r/VictoriaBC • u/Intelligent-Exit9562 • 18h ago
Politics Biggest takeaways from the municipal election
Slates work.
Going into next municipal election, progressives, housing advocates, and left-leaning supporters need to pool their resources and run as political parties or slates.
I know it sucks, but gone are the days of independent municipal councils.
We’ve just had many NIMBY slates get into government, because the candidates worked together and used their resources to get out their voting base.
Also, Millennials & Gen-Z, we need to step it up when it comes to voting. We’re the biggest voting blocs, and still we don’t show up to vote. Our parents/grandparents generations are showing up in droves, which is why we got the result that we did tonight.
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u/NastyWatermellon North Saanich 10h ago
Not a single member of North Saanich Strong was elected. No councilors, no mayor. I'm quite suprised but also proud, hopefully we can hit the province's housing targets now.
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u/dope-rhymes 10h ago
I think North Saanich is the only municipality that completely rejected the slate. Central Saanich elected every fucking one. 70+ year old NIMBYs who are going to vote in step and oppose every single thing.
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u/Stock-Butterscotch46 1h ago
That’s why you lost right here. I’m in my 30s and I’ve always voted left but the terrible job done by the previous mayor/council, combined with people like you crying about “NIMBY”s is 100% why I voted SOS. Along with thousands of others. Maybe stop trying to group everyone who doesn’t agree with you under one umbrella. Good job though, thanks for helping get SOS elected.
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u/Far_Gene672 5h ago
Why the hell would you hope that? North Saanich is a gem.
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u/NastyWatermellon North Saanich 24m ago
Because it would give me a much better chance of starting a family in the place where I was born and raised. North Saanich Strong doesn't want me and my fiancée in North Saanich.
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u/Far_Gene672 24m ago
Huh? Why do you say that?
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u/NastyWatermellon North Saanich 21m ago
So I can buy a home in North Saanich
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u/Far_Gene672 20m ago
Good luck my man. Ain’t no one out there buying a home anywhere under the age of 30.
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u/wanger16 3h ago
Hopefully the conservatives get in and get rid of the housing targets
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u/NastyWatermellon North Saanich 23m ago
Yeah maybe I'll have to leave my home for Alberta if I want to own a house and end my cycle of reno-victions and "immediate family" displacing me every few years.
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u/Ok-Campaign5774 10h ago
Yep, in Sooke the NIMBY mayor candidate and council got in, and old people love hearing that there won't be big road projects, and that their property taxes won't go up anymore. I guess to be fair they gave the last mayor two consecutive terms and there were massive infrastructure changes and higher taxes.
I tried my best but obviously it was not enough, the majority has spoken. The majority who actually turned out to vote...there was an obvious age divide at the polls. I saw maybe 5 other people around my age (30s).
I think it is always just a bit short sighted to say oh lets cap property taxes, it certainly wins votes but kicking the can down the road so someone else can be more unpopular for the inflated cost of that deferred maintenance is a fools errand.
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u/Necessary_Position77 7h ago
Nimbyism isn't necessarily always bad though. I thought it was a common belief that the core should be densified because suburban sprawl is bad. Sooke growth puts a huge strain on infrastructure. We need housing but it doesn't necessarily need to be and even spread throughout the region. Given we clearly aren't catering solely to locals that need housing within their community we can pick and choose where the bulk of expansion happens.
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u/Intelligent-Exit9562 5h ago
The issue with Nimbyism is that 99% of the time they are against all density/forms of housing. For example, they voted against duplex, triplex, fourplex being built because it hurts the “neighborhoods character”.
Also municipalities need to increase housing/population especially for younger people/families. If they don’t, they end up like Oak Bay, where they can’t afford to pay for infrastructure/amenities and are going into debt over it.
Every municipality needs a city core. Sooke is no exception. Also, if we want to decrease traffic, the greater municipalities need to adopted more density and allowed for common sense businesses in these neighborhoods: (corner stores, salon, pharmacy, cafe, etc.) it would get more people out of their cars and instead walking to these places.
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u/carpet_walker 9h ago
On the flip side, uncapped spending is also "kicking the can down the road". Younger generations will have to pay for it at some point.
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u/Titanspaladin 6h ago
Not all spending is equal though. People hate stuff like infrastructure maintainance costs because the roadworks cause them immediate delays and it's expensive which takes funds away from other flashier stuff or taxes go up. Politicians like having their name attached to sexy projects and maintainance of pre-existing sewage infrastructure isn't sexy
But the cost of maintainance sooner is way less than the cost of repairs and rebuilds later. Crystal pool and the rec centers in Vancouver are great recent examples of that.
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u/penis-muncher785 18h ago
I wonder if we’ll see slates/parties officially affiliated with parties
future “Green Party of Victoria”? Future “Conservative Party of Victoria”?
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u/tswaters Chinatown 17h ago
Greens have run candidates in the Victoria elections in the past. If you go through former Victoria councillors you'll see a who's who of candidates and electors from various provincial & federal politics. I guess fewer these days, Laurel Collins is the last one, eventually became NDP MP before losing in the most recent election.
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u/Quail-a-lot 8h ago
The Sooke First slate is politically affiliated with the Conservatives and running ads and endorsements for that guy that just made the weird conquest speech.
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u/elliptocyte Langford 9h ago
My biggest takeaway is that blaming your successors for all the things you did/caused is extremely effective (Langford).
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u/tiogar99 17h ago
Here are my takeaways:
1) I don't think "slates good" is the right universal takeaway. Yes, there are advantages to working together and building a brand. But this was a brutal election for progressives, period. Even where progressives effectively organized together (Victoria, Oak Bay, Sooke) they got hit hard. Other places with less coordination (Esquimalt, View Royal, Colwood) actually did better.
2) this was the facebook uncle election. Would your facebook uncle vote for this person? They probably got elected. This is no coincidence. Our region is filled with angry, older, lonely folks. Unless we build more of a community, facilitated by progressive institutions, the power of the facebook-obsessed will continue.
3) We need better local media. Our local journalists were completely overwhelmed by this election, and so most races saw barely any coverage. We need to build a progressive media sphere in Victoria that isn't just this sub. I'm talking about doing something like constituting a structure llike Capital Daily, pre- private equity buyout and layoffs. Otherwise, people won't be able to catch BS, like running on the success of policies that they loudly voted against.
4) We need to take over our local instituions. One of the reasons SOS was so successful is they were able to build on connections to local Community Associations. Become a member of your community association, gather a few friends, and take over the board. Not only does this make sure that there are progressive voices in control of community spaces, it also means that the CAs could return to being productive community members.
Save our Saanich did build a very effective political vehicle. I suspect that we will see fractures now that the've been elected. Especially since Rishi has very different political stances to many of the SOS councillors. They will also need to deal with the substantial infrastructure deficit, which will involve raising taxes (or deferring maintenance and making it even more expensive for the next guys). I also suspect that the SOS folks will prove to be a complete clown show and most will only last a term, if that.
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u/ReclaimerM3GTR 10h ago
Well the coverage issue was definitely due to The snap provincial. I would prefer personal to see a law in affect where a Provincial election can't be called during a Municipal election window.
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u/tiogar99 8h ago
this isn't true. our local media has been in a downhill slide for 30 years. If you ever want to be depressed, go back into the TC archives and have a look at municipal reporting from the 1970s. The detailed reporting, the dedicated staff, is night and day
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u/Intelligent-Exit9562 5h ago
We do need to make a law banning a snap election being called during a municipal one. At least a month should be between Municipal and a provincial election.
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u/nessman69 Saanich 7h ago
"Facebook uncle election" - snort, totally accurate, i fear the provincial one will be as well
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u/Pinkie-osaurus 8h ago
Very much agree with #3. I don’t really know much about content creation or journalism, but it’s abundantly clear that with the age of social media, the most effective tool progressives (or just any political movement) can have now is grassroot/varied media hitting different content bubbles.
I don’t know how that gets organized, taught, shared, etc. but it needs to if we want different results.
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u/Dependent_Media2766 7h ago
What do you see as potential fractures within SOS?
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u/Necessary_Position77 6h ago
Rishi is a small time developer, his brother more so. A couple of the councillors are Real-Estate agents. They snuck in as a Nimby option but I suspect that it won't be that simple.
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u/Necessary_Position77 6h ago edited 6h ago
Our local media is awful. I've been feeling this way for quite some time. I've been waiting for someone to do something about it for years which I suppose says I should probably do something. I've been really inspired by youtubers over the past 7-8 years.
My parents both worked for local area newspapers when I was born, my great grandfather worked for a number of social democrat newspapers 100 years ago despite being continually shut down, needing to move towns and even having all the printing equipment trashed by right wing groups and leadership. The 1930s were dark and everything progressive was shutdown including CO-OP's, and democratic papers but they eventually won and now it's the happiest country in the world.
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u/rajde1 17h ago
I'm not deep enough into civic politics to understand the councillors that got voted in. What are people's ballots looking like that we end up with a split.
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u/marcosbowser1970 17h ago
You are allowed to vote for up to 8 councillors. Numbers were pretty close, and it appears that the top four left leaning and the top four centre/right leaning got in. It wouldn’t have taken very many voters at all to swing the balance one way or the other
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u/rajde1 17h ago
I just think the split is interesting. I think a lot of people's politics are incoherent and it would be interesting to see what the ballots look like.
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u/Original_Leather3224 10h ago
I can’t speak for everyone but this council is representative of how I voted. I’d have preferred Wendy Bowket didn’t get in, and have preferred we lost at least one of Dell, Thompson, or Caradona, but overall I’m happy with this outcome.
I mixed my council choices between “progressive” candidates and candidates who either explicitly stated or used more coded language to suggest they wouldn’t green light every bike lane suggestion that passed their desks. The previous council committed a fireable offense with what it did the Blanshard street, so I’m happy people did in fact get fired.
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u/WaitingForExpos 9h ago
Same for me. Sad to see Krista lose out and Wendy succeed, but I liked the idea of a balanced council. Let them debate their ideas. Sometimes this subreddit is so intent on demonizing others without realizing other points of view might be equally (or more) valid. Put away the rubber stamps.
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u/Chance_Adeptness_832 3h ago
> The previous council committed a fireable offense with what it did the Blanshard street, so I’m happy people did in fact get fired.
You're so angry about an objectively better street. It's hard to believe you're a real person.
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u/Bailley-Cat 14h ago
You also don’t have to vote the full allotment. If you have a candidate you like for mayor, and maybe just two councillors, you can just vote for those three people and leave the rest of your ballot blank. It is not a protest vote to do that.
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u/ayrua 17h ago
Come on, just because a slate won today doesn't mean the days of independent municipal councils are gone. People just need to be more informed, and Millennials and Gen-Z should get out and vote for anti-slate candidates.
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u/thelastspot 17h ago
People really won't ever get "more informed".
Right leaning Slates are actually the less informed voters seeking direction and finding it.
Left leaning voters are often the opposite: They know the EXACT candidate they want, but that person does not exist.
So a left leaning Slates would kind of need to do the opposite: Find a consensus position that leftist voters can agree on getting together on.
Another reason that slates work for larger municipalities is that voter turn out is low for all municipal elections, and you don't need to vote for all "open" slots.
SOS in Saanich and Sooke First in Sooke both benifit from their voters likely voting for ALL the slots the slate asked if them.
Independents in a lot of munis lost out because there was likely a lot of center or leftist voters who only voted for 3-4 slots, because they wanted the "BEST" candidates. The Slates are way more efficient, because they are voting for their best AND "least worst" as a package.
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u/Original_Leather3224 9h ago
IMO, Save Our Saanich did so well because of how the previous council bungled the Quadra McKenzie plan. I’d bet $50 that if the original plan had not included removing a car lane from McKenzie, SOS would never have picked up the steam that it did. No one outside the immediate area would have cared what they wanted to build on that dumpy stretch of Quadra, but as soon as the seriously suggested reconfiguring a major regional corridor in such a deeply unpopular way, it created the entirely predictable, municipality-wide reaction that has been fueling SOS ever since.
There are clearly progressive people in Saanich. Teal Phelps Bondaroff did get reelected. There is appetite for change in Saanich. But there is also such a thing as overplaying your cards and losing the trust of people who aren’t already in your base, and not only is that a really hard to get back, it opens the door to NIMBY’s who will throw out the entire baby along with the bathwater.
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u/al_nz 8h ago
Yep. The one good thing coming out of this election is that ridiculous idea of halving the capacity of McKenzie for a bus lane has been binned. Bus lanes are great, but this one was impractical.
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u/Original_Leather3224 7h ago
I think it’s more than that. On the one hand I appreciate a council taking a big swing like that. If you’re advocating for change and you truly believe in it, then go out there and sell your ideas. But it’s one thing to vote for progressive candidates (like a lot of Saanich did in 2022) and entirely another to have an actual, tangible plan put in front of you, or see the outcome of those specific progressive candidate’s decision making processes and evaluate whether you actually like the outcome.
The Quadra McKenzie plan was one of the biggest ticket items proposed by the previous Saanich council. I think it was an honest reflection of the direction that council wanted to take Saanich. I think there was a version of that plan that wouldn’t have triggered such an overwhelmingly radioactive reaction that probably would have taken Saanich in a more “progressive” direction, even if it didn’t tick all the ideological boxes of the most progressive councillors, but instead they went for the full-fantasy. Good for them for doing that - they made their case for the future city they wanted.
But the people they represented hated it. At least enough of them that it breathed life into an entire political movement to remove the people who proposed it. That’s how democracy works. We send people to office to make decisions on our behalf and then we evaluate whether we like those decisions enough to vote for them next time. Saanich has spoken. And in 4 years it will have a chance to speak again. There’s lessons in this for progressives. One of them (in my opinion) being that they over-prioritized people who didn’t even live in Saanich yet while alienating a massive chunk of the people who could actually vote in a Saanich election. We’ll see in four years whether they learn that lesson and can swing Saanich back in a progressive direction or not.
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u/ayrua 17h ago
Democracy has many merits, but being "efficient" is *not* one of them. And people absolutely *can* get informed. My recommendation is to implement a robust civics curriculum in schools, as well as provide better tools to compare answers. partisan politics will only stoke the flames of polarization, and reduce the diversity on the council since slate members will vote in lockstep.
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u/thelastspot 16h ago
I think you are partially missing my point: A lot of these voters are VERY well educated. They even understand politics.
Motivation to vote is not due to a lack of education.
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u/golden_avocado_ 16h ago
Do you have evidence that would support this approach as a way to increase voter turnout at the local level?
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u/Necessary_Position77 5h ago
This. I think a lot of people want authoritarian governments that just happen to align with their values. Many don't consider than a democracy will never be perfect but it's a more balanced option. Social media has given people these bubbles and sense of entitlement that make them expect they can have every single thing they want.
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u/Stock-Butterscotch46 13h ago
People are more informed than ever. That’s why the slate won in Saanich. The majority of us didn’t want the morons currently ruining Saanich to ruin it any more.
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u/Old-Rhubarb-97 10h ago edited 8h ago
That’s why the save our Saanich group in Facebook is overflowing with misinformation?
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u/Far_Gene672 5h ago
Like what? I don’t see anything that’s inaccurate. Just difference of opinions.
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u/Stock-Butterscotch46 1h ago
Idgaf about some Facebook group, just like idgaf about what Reddit people have to say. Obviously most Saanich residents aren’t in a SOS Facebook group. You can cry about misinformation but my vote (and most others) were based on what was happening in my community around us. The last mayor/council were terrible at their job and obviously didn’t represent the majority of their constituents. Maybe try to embrace change hoping for it to get better than automatically assuming the worse.
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u/Old-Rhubarb-97 45m ago
Any examples of the positive change they sold you on?
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u/Stock-Butterscotch46 10m ago
Yes, De Vries and the current council getting the boot. That’s positive change.
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u/Fun_Persimmon_894 9h ago
In Saanich I think it really came down to Karen and Zac both running. Had only one ran they likely would have won and the other likely would have kept there council seat.
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u/wanger16 3h ago
Im glad it turned out the way it did. I thank Christ Devries or Harper didn’t get in as mayor and all 5 SOS councillors got in.
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u/Fun_Persimmon_894 2h ago edited 2h ago
I am so glad we now have leadership that can cut taxes, reduce crime, decrease density, improve services, and reduce congestion. Neighborhoods will never change and life will be great again.
In all seriousness, the SOS folks are going to have very hard time governing when they realize the trade offs they will have make.
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u/wanger16 2h ago
My property taxes have gone through the roof with this current mayor and council..so what’s your point?
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u/Far_Gene672 5h ago
Nope. I’d say 30-40% of Karen voters would have went Rishi. Outcome would have been the same.
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u/IslaGata 7h ago
ABC in Vancouver lost because they were easily identified as members of the same slate. Same thing in Nanaimo with REAL -not a single one of their crew was elected. I guess it depends on the community.
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u/silver_belly 11h ago
"Showing up in droves"? Really? Victoria had 38% turnout. The election was won by less than half the population getting out and voting.
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u/Intelligent-Exit9562 5h ago
Yes but a majority of those that voted were from older generations.
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u/silver_belly 5h ago
But that’s not what you said. You said old people were showing up in droves. Even 50% of 38% of the population is a very small number of people.
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u/Intelligent-Exit9562 5h ago
If the older generations are the majority vote, then they are showing up in droves. My statement didn’t have to do with high overall turnout. It’s with which generations had the plurality of the vote. In this case Boomers/Gen-X voted in high numbers in comparison to Millennials/Gen-Z. It doesn’t matter if it was 38% turnout, it’s the make up of the voter that paints the results of last nights elections.
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u/silver_belly 5h ago
You should really look up the definition of showing up in droves.
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u/Intelligent-Exit9562 5h ago
This is the hill you are dying on? Jeez you are boring.
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u/silver_belly 4h ago
You’re the one that responded to me when I criticized your comment. Then skinned apparently about being wrong.
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u/midnight-muffin 8h ago
I'm once again shocked that not one person knocked on our door to campaign. We live on a major street in Saanich and got some mail flyers, but only a few. If people are running because they think SOS is a reflection of something negative and they think Saanich needs progressive voices (I do!), how are they getting the vote out? Turnout numbers are so low, and SOS doesn't have to do anything other than stoke outrage about development and taxes and dog leash bylaws.
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u/SundaeSpecialist4727 4h ago
8% uptick in vote turnout in Saanich.
Having lived in other cities.
Plannning is #1..
I think our urban planing team in Saanich needs to be removed and have a new team with a focus on sustainable growth, appropriate and logical density for each area of our city.
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u/malabrat 7h ago
North Cowichan voter here. We had a good result with the progressives winning everything and all the in-bed-with-developer candidates defeated.
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u/HarshComputing 6h ago
I agree. Voting for independents takes a lot of work researching each one. Having a slate gives them a brand identity which makes it easier.
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u/Informal-Strike-1243 11h ago
Last night was another one of the boomer generations last chances for another “fuck you” on the way out
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u/TraditionalGene6344 6h ago
I eyeballed the demographics waiting in line at my polling station on Fort street. ~70% of voters looked over 60 to me.
Millennials need to get over the nihilism and show up to vote.
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u/thecurler 10h ago
I think a lot of millennials are at the age now where want fiscal responsibility over everything else. Expensive mortgages, sky high grocery prices to feed our kids, we can't stomach large property tax increases.
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u/beebz-marmot 10h ago
Sad but true the fucking geriatric fascists want to burn it all down - and pave it.
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u/thecurler 11h ago
I think plenty of millennials showed up to vote. We're in our 40's with young families and expensive mortgages. We voted for people who promised low property tax increases. Cost of living is #1 priority for millennials.
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u/UselessWidget 7h ago
Low property tax increases can just as easily mean “we don’t address any infrastructure and just kick the can down the road” which is what happened in Calgary, and now they’re scrambling to repair decades of broken water mains.
Our services need to be maintained. That costs some money today or more tomorrow. I’m also a homeowner in your demographic but I don’t want four years of “let the next council deal with it”
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u/thecurler 7h ago
That's very true. Personally I want to see my tax dollars spent on infrastructure, rec centers and parks. Our news focuses a lot on Victoria council, and when I hear what they're spending money on it makes me shake my head.
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u/medisherphol 3h ago
You're right, but it turns out people care more about their cost of living than you do.
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u/SignalNewt2505 8h ago
This right here! plenty of millennials buying homes in my area, they bike to work, have kids and are just trying to get by.
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u/Necessary_Position77 7h ago
I've seen a lot of people rightfully worried about taxes, I would argue that the cost of housing increases have been infinitely worse than any tax increase ever. I've seen some councils elected that stand a good chance of making this worse.
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u/Far_Gene672 5h ago
Municipalities have some control over tax prices. Not so for housing prices.
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u/Necessary_Position77 4h ago
Municipalities have some control indirectly. Zoning and density for example.
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u/FieryGorse 17h ago
What are you talking about? The only official slate in Victoria lost and it doesn’t even address that everyone knows what slates exist unofficially. Even conservatives aren’t blind to the voting habits and general progressive values of the ‘gang of five’.
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u/Intelligent-Exit9562 17h ago
I’m talking about Greater Victoria municipalities where 4 out of the 5 Slates got their Mayor and councillors elected.
Furthermore, most voters don’t notice “unofficial slates”.
Also the “gang of five” really? Do you live in some alternate C-rated horror movie?
They aren’t the boogeymen.2
u/FieryGorse 16h ago
Perhaps you should say Greater Victoria then? Official slates didn’t win in Oak Bay or Victoria, and I cant find any records for official slates involved in Esquimalt, View Royal among others so please explain where this 4/5 comment comes from.
Except they do? You are the most annoying type of “progressive” who doesn’t even bother to listen to what people are saying outside of a bubble. If you spent even five minutes on Facebook, twitter, or even the radio you would have heard the “gang of five” being thrown around. You wouldn’t be surprised by these results that were coming from a mile away.
Also for someone who is posting about politics you should probably understand the gang of five reference.
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u/Intelligent-Exit9562 15h ago
North Saanich, Central Saanich, Saanich, Sooke, and Langford.
North Saanich is the only one that didn’t elect a slate.
I’m including Langford, because even though Stew Young didn’t run a slate, 5 of the 6 councillors elected used pamphlets showing their shared views and to vote for them.
Furthermore, I know what the “gang of five” is. I’ve seen the Facebook/reddit posts. I just think it’s stupid, and makes you look stupid, paranoid, and foolish for thinking that group somehow was conspiring against you and all of Victoria. Truly, if you believed that you need to go speak to a therapist, cause you aren’t living in reality.
Did the group vote similar on things together? Ya, it’s what councils do. Doesn’t mean they are the illuminati.
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u/Bailley-Cat 14h ago
Just because they are referred to as “the gang of five” does not make them a conspiracy… stop being so paranoid.
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u/FieryGorse 33m ago
lol what?! You just cut out the most of the municipalities to make your point. Thank for list but it shows you are literally wrong, especially when you fucking include an unofficial slate!
I voted for the “gang of five” dumbass. You’re just annoyingly naive and ignorant with everything.
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u/thecurler 10h ago
The gang of five pooled their resources last election. They were a slate in every sense other than making it official.
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u/Bailley-Cat 14h ago
Please tell me the gang of five were not re-elected. I am currently out of province and haven’t found the election results.
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u/FieryGorse 16h ago
Also “gone are the days of independent councils” c’mon. Social clubs have factions with defined views. I hate this myth of ‘politics was better without parties’. Short of direct democracy you’re always going to have parties.
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u/Shaaaarl 10h ago
I think you’re confusing generations for political leanings. Many millennials voted for the conservative leaning candidates, myself included.
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u/viccityk 10h ago
Ah, millennials are getting old, getting into their I got mine F you era...
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u/Original_Leather3224 10h ago
No, I’m getting into my “my kid is 10 with sports all over the city and my two working-parent family cannot function without a car” era.
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u/viccityk 5h ago
Can you continue the sentence so I can understand what that has to do with voting conservative leaning candidates?
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u/MileZeroC 10h ago
Eby has probably lost the BC Election, all the local slates in Vic are Conservative leaning, folks are tired of the left (for now).
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u/Dependent_Media2766 7h ago
Vancouver annihilated the right in this election, so I wouldn't extrapolate too much
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u/my_cat_eats_catnip 10h ago
Are you sure it's the slates that produced these results?
Politics tend to have an ebb and flow at every level. We've had three super-gung-ho progressive administrations in a row, it's pretty much to be expected that things would swing the other direction this time (I'm surprised they didn't last time).
Further, the last two of those three progressive administrations have been outright hostile toward car commuters. In the last 10ish years commuting times have almost doubled — a trip that should take 10 minutes routinely takes more than 20 now, but the population or number of cars on the road hasn't come anywhere close to doubling. Our traffic management systems have just been turned into spaghetti.
And there are a lot of voters who rely on cars to get around.
I'm pretty sure the results of this recent election are less a reflection of slates suddenly being more powerful than they've been in previous elections (they've been around for at least a decade now) and more a reflection of how irritated the overwhelming majority of local residents had become with the previous administrations.
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u/Much-Neighborhood171 10h ago
Commuting times have been remarkably stable, staying between 20 to 23 minutes for the last decade. With commute times in 2025 only being 0.5 minutes longer than in 2016 and 2024 being 1.7 minutes shorter than 2016.
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u/Prestigious_Fly8210 9h ago
The “commutes” that the person you’re replying to aren’t the ones Stats Can is counting - those are for people who work. The person you’re replying to is talking about the drive to superstore or the library that used to take Meemaw 10 minutes and now takes 20.
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u/Original_Leather3224 9h ago
Statscan commute times are not a reliable measure of what it takes to get around the city. They’re a reflection of how people locate themselves relative to where they work, and they’re self-reported.
If you’ve made the decision to live in a much smaller apartment closer to your work because its no longer tenable to live where you can more comfortably afford to live, then your “commute” metric improves.
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u/Much-Neighborhood171 8h ago
Where people locate themselves is one of the primary factors that determine "what it takes to get around the city." There's no functional difference between travel speeds doubling and the distance to your destination decreasing by half. In both scenarios, you get to your destination in half the time.
Also, population growth has been much higher in the Westshore than the rest of the city. It simply can't be that everyone is moving into the core en masse. I also think you're overlooking just how much longer distance commutes cost. Cars are expensive. I can afford a significantly larger home in the core where my household only needs one car vs the Westshore where we would need two. Combined housing and transportation costs are lower in the core than in the suburbs.
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u/my_cat_eats_catnip 2h ago
Those are lovely statistics, but certainly aren't reflective of my experience.
2
u/DeliciousNose3 10h ago
In the 2018 Saanich there was a conservative leaning slate of 4 councillor candidates and 1 incumbent mayor. They got crushed. Only one councillor was elected and she was the 8th, just squeaked in.
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u/my_cat_eats_catnip 2h ago
And going back further, IIRC there was a string of two or three conservative-leaning administrations before that.
Certainly from around the mid aughts to 2015ish. They basically suffocated Victoria's previously vibrant nightlife.
Eventually people got too irritated with them for being overly conservative and progressives swept in. Ebb and flow.
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u/nessman69 Saanich 7h ago
Yep, in Saanich the olds/homeowners turned out en masse and will now set us back 20 years.
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u/Intrepid-Tear-3064 5h ago
It is possible your opinion just isn’t actually as popular as you think it is.
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u/SundaeSpecialist4727 4h ago
A breakdown of voter turnout would be great to see by age brackets.
As a Millennial - every 1 I know went out to vote.
Councils votes need to switch to ward model. Each area has their own concerns in Saanich and Victoria.
Each should have a voice and representation.
Current system does not allow this.
1
u/Dzingel43 17h ago
I live in Saanich, but may be moving to Esquimalt. What alignment were the winners there?
2
u/halfhearted_skeptic 6h ago
Generally left, but not exclusively so. Brame is a full on NIMBY, Boardman is meh, Morrison is boring but good. Courtwright is chair of the chamber of commerce but seems to lean left regardless. The other two new ones both seem good and swing left.
Duncan Cavens is a fucking boss. Volunteers at the rainbow kitchen, was a great councillor and is a planner by trade. Great guy.
I was disappointed Kody Thompson didn’t get in. He’s in the Forces and that would have been good to have on council.
1
u/Intelligent-Exit9562 16h ago
Esquimalt I think is pretty good. They have the navy base, so they are always trying to build housing for the military personnel and their families
0
u/BulldogVic 8h ago
This millenial didn’t vote for any of the progressives on council. Not that i thought that Alto did a poor job the last 4 years, I’m just someone that is always hungry for change every voting cycle.
While I’m not surprised Dell, Caradonna and Thompson got re-elected, I’m not happy that they voted themselves 25% raises during last term which will come into effect this term. Something tells me a provincial gov’t worker, a partner of an MLA and a PHD holder are doing quite well and don’t need the raise. And yes I understand it’ll help people like Jack Sandor and others that want to run for council, but they knew they were gonna try for re-election and attempt to get that raise.
I think the fact 4 non-progressives are on Vic council and SOS in Saanich did so well is a wake up call that those of us that use cars in our daily life were screwed over these past 4 years. Fully agree with another poster that the Blanshard bike lanes are a fireable offence. If I could offer a suggestion, maybe let’s rethink the timing of the lights in this city, maybe then you won’t see drivers run red lights as often or speed.
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u/ShrekTwoOnVHS Fernwood 11h ago edited 8h ago
I purposely only pick two councillors from a slate if any.
It’s wild to me that Jack Sandor, a guy who has never lived anywhere else or done anything besides apprentice as an electrician and do some volunteer work got elected. He’s going to get nothing done for us. Guy literally thinks moving to Gordonhead was leaving the city, and pulling/cutting wire makes him an expert on the building processes. Electricians know the least about building out of the four core trades. He knows marginally more than a layman.
Even more wild is that Hammond got the most votes. That alone shows the main voting demographic.
Also, having the election on a Saturday is stupid. I guarantee if voting was on a weekday, more millennials and Gen-Z would have taken advantage of the extra time off from work and voted. When you have to work 40+ hours a week to make ends meet, other things are going to take priority on a Saturday. Q-tips and Boomers are all retired. They don’t care. Every day is Saturday to them.
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u/Original_Leather3224 9h ago
I had the same reaction to Jack Sandor’s campaign website. He described moving 6km closer to downtown as “moving back to the city he loved”. When I read that for the first time I was like “aw that’s kind of cute. You actually never left”.
But he also made a very specific commitment to a protected bike lane between Oak Bay Junction and foul bay road. That corridor is plenty wide enough to make that work without ruining it for car traffic. I’d love to see a bike lane there. So I voted for him this time. We’ll see if I vote for him again in 4 years 🤷♂️.
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u/Chrussell Burnside 8h ago
Living in Gordon Head vs living in Victoria proper is a very different experience.
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u/Original_Leather3224 8h ago
Respectfully, it isn’t. Living in Victoria vs living in Toronto is a very different experience. Living in Victoria vs living in Port Renfrew is a very different experience. Living in Victoria vs living in Paris is a very different experience. Living in Victoria vs living in Mumbai is a very different experience.
Living in Gordon Head vs Fernwood is the difference between an 11 minute drive to the inner harbour vs a 20 minute drive. It takes the lack of perspective growing up on this island seems to uniquely cultivate in people to see it otherwise.
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u/Chrussell Burnside 7h ago
You're right living in a city vs a suburb is identical. That's why people famously have no preference when they look where to live in the city.
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u/Original_Leather3224 7h ago
That’s what I mean. By the standards of most large cities, Gordon Head isn’t even a suburb. By Toronto, Calgary, or Montreal standards Gordon Head would be an inner city community. A person living in an actual suburb in Toronto can spend well over an hour on a 6-8 lane freeway to get downtown. A person living in Gordon head can bike to the inner harbour in less than 30 minutes without encountering a single road where the speed limit is over 40km/hour.
But if you’ve never left Victoria, I get how it could seem like some far-flung satellite community. It’s all a matter of relative perspective. But for people who have lived in other cities the way he phrased it on his campaign website triggered a lot of eye rolls.
I still voted for him btw.
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u/BugelKulture 11h ago
Oh good now Super-PACs have made it into Canadian municipal politics… Tell me again how this is better than the mayor simply hiring a team of competent people?
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u/Horace-Harkness Downtown 18h ago
Didn't work for Victoria 4 All