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[Lover Fighter]

Saanich mayor slams civic league as partisan
Leonard scores poorly on group's analysis of council's voting record
Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist
Published: Monday, November 10, 2008

The Saanich Civic League bills itself as a rigorously non-partisan group dedicated to boosting interest in local politics and increasing voter turnout.

But Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard says "they've tripped over their two left feet" with their analysis of council's voting record and revealed themselves as a front for the "fringe left."

The analysis, released last week, examines how council voted on 18 motions and how those votes aligned with the league's guiding values, such as leadership to combat climate change, accessible government and support for local agriculture.

Leonard, who has served on council for 22 years, scored just 19 per cent.

"I think that just shows how far out on the fringe they are," Leonard said. "Obviously, they're trying to disguise themselves as non-partisan ... I'll let the voter decide."

Leonard said 18 motions hardly provide a fair reflection of council's work when it makes hundreds of decisions a year, most of them unanimous.

"I think they went out and really tried to find some votes that would put me in a negative light."

But league chairwoman Sher Morgan said voters have said repeatedly that they want to know more about the incumbents.

"I don't think it's unfair, if you're doing a council voting record, to inform the electorate and give them a sense of where incumbent councillors stand on subjects," she said.

"No one can fault the civic league on bias here; this was really an intensive, honest search."

Morgan said the league's primary goal is to boost Saanich's voter turnout, which was a dismal 19 per cent in the 2005 municipal election.

Leonard, however, questioned the league's claims of non-partisanship when the Victoria Labour Council sponsored one of its early meetings, and the league lists the Columbia Institute Centre for Civic Governance as one of its community partners. The institute's website shows that its board of directors includes the presidents of major B.C. unions, and its executive director is Charley Beresford, a former NDP candidate in Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

"They're not trying to motivate all voters, they're trying to motivate the fringe-left voters," Leonard said.

But Saanich councillor Judy Brownoff, who placed second in the league's voting record at 65 per cent, welcomed the league's watchdog role.

"I think that more municipalities should have civic leagues because it's a way for the specific voting record to appear," she said. "Yes, if they looked at all of the things we dealt with, maybe 80 per cent of it was unanimous. But those ones that had controversy were probably the ones that actually speak to the values of the community."

The civic league's record of council's votes is at www.saanichcivicleague.ca.

[Lover Fighter]

I think the Saanich Civic League has done a fantastic job helping inform Saanich voters of how to vote, who is running, and why voting municipally is important.

They have made it a goal of theirs to remain non-partisan but slight bias does seem to shine through their council voting record.

However, Leonard's statement about being NDP-affiliated is absolutely ridiculous.

[Bernard]

The Saanich Civic League has much stronger NDP connections than is healthy for them to achieve what they are setting out to do.

I read their report and I was not impressed with their analysis of the implications of council votes on a lot of the values. There are some underlying values that seem to come through when looking at their analysis.

1) Normally the status quo is better than making a change.
2) Business viability and profit should not be considered as important.
3) Asthetics seem to be more important than health, safety, environment or business issues.

The development of their values was not done in an inclusive and open way. They were given to people fait acompli at the first big meeting. There seems to be an assumption that they knew what were the important values. The SCL seems to be weak on process.

Much more useful would be a comprehensive voting record of council and an explanation from councilors why they felt they met the values expressed by the SCL.

[Coreyburger]

Ugh, this really annoys me. I think the SCL really shot themselves in the foot with this one. What they should be is more like govtrack.us , a simple clearing house for how teh council votes, who has endorsed who, what money is flowing, etc.

And this is coming from somebody who has voted NDP or Green his entire life...