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2018 Greater Victoria Civic Election Review


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#1 Sparky

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 01:47 AM

Ok so what are your thoughts? We have new mayors in roughly half of our municipalities. We have quite a few newcomers to the political scene. I thought a general catch all thread might be useful to the armchair quarterbacks in our midst.

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#2 Sparky

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 01:51 AM

For starters I did not see the Together threesome in Victoria doing as well as they did. Their platform seemed a bit pie in the sky as it were.

Frankly I think the voters bought a product that seems too good to be true.
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#3 Sparky

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 02:01 AM

In contrast... Saanich slapped the slate save one.

Nathalie Chambers is one new council member that I don't think was on anybody's radar. Delightful speaker at the candidates meetings that came across as unprovacative. Hardly the stuff that career polititions are made of but what the heck...she likes farms.

What went on in Colwood and North Saanich? These folks turf their royalty without so much as a whisper.

#4 Midnightly

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 02:18 AM

For starters I did not see the Together threesome in Victoria doing as well as they did. Their platform seemed a bit pie in the sky as it were.

Frankly I think the voters bought a product that seems too good to be true.

 

 

i do agree with you it's very pie in the sky idealism platform.. which may be hard to bring to reality just from a practical standpoint, financially will be a huge part of it, along with the fallout of some of the choices, though it does seem very on par with the mayors idealism..it very much lacks balance.. i worry what the next 4 years are going to bring.. i kinda feel a bit like a turtle wanting to tuck my head and brace myself for the impact afraid to look around 


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#5 Rob Randall

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 06:26 AM

I think Bernard said that Rebecca Mersereau got the most votes of any candidate in any local election: 18,416. Kathleen Burton lost and she still got over 11,000 votes in the Saanich election. 

 

In fact, the big vote totals are impressive across the board. For the last 20 years the top councillor in Victoria could win with around 7-9,000 votes. Now that many can't even get you eighth place. For the first time in history you need a five figure total just to get to the table. 


Edited by Rob Randall, 21 October 2018 - 06:26 AM.


#6 Cats4Hire

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 06:36 AM

I think Bernard said that Rebecca Mersereau got the most votes of any candidate in any local election: 18,416. 

huh. I wonder what changed so much in just over a year. Sure she barely lost the by election but suddenly she's top of the entire CRD? I guess she was a lot of people's second choice or maybe people who resonate more with her didn't both going to the by election. http://www.saanich.c...ith Results.pdf

 

Of the people who ran in the by election Chambers, Taylor and Mersereau got seats while Polland, Newby and I guess Wickson didn't (although he might have done better running for council instead of mayor). Interesting not everyone who ran in the by election even ran this time though. Geoghegan I get but Davidoff and Henderson not really.



#7 Mike K.

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 06:53 AM

I was a little shocked at the rejection of Price in Sidney. He was trampled by his contender.

Not surprising is Desjardins’ win in Esquimalt considering her sole contender was not electable regardless of the Elsner situation.

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#8 Rob Randall

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 06:56 AM

If there is a theme it's sea change. A desire to flush out the old and take a chance on new young faces. The success of a slate seemed to depend on whether it was perceived as a positive or negative group. Slates seen as reactionary did poorly while those marketing themselves as agents of positive change did well.

 

We have seen skepticism and outright anger regarding slates so they had to be careful how they portrayed themselves. The TogetherVictoria group triumphed, I have to give them credit.


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#9 Bernard

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 07:43 AM

In Sidney, if you watched the all candidates meeting you could here the dramatically different crowd reactions to the two candidates. I made me wonder if Price was in trouble.

North Saanich threw no one out, no incumbent mayor running was running.

View Royal, Metchosin, Highlands, and Central Saanich mayors were acclaimed
Langford and Esquimalt mayors had no real competition
This means we had 7 competitive mayors' races and 4 of them lost, Atwell, Jensen, Price and Hamilton

#10 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 07:52 AM

why did jensen lose?  anyone?



#11 Cassidy

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 07:55 AM

Longish (sorry!) COV comments:

 

I'm not sure that COV voters realize what seeing Pam out the door will really mean. She was the only Councillor that was actually in love with the city she represented. She had an agenda to be sure, but that agenda had nothing to do with her ego or her need for power. With folks like long time COV Heritage Planner Steve Barber retired, and now Pam gone ... a city of low rent, anonymously designed squat towers will begin to appear on the horizon, and with no real advocate for the COV's 100 year old buildings, there's no reason to expect that they'll be saved. Housing the poor and unhousable will take precedence over all other development.

 

Geoff Young will become apoplectic on a regular basis at Council meetings (to no avail) as this new-left group led by Isitt and Helps tries to spend every single dollar the COV can spend (without a referendum) on things Young believes are not priorities, or pointless undertakings in the COV.

 

The TogetherVictoria bunch have created an impossible situation for themselves, preaching fiscal responsibility while promising the moon in their platform. Their platform made no rational effort to explain how they intended to pay for all they promised. (I can't believe voters still fall for this kind of thing ... but they do).

 

The tent city crowd, Centennial Square miscreants, and their ilk will expand their influence on the COV as the police are instructed to "treat them with respect". The buzz in the street/homeless community will become strong as this new Council makes life incredibly easy for these folks ... and that buzz will double or triple the number of folks "coming to Victoria" to enjoy the life of a miscreant in a city where local government welcomes them with open arms. That property crime will also increase with this influx is a given, and makes one wonder just how deeply voters examine what the effects of their putting the "X" in the wrong box leaves them with for four years.

 

Nothing much will happen in the first 8 months to a year of this new Council taking power ... as it takes that amount of time to re-seat the various committees, assign Councillors to their new neighbourhoods, assign Councillors to the CRD, etc. Mega-projects already underway (the "new" Crystal Gardens) will see a huge shot in the arm as this new COV Council takes the voters solid mandate given them at the polls as a "thumbs up" to plow ahead with yet another potential nightmare in terms of getting into a project without the appropriate funds, or the appropriate planning.

 

In general though, with the exception of those large private projects already planned (Northern Junk) being cancelled entirely, we likely won't see much of note that we haven't been seeing for the past four years. With the lack of private development over the next four years, and with developers avoiding Victoria like the plague ... the skyline won't change much. And with the TogetherVictoria folks promising things that cost 4 or 5 times what the COV budget will support, there will be a lot of talk about how to pay for things, and not a lot of action as those "things" demonstrate themselves to simply be unaffordable. 

 

The move to the far left, and the voters mandate to keep moving even further left is shocking, and is really the major story of this COV election. I've lived here (Saanich, Oak Bay, and Victoria) for my entire 61 years ... and I lean to the left politically ... but this move to the left is far, far in excess of anything I (and other "lefties" I know) support, or expected to see.

 

Despite Helps record of supporting development, the mandate given this council is for the COV to remain the same, with the only change being a massive undertaking to build low barrier housing ... which will no doubt translate into uninteresting, poorly designed, and publicly funded buildings which will serve no value to the city beyond offering a renter, or somebody who's just moved here something cheap to buy. 

 

It is (IMO) a brutal election result for the COV, and in many ways moves the City back 25 years what was an exciting drive to create an interesting and vibrant COV for long time residents and newcomers.

 

The majority of the COV's apparently happy homeowners, happy renters, and generally hard left residents have spoken loudly and clearly as to what they want to see in a local government. With no split vote and such an overwhelming turnout and mandate ... it would be utterly disingenuous to even imply that this Mayor and Council isn't exactly what the COV wanted, and exactly what the COV deserves.


Edited by Cassidy, 21 October 2018 - 08:17 AM.

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#12 rjag

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 08:03 AM

Isx there any person on CoV that has actually owned and operated a business? Made payroll? Paid commercial property taxes? 


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#13 Rob Randall

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 08:03 AM

Langford: In 1996 Denise Blackwell was the top councilor with 841 votes. In 2018 she was on top again with 3369 votes.



#14 Bernard

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 08:07 AM

Isx there any person on CoV that has actually owned and operated a business? Made payroll? Paid commercial property taxes?


Geoff Young. Lisa Helps has done some of that.

That said, a very tiny percentage of people would fit this category in any case and having a single person on council means they have more representation than their share of the population
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#15 Mike K.

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 08:15 AM

Geoff Young. Lisa Helps has done some of that.

That said, a very tiny percentage of people would fit this category in any case and having a single person on council means they have more representation than their share of the population

 

You mean her time at the micro lending outfit? That was hardly a business.


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#16 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 08:19 AM

she sold mail-order composters don't forget


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#17 sebberry

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 08:35 AM

Friday night I was over at a friend's place in Vic West.  All was quiet and when I left at midnight, a pamphlet for Together Victoria as well as rack cards for Isitt and Loveday was tucked into the door frame.  I wonder how many people it took to pepper the city with their materials that night?  That last minute reminder of who to vote for can be quite powerful.  

 

Anyway, I'm waiting for my subsidized bus pass.  I'll need it if our local roads fall into further disrepair.  


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#18 Redd42

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 09:02 AM

why did jensen lose?  anyone?

 

Though I live in Oak Bay, hadn't really paid attention. Other than Jensen had been annoyingly showing up at any community event he could this past year. That to me doesn't show leadership at all. Leadership is making decisions, not trying to be everybody's friend.

 

This quote from Jensen on realizing he lost gives a big hint - a pretty juvenile and arrogant answer. 

 

".......and given the promises that I heard from the other side, I hope the deer to be gone in a year, and the infrastructure to be replaced in five.”"

 

https://www.oakbayne...neral-election/



#19 Mike K.

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 09:05 AM

Jensen's best quote over the last four years, IMO, was that he's not sure if housing density is the solution to housing affordability that it's being made out to be.

 

I.e., he was of the opinion that Oak Bay's role in the housing equation needn't change to address housing affordability.


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#20 spanky123

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Posted 21 October 2018 - 09:16 AM

For starters I did not see the Together threesome in Victoria doing as well as they did. Their platform seemed a bit pie in the sky as it were.

Frankly I think the voters bought a product that seems too good to be true.

 

I was 100% in Saanich right down to the grandparents "throwing a bone to Ned" but washed out in Victoria (other than the incumbents who won). 

 

I never thought that Victorians would have picked the TV slate and I have a hard time rationalizing that decision with the people I talk to on a day to day basis downtown. 

 

Whether they want to admit it or not, most people who live in Victoria are well off. They might not have as much as they would like but compared to the other 99% of Canadians they are near the top of the heap. It amazes me then that the "take from the rich and give to the poor" mantra has traction, who do people think the rich are?!



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