Notes from the last week of the election campaign.
• Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps has released a list of the city council candidates she’s supporting in the Oct. 15 vote.
It’s a rare move for a sitting mayor, but one that Helps, who isn’t running for re-election, felt free to make.
It was no accident that her list mirrored that of the Homes For Living group: Marianne Alto for mayor, and Dave Thompson, Jeremy Caradonna, Matt Dell, Tony Yacowar, Susan Kim, Khadoni Pitt Chambers, Anna King and Krista Loughton for council. “I thought about all the ways I could approach this question, and kept coming back to housing,” Helps blogged.
Generally speaking, those endorsed by the mayor inhabit the same ground inhabited by the “progressive” side of council and the Together Victoria group that elected three candidates in 2018, but has not attached its name to a slate this time.
Note that those endorsed by Helps include five candidates – Dell, Kim, Caradonna, Loughton and Thompson — who put out a press release calling for a boycott of an all-candidates forum that they associated with the Vancouver Island Voters Association and what they characterized as a back-door attempt by the far right to take over local government.
Meanwhile, a group called Residents For a Better Victoria, whose listed priorities include housing, governance and public safety — essentially, it is opposed to the direction taken by the current council — has selected candidates from elsewhere on the smorgasbord. They include Chris Coleman, who served six terms on council before deciding not to run for reelection in 2018, Stephen Hammond, who ran second to Helps in the mayoralty race that year as part of the Mad As Hell movement that grew up in response to the tent city outside the downtown courthouse, former New Democrat MLA Steve Orcherton, Susan Simmons, Janice Williams, Marg Gardiner, Gary Beyer and Jordan Quitzau.
That group took out a Times Colonist ad three pages over from one placed by another we-want-change outfit, Concerned Victoria Citizens, which drew up a near-identical list — Quitzau’s name was missing and that of Stephen Andrew, who is running for mayor, was added.
The Victoria Labour Council endorsed candidates throughout the region. In Victoria, it picked Ben Isitt (the lone incumbent running for re-election as a councillor), Caradonna, Loughton, Dell, Kim and Thompson, plus Alto for mayor. It also singled out Carrie Smart in Oak Bay, Darlene Rotchford in Esquimalt, Zeb King in Central Saanich, and Mary Wagner and Keith Yacucha in Langford.
In Saanich, the labour council gave its blessing to council candidates Colin Plant, Zac De Vries, Basil Langevin, Mark Leiren-Young, Greg Matte and Teale Phelps Bondaroff, plus Dean Murdock for mayor. It also endorsed school board candidates Ravi Parmar in the Sooke district and Angela Carmichael and Karin Kwan in Greater Victoria.
Meanwhile, Annie Murphy, who played Alexis Rose on Schitt’s Creek, tweeted her support for Yacowar. No word on Catherine O’Hara’s picks.
Arguably, endorsements can benefit the voters more than they do the candidates themselves. Some endorsements are sought by the candidates, while others are issued, unbidden, with the endorsee playing no role. In a crowded field, they can serve as signposts, giving people an idea of who they want to vote for — or against.
• This has been a particularly ugly race when it comes to the destruction of candidates’ lawn signs, perhaps reflecting the drift toward polarization and a continued decline in the level of discourse. For some people, it’s not enough to out-debate those with whom they disagree. They want to muzzle opposing voices altogether.
That said, can we please put an end to election signs on boulevards and other public spaces? Signs on private property show you have support. Signs on public property show you know a guy with a truck.
That said, you have to admire the imagination of Victoria council candidate James Harasymow. His lawn signs bear the message “Sorry about the signs” in large letters, with his name in small print tucked in a corner,
• Simmons, the Victoria council candidate, will be conducting the rest of her campaign on one wing. She stumbled while walking home after coaching Special Olympics swimmers the other night, breaking her arm.
• Victoria advance polls at UVic from 8-4 today and at city hall from 8-8 today and 9-6 Oct. 12.
Saanich advance polls are at the UVic student union building from 8-4 and the Greek Community Hall from 8-8 today. Wednesday they’re from 8-8 at the municipal hall and the Gordon Head rec centre.
Check municipal websites for other locations.
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