is junk mail.

Oak Bay candidates Nils Jensen and Tara Ney in Oak Bay were mentioned in the article. I do not think they did themselves any favours by complaining. The people who opt out of junk mail tend to me active in the community and have a passion for a better world. Complaining about bot being allowed to spam people with junk mail is hardly going to make them want to vote for you.

I am glad people can opt out of junk mail, I did so at my old house and have not done so at the new one. There is no reason why someone should expect to be able to send me stuff I did not ask for.

The candidate complaints annoy me further because they are not making use of the resources they have. If you are running in Oak Bay, it is not a huge task to knock on all the doors and deliver your material in person. I note that Nils Jensen, a guy I like and would vote for, has made no effort to make his campaign available online. It is 2008, not 1958. We are online now and look for our information online.

Using junk mail to get your message out is also a waste of resources. Almost all of the paper is thrown out without anyone reading it. Based on industry standard, of the potential 8000 households in Oak Bay only about 100 to 200 people will read the material.

I would like to see the Federal Government ban junk mail. I would also like to see them create a no deliver list - no one is allowed to deliver anything non addressed to an address for any reason. I would also like to see the do not call list be changed to a list where only numbers of people that have opted in are allowed to be called. We are intelligent people and we know hoe to find the information we want online, let us do it.