2011 - The Year of the Mayors

I should have seen this coming but I missed it.   The 2011 election in this region will be an election about who the mayor is.

As the incumbent are not running, we will see new mayors in:

• Oak Bay
• Central Saanich
• Colwood
• Sooke

We have competitive races for mayor in:

• Saanich
• Victoria
• View Royal

This is seven of the 13 municipalities in this region representing more than 250,000 of the people in the region.  We could still see races in North Saanich, Methosin and Highlands.    I do not expect to see competitive races in Langford, Esquimalt or Sidney.

In 2008 we only had six competitive races and a couple more that had a bit of action but were never in question as to the results.  Six new mayors were elected, three from vacancies and three because incumbents were defeated.

There is a potential for the senior political leadership in this region to dramatically change this year.