Perhaps it’s because it has been four years since the last municipal elections, instead of the three we are used to.
Or maybe we just live in cranky times.
Whatever the reason, you could scald your toes on the pent-up dissatisfaction that is, at least for some, bubbling to the surface as the campaign for B.C.’s Oct. 20 local elections kicks off today. This is the first day candidates can take out nomination papers — though in reality, some races began weeks, if not months, ago.
In Victoria, a group called New Council emerged last fall, growing out of frustration with (you guessed it) the current one. Its slate includes mayoral candidate Steve Hammond — who became prominent as the voice of the Mad As Hell movement during the drawn-out tent city drama of 2015-16 — and four council candidates, including Stephen Andrew, who has been a vocal critic of Lisa Helps since contesting the mayoralty she won in 2014.
Mix in the three members of the new, left-leaning Together Victoria slate and this could be a polarized campaign. Chris Coleman, a moderate voice during his six terms on council, has decided not to run again. So has one-term councillor Margaret Lucas. So far, Victoria has six declared candidates for the mayoralty and 16 vying for its eight council seats. (Check out timescolonist.com/elections for ongoing updates of who’s running.)
Up-Island, the new four-year terms have been about four years too long for residents of Nanaimo, where council’s Jersey Shore Meets House Of Cards reality show has included stories of infighting, police investigations, special prosecutors, accusations of mental illness, lawsuits, physical violence, a meeting in which a councillor repeatedly yelled “bite me” at the mayor, and the departure of the chief administrator after she was arrested and charged with threatening council members, staff and others.
Mayor Bill McKay, in announcing last week that he would not run again, described his term as “the greatest growth period of my entire life,” though medieval torture victims stretched on the rack might say the same thing. New Democrat MLA Leonard Krog and businessman Don Hubbard will compete to replace him. There is already a crush of 16 newcomers among the 18 declared council candidates (including one named Ozzy Osborn, who would be nuts not to seize Crazy Train as his theme song).
In Saanich, the race is noteworthy less for who wants in than who wants out. Councillors Leif Wergeland, Dean Murdock and Vicki Sanders aren’t running again, and Coun. Fred Haynes is going after Mayor Richard Atwell’s post, so one of the latter two will be gone, meaning a big changeover at the table is guaranteed.
That follows a term whose beginning was so surreal that it made the national news. Soon after being elected in 2014, Atwell not only claimed (rightly) that Spectre 360 spyware had been placed on his computer (as well as others at municipal hall, it turns out) but ended up in an ugly spat with Saanich police, whom he accused of being in conflict in the computer-case investigation and of harassing him at traffic stops, and who were called to a disturbance involving Atwell at the home of a campaign worker with whom he had an affair.
The soap opera subsided eventually, but Murdock said the rocky start meant council members lost six months to a year getting on track and never did find the cohesion or camaraderie enjoyed in other municipalities. They did get things done, though. “I wouldn’t say that we’re all fast friends or that we go to dinner together, but we’ve found a way to work together on common priorities,” he said. Sanders concurred with his sentiments.
Atwell heads a United for Saanich slate that includes incumbent Karen Harper — who won a September byelection after the death of Coun. Vic Derman — and three newcomers.
Elsewhere, 12 of the capital region’s 13 mayors (North Saanich’s Alice Finall is the exception) are expected to run again, though a couple face challenges from sitting councillors. In addition to the Haynes-Atwell contest, Kevin Murdoch is taking on Nils Jensen in Oak Bay, and Rob Martin is running against Carol Hamilton in Colwood.
There’s still time to enter all the races. Nominations are open until Sept. 14. Be aware, though: Incumbent politicians are usually harder to unseat than the last drunk at closing time. When Helps squeaked past Dean Fortin by 89 votes in 2014, it was the first time a sitting Victoria mayor had been defeated since David Turner in 1993. When Atwell beat Frank Leonard, the latter was the first Saanich leader to lose since 1977.
Otherwise, just eight councillors running for re-election were ousted in the entire capital region in 2014, including three who took the bottom three spots in a 10-candidate race in North Saanich.
