INTRODUCTION
THE PROBLEM WITH CANDIDATE'S VIEWS
A root problem is lack of understanding of what feeds and fosters humans. Most candidates, whether leaning toward Marxism or Mercantilism, do not trust humans and have a mechanistic mindset. So control is their goal, and they are arrogant enough to think it is their right. Their methods are manipulation and exploitation.

Marxism's teaching that humans are uncreative and untrustworthy is the root of environmental activism. Few people will deliberately spoil their own property in serious ways. Indeed you can see gardens and trees around you, planted and nurtured by humans, and outside of cities in BC you can see replanted forests growing well. You have clean water and your waste is disposed of. The problem is often "tragedy of the commons" - when everyone is responsible no one takes responsibility.
The antidote to that is private property, and policing of any remaining public property. Environmentalists use the logical fallacy of "appeal to nature", and the broader "naturalistic fallacy", both vague and loaded with presumptions that often aren't stated (which is a con artist's method).
(Persons of neo-Marxist beliefs typically vote against policing, despite their claim to want to help the poor who need defending as they have fewer resources to recover from crimes against them.)

An element of confusion is morality - politicians will claim honesty in matters such as avoiding conflict of interest, but push their own pet projects at taxpayer's expense, and practice partial confiscation of property by restrictions such as retaining decrepid old buildings that burden future generations, and payments for "amenities".

Only a few have half a clue, but Esquimalt has one good candidate and one with promise, Oak Bay may have a half-good one, a few others seem to be steadier than average candidates who may add perspective to debates.)

Among things many candidates vaguely claim they are for are the usual "community", low taxes/good finances, consultation, and "vision" - but they usually forget to include "motherhood and apple pie". A shallow bunch.
"Change" is a notable theme among challengers in this election - perhaps it always is, Saanich and Victoria embraced it for mayor but not for most of council.

I'll keep adding information, including links to candidate web sites, with priority on Saanich then Esquimalt and View Royal as they also affect me. I run through municipalities, from Saanich south through Oak Bay then west to Sooke, then up the Saanich Peninsula and into the Gulf Islands. (I have not made complete lists for most of the municipalities.)
I cover major issues at the end (Amalgamation, Policing, Property Rights, Sewage Treatment).

Candidate lists include school boards, but very few include contact information - Victoria city and the Times Colonist newspaper are best.
Web sites of municipalities and school boards should have lists. (The West Shore except View Royal is in SD62, View Royal and part of The Highlands are in SD61, everything in mid-Saanich and south is in SD61, the northern part of Saanich and beyond is in SD63, the southern Gulf Islands are in SD64.)

Most lists include polling place locations, and voter registration information. Of course municipal web sites should have that information.
(Residency requirements are different than provincial and federal governments, individuals who own property in the jurisdiction can vote even if not resident - that gives taxed people a say. Oddly, candidates do not have to reside in the municipality they are running in.

There's a question of whether or not one has to vote for the same number of candidates as there are openings for, or can vote for only those worth voting for (which would serve to avoid rewarding those not worth a vote). Regrets, I neglected to research that, I note that Saanich's ballot says "Vote for not more than X candidates.", which infers voting for fewer is acceptable (whereas voting for more spoils your ballot).
As for marking ballots, IIRC the criteria used in federal and provincial elections is that your selection must be clear and they way you mark the ballot must not be easily usable to identify you. (Even fancy ink might identify you. This is a secret ballot, unfortunately in hotly contested federal elections party scrutineers are given lists of who voted, by numbers in the list of registered voters so they can call supporters who haven't yet voted - but they must not be close enough to the clerks to match faces to names as the person votes, registering on the spot may avoid that list, at least the first time.)

www.blackpress.ca has links to their newspapers, though their Search function does not work, they've been providing candidate profiles.
www.timescolonist.com/elections has profiles of some candidates.

All-candidates debate/Q&A/meet events are often held by groups such as Chamber of Commerce and community associations. Local newspapers advise of those, and websites of the CofCs should have information.
David Shebib is a candidate for mayor in all local fiefdoms. While he seems to want to get government out of people's lives - a commendable goal in general, he's not a serious candidate, perhaps he's trying to illuminate issues but he's a rather erratic individual.
BC law governs local elections, the file VotersGuidetoLocalElections.pdf is informative.

CAPITAL REGIONAL DISTRICT

SAANICH
* NEW **
A wrapper on the Times Colonist newspaper of November 13, 2014 provides poll locations plus registration and identification information, municipality web site addresses, and a link to a map of fiefdom boundaries. (The map is at www.crdatlas.ca. No information is provided on voting by non-resident property owners.)

Saanich's list of candidates and voting locations was in the Saanich News of October 24, 2014, page A6, and October 29, 2014 page A8. Website is www.saanich.ca.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/saanich-candidate-profile-information-1.1468104 Candidate profile responses
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/municipal-election/saanich-district.html with contact information

Current mayor Frank Leonard bullies property owners, and is increasingly an eco-alarmist, but cannot administer well.

(Almost every department head I've dealt with is not competent or worse. Examples:
- One tried to smear me rather than deal with my identification of major errors in the work of his department.
- The parks department generates much paper but cannot put basic signs at secondary entrances to Cuthbert Homes Park to guide emergency responders to the mess of trails (a hallmark of a bureaucracy is much talk but not doing the simplest things).
- Another cannot communicate clearly and legally to residents and road users about a temporary street closure, instead denying their problems.
- Between two departments they cannot trim foliage that blocks visibility of signs and traffic, despite being pointed to specific cases.
- Another could not think out of the narrow box of 'convention", to solve a traffic safety problem.
- The planning department head is against building residential accomodation, and presides over verbose reports of poor quality, containing fundamental contradictions. And she tried to claim that self-selecting surveys were representative because occassionally the results matched a professional survey - not a smart individual.
- There are indications of flip-flopping on a key legal opinion, and of Frank Leonard being conned by bureaucrats.
Saanich has an administrator that those incompetents report to, but he is of course effectively reporting to the mayor day to day. While promoting from within has the potential advantage of familiarity with Saanich's systems, it has the risk of perpetuating a poor culture of performance. (That CAO left when the new mayor arrived, apparently beligerantly with a contract having a huge payout.)
(The Finance department has been helpful when I had specific questions. The sewer-water workers seem hard-working and on the ball when there is a problem, in contrast to CRD people.)

Leonard brags that Saanich is a founding member of "Partners for Climate Protection", a climate alarmist group. But their blame-humans for climate CO2 emissions theory has been extensively disproven by the reality that climate temperature has not changed signficantly in 18 years, temperatures in the upper troposphere have not increased as alarmist models predicted, water vapour has changed as one would expect from basic physics of the limit that CO2 can have on atmospheric temperature, and sea levels are not zooming upward as alarmists predicted they would have by now. In other words, there is no runaway warming as alarmists like Frank Leonard predict, and alarmist "scientists" do not know how to predict climate. (Of course in the late 1970s some of the same people were crying doom from global cooling - like a bunch of Chicken Littles.)

And Leonard is weak on policing, while continuing to spend money on fancy flower beds and papering parks with studies instead of on more policing. He falsely claims that "no call is too small" for the Saanich police department, and made inaccurate claims about other police departments (I and John Ducker publicly rebutted those claims).
Frank Leonard's pattern of behaviour in peddling the policing fallacy, and his distain for amalgamation, fits a theory that he doesn't want amalgamation to eliminate his power - Saanich is the largest most populous municipality in the area. See my comments on amalgamation later on this page. And Leonard has lately advocated more communication with citizens, proposing an election item on that - but one letter writer says as mayor he could do that anytime.
See www.frankleonard.ca, which may include information on voting.

Claims to respect voter's ability to pay, but spends on glitz and anti-human activities.
I say "Fire Frank", Which voters did, Atwell is now the mayor..

His opponent Richard Atwell started as a two-issue candidate (sewage and amalgamation), and did not respond to my questions as to what his underlying values are including on property rights and proper administration. Though he's added strong advocacy for residential development of the Alberg family property on Mt. Douglas Crossroad, which Frank Leonard opposes. (See section later on this page.) And has added to his website.
But he seems to add only particular issues or vote-soliciting notions, such as giving students of UVic and Camosun a voice in regional transit. (I ask what about students of other schools who outnumber those, and what about individuals trying to get to jobs (a great many of those, problem is transit here doesn't start until 6am, closer to 630 by the time a bus gets across the area to where it can pick you up. Is there a board where students can urge UVic and Camosun to adopt broader hours to reduce peak time travel needs?) Frank Leonard is in print as saying transit should be a CRD concern (He says that even though he is one of the few on the transit board). Transit of course crosses fiefdom boundaries - BC Transit loops busses across town, for example route 14 starts at Victoria General Hospital, goes through downtown Victoria, and turns around at UVic. Several such routes take different main streets into Victoria on each side of it. That system works relatively well, but there is a need for more direct busses in rush hour, such as Esquimalt via McKenzie (there is one from the West Shore that turns up McKenzie from H1), and for earlier and later busses as in Vancouver BC. Of course the appetite for transit is almost endless when subsidized, as all riders and especially students are. Yet there are large gaps - to Sooke is sparse outside of rush hours.
Though his statement to the Times Colonist emphasizes open and accountable.
A key question is where Attwel stands on the priority of policing.
Atwell claims business/technical experience but I want to know what he actually accomplished - Motorola for example is a poorly run company, a bureaucracy (that's why it had to get out of the phone business it pioneered).

Prediction
Who will win depends on how fed up people are with Frank Leonard's behaviour and administrative shortcomings versus how much the unknown Richard Atwell explains his core beliefs.Atwell won.

Saanich Council
Judy Brownoff is slippery, she tried to evade responsibility for the policing budget despite having moved to pass the 2012 Saanich budget which includes policing costs, then proceeding to move a motion to shovel $100,000. out to a mooching TV show promotion (that money wold have gone a long way to adding one more analyst to police staff, as the Chief wanted). Is a climate alarmist. Strong on parks and such. I say "Banish Brownoff".

Vic Derman is slippery, he ducked my question of support for policing, and tried to blame council's activities or lack of on Frank Leonard. Is a climate alarmist. Does deserve some credit for opposing the CRD's grandiose sewage scheme (many environmentalists do, for various reasons).

Paul Gerrard advocates affordable housing, but one has to ask if he means getting out of the way of people building and earning, or if he means forcing others to pay for a small amount of government built housing (his statement to the Times Colonist indicates the latter). He says he is for economic development. Gerrard was president of the Gorge-Tillicum Community Association for many years, it does OK at producting the July 1 picnic, but does not keep people informed, spending its energy on eco-activism and pontificating.
Praised by Frank Leonard, aligned with Susan Brice.
See www.paulgerrard.ca which was not updated for the election.
Gerrard lost, perhaps from a weak campaign.

Susan Brice is better than the low average, but shallow, a doer but not a thinker of what is best to do.
Praised by Frank Leonard, aligned with Paul Gerrard.
See www.susanbrice.ca.

Leif Wergeland is probably adequate, doesn't get much publicity, but is pitching environmental scares. He mentions "safe" but I have not seen details, that could mean environmentalism or it could mean policing. Retired businessman who runs charities helping people overseas.
Aligned with Nichola Wade who is aligned with Frank Leonard, alignment with Wade is a big negative for Wergeland.
See www.leifwergeland.ca, no email address.

Nichola Wade is an environmentalists, a climate alarmist, nothing else stands out about her platform which is vague of a me-too flavour.
Praised by Frank Leonard, which may have cost her votes, background is government.
See www.nicholawade.com, which may include locations of polling stations.
Voters washed her out.

Fred Haynes has potential, some support for property rights - commendably supporting residential development of the Alberg family property on Mt. Douglas Crossroad. (See section later on this page.) But he is vague and mis-uses words (he doesn't define what he means by "Address climate change" - it's always changing, can't blame humans as most who use that term want to), and uses the word "sustainability" (very popular with environmentalist scare-mongers) when he appears to mean financial responsbility and increasing jobs. That approach to economics is very good if it results in sound administration and proper prioritizing, and getting out of the way of builders rather than trying to subsidize jobs as Judy Brownoff did). Sounds like too much of a politician. Spreads himself too thin in number of issues (such as "humane deer management" - well, gosh, is anyone not seeking that, whether cull advocates or deer-huggers?
Commendably urges alternatives for sewage treatment and consultation on that, urges caution on regional goverment and seeking cost efficiencies.
(See www.votehaynes.ca.)
He won election.

Colin Plant desires to make Saanich the "greenest" place.
Otherwise he seems sincere and asks questions, trying to get feedback and learn.
Says he was out knocking on doors in the summer, well before the election. His campaign web sites were different than most, showing creativity.
(See www.colinplant.com.)
He won election to both Saanich council and CRD's board.

Dean Murdoch is a "green" freak, who tried to reverse a long-established area OCP to block the Alberg's development of the last piece of land that the ALC long ago recommended be removed from the ALR, land that is poor for farming. (Fortunately the rest of council weren't willing to be so hasty.) Generally vague, perhaps wanting to at least consult people in the area the OCP is for though his attempt against the Albergs contradicts that claim. Shared mailing with Brownoff and Sanders.
See http://deanmurdock.ca/category/issues-and-ideas/.
I say "Dump Dean".

Marsha Henderson is a financial manager, sort of for development but also peddling the "local food production" fad. Was concerned about lack of communication from CRD and Saanich regarding the proposed sewage sludge facility at Hartland. "Preserve clean water sources" is a meaningless statement here, because we have a large watershed for that.

Rebecca Mersereau seems eager, but inconsistent.
She claims to be objective but her web site highlights irrational pushes like environmentalism and heritage. Might be too much of a politician, but on the face of it seems fundamentally confused about objectivity. (See http://rebeccamersereau.ca/ is a good web site.)

Shawn Newby claims to be strong on accountability and transparency. Having a background in large and small business is good.
But he talks of "neighbourhoods" - as though government can force them, and "environment" - usually the pitch of those who have a negative view of humans, which often are used as excuses to initiate force against property owners.
And he is naiive on secondary suites, regurgitating some of the fallacies peddled by NIMBYs.
Seems like a "me too" candidate, good at presenting but not an original thinker.
See www.shawnnewby.com

Vicki Saunders is quite interested in arts, is an environmentalist including climate alarmist, believes in fiscal responsibility - but who doesn't when asked?, points in her brochure are too terse to understand. Shared mailing with Brownoff and Murdock.

A candidate block has emerged: Brice, Gerrard, Mr. Leonard, Wade, and Wergeland have put out a brochure together (along with Ferris, Ms. Leonard, and Rizzuti as SD 61 candidates and Wayne Hunter as an SD62 candidate).

The deviousness of politicians was exemplified by the Saanich councillor who did not want to use the term "legalize" for secondary suites south of McKenzie because it would highlight the reality that those north of McKenzie would still be illegal.
My overall take on them: - reject Leonard, Brownoff, Murdoch, Plant, Wade, and Derman.
- Atwell, Saunders, Wergeland, Henderson, Haynes, Gerrard, and Brice may be the least dangerous to freedom, of a bad lot of candidates.
(I biased my view toward change, which has risk.)

VICTORIA
* NEW **
A wrapper on the Times Colonist newspaper of November 13, 2014 provides poll locations plus registration and identification information, municipality web site addresses, and a link to a map of fiefdom boundaries. (The map is at www.crdatlas.ca. No information is provided on voting by non-resident property owners.)

A list of candidates is in the Times Colonist of October 24, 2014, page A7, and of October 29, 2014 page A10 (complete with contact information.

Dean Fortin is smooth, seemingly not bad in general but spendthrift and pushes the "sustainability" attack on humans. (It comes from the shortage mentality and drive-to-the-bottom ethics of Marxism, which never fed anyone.) He provides an example of poor communication with a colour ad containing a logo that appears to say "Fortin I4" or perhaps "Fortin 14". Does that mean something to a few Victoria voters?

His challenger Ida Chong is a slick politician behind her plain image, I don't think she contributed much as a BC cabinet minister, and she gave bad medical advice when she stuck her nose into another ministry's work. (Apparently didn't do the research she today claims she always does.) A "strange bedfellows" claim by right-wing Chong is union support against a left-wing mayor. Oh, is she a politician?

Stephen Andrew impressed me as a talk show host, especially when he pushed the spokesman for a group supposedly helping poor people to condem vandalism against the mayor's home. (The jerk avoided doing so despite Mr. Andrew assertively giving him several opportunites. Mr. Andrew was on-principle and assertive.)
He offers his ability to ask tough questions and get answers, to create an open transparent government. He mentions economic development, public safety, and "sustainable quality of life" (whatever that means) as issues to focus on.
Andrew has made a formal complaint against an NDP consituency association for using names and phone numbers from a provincial campaign, that information is supposed to be confidential according to Andrew while a beneficiary of the promotion effort says the information is usable for supporters even though it is a different election legally and procedurally. The NDP promotional effort was on behalf of Fortin, Alto, Isitt, Kaye, Loveday, and Madoff - which illuminated their ideology. I recommend not voting for those six.

But Riga Godron was a jerk, judging by the Victoria News' report of the first all-candidates meeting.

Jason Ross wants more public involvement with city government, fostered by opportunties to learn about it and by communication from the city. But he talks as though his first term would be learning for him, whereas people want action (informed action would of course be best, but he does not reveal much of his core values).

Council
Pamela Madoff is a heritage control freak, wanting to control others' property at no cost to herself, just to property owners and taxpayers (who she wants to subsidize earthquake resistance of a decrepid old building).

Ben Isitt, aka "log rider" for his initiation of force in Langford, is a statist. Positions himself as financially conservative but wants to have a city income tax, I think he just wants to spend on things other than most of council.

Lisa Helps positions herself as financially conservative, seems sharp, but I'd want to understand what her underlying beliefs are.

Victoria council greatly increased cost of the replacement Johnson Street bridge with fancy features, yet omitted track for the E&N railway. Now people have the wild notion that commuters will make another transfer to a bus to get into the downtown core where their jobs are, or walk from well into Vic West where the Via rail passenger service will have to terminate. That's on top of the time taken at the origin end (bus, park & ride, or kiss & ride). Studies show that multiple transfers discourage use of transit. Attempts to provide short boat ride service across Esquimalt Harbour and to Victoria Harbour also show that people won't spend the time. (The E&N trackage will now only be of much use for the many workers at CFB Esquimalt and the dockyards beside the track. Is that a viable business plan?)
Cost over-runs on the bridge are an issue, apparently due to poor project management including placing too much stock on estimates before design was complete.

OAK BAY
** NEW **
A wrapper on the Times Colonist newspaper of November 13, 2014 provides poll locations plus registration and identification information, municipality web site addresses, and a link to a map of fiefdom boundaries. (The map is at www.crdatlas.ca. No information is provided on voting by non-resident property owners.)
The Times Colonist of November 1, 2014 highlights Oak Bay candidates, as does the Oak Bay News of November 5, 2014.

I'd vote against incumbent mayor Jensen because he helped drive a dementia care hospital out of Oak Bay. (VIHA wanted to replace the existing facility, managed by Baptist Housing, with a more efficient one. NIMBYs objected to a 3-story building, despite the aging population in Oak Bay. Some outlying municipalities spoke up to say they'd welcome the facility. Being able to stay close to friends, relatives, and medical service providers is important to aging persons.)
Except his challenger Green is no better.

Some in Oak Bay government wanted to send a letter to Esquimalt asking them to reconsider their refusal of zoning for a sewage treatment plant. But some pointed to the dementia care facility rezoning refusal as a possible parallel. Talk about the "pot calling the kettle black", an old saying. Could comedy fiction writers do any better than politicians? (Oak Bay has a double problem with sewage, as at least part of it does not have a separate system to collect storm water versus sewage, thus either has to spend on separate piping or pay more for treatment volume.)

Kevin Murdoch has been much more sensible as a councillor, but misses some basics. (Claims he does not have an ideology, but in reality everyone has beliefs - even Neville Chamberlain. Hopefully Kevin Murdoch means he will examine each issue, but without a solid underpinning I predict he will err against humans too often.)

Eric Zhelka is rabidly anti-property, including against secondary suites - strange for a neo-Marxist activist as they reduce the cost of residential accommodation, and drops the name of Jack Layton. Seems like someone out of his depth, but being a neo-Marxist he shouldn't be elected in any case

Joan Russow is an environmentalist and neo-Marxist, former leader of the Green party, peddling all the fads of those two mindsets.

Jan Mears supports housing options available to all ages, small business, and infrastructure but believes "climate change" is a problem.

Tara Ney supports increasing housing options but embraces environmentalist fads like "urban forest". Sensible on deer cull but claims that secondary suites increase burden on existing infrastructure - in fact they increase revenue for it,
Deer cull is a flapping issue in Oak Bay. I point to the large study by the BC government that identified a cull every decade as the only proven approach. Of course environmental alarmists continue to claim deer are in urban areas because their habitat has been destroyed by development for buildings - but reality is that there's plenty of wild habitat as close as Goldstream park and the watershed behind it). I continue to point out they are here because the food is better and there are few cougars, and that tribal people harvested deer in Oak Bay for millenia before recent immigrants from Europe. (Deer can handle dogs, but are slow to learn about cars,as the population is now resident I hope adult deer will teach their young who will pass that on to their offspring.) Deer should be handled by the CRD, as critters don't read signs - the vacancies left by removing them from Oak Bay will be filled by young bucks from adjacent fiefdoms. (Even the "worth considering" suggestion of birth control won't work unless regional action is taken.)

Good luck Oak Bay, you face four years of anti-human control.

ESQUIMALT
* NEW **
A wrapper on the Times Colonist newspaper of November 13, 2014 provides poll locations plus registration and identification information, municipality web site addresses, and a link to a map of fiefdom boundaries. (The map is at www.crdatlas.ca. No information is provided on voting by non-resident property owners.)

A list of candidates is in the Victoria News of October 22, 2014, page A15, and october 29, 2014 page A6.
And at http://www.esquimalt.ca/files/PDF/Municipal_Hall/Election/Declaration_of_Candidates_2014_signed.pdf. Short statements form each are in the Victoria News of November 5, 2014.
Website is www.esquimalt.ca. Candidate answers and website information at http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/esquimalt-candidate-profile-information-1.1468092.
http://esquimaltresidents.com/voteesquimalt/ has names, and links to websites or brochures.

Mayor Barbara Desjardins is a slick politician who pushes the folly of "traffic calming" but botched the plan to mess with Admirals Road, earlier she couldn't even get a construction job done promptly (that cost businesses, they closed or moved). She has been strong against the CRD's crazy sewage treatment scheme, which would have centralized it in a single plant in Esquimalt but pumped sludge to the north end of Saanich. She worked against proper policing by trying to reduce budget and made misleading claims about "community policing" despite Victoria police department (which covers Esquimalt because it could not manage its own department properly) having an office within sight of Esquimalt city hall. I say "Dump DesJardins."
[News: Apparently Desjardins took a swipe at Frank Leonard for not attending some CRD sewage meetings, Leonard replied that he had someone else represent Saanich because a relative of his works for a potential bidder/subcontractor. Her tack was very odd given that she recused herself from an Esquimalt council meeting because a relative of hers is a potential bidder/subcontractor on an Esquimalt project. I read that she has backed down from her criticism of Leonard. Someone didn't do homework and think before spouting. (Reference Victoria News and Saanich News of October 29, 2014, respectively.]

Scott Attril is sincere, strong for policing, business, and property rights. Is spreading himself too thin, needs to spend more time doing homework on fewer issues. But in general the class of the bunch for his clear communication of what he stands for both in policies and underlying values. Agree with them or not, you should respect his clear communication, which is rare among politicians. I'd vote for him.
Unfortunately he did not do well at the polls.

John Ducker, former deputy chief of Victoria police (which includes Esquimalt) has not been heard from much. I hope he strongly supports more policing. (He did straighten Frank Leonard out on his errors when Leonard tried to claim that Saanich policing was better than Victoria's.)
See www.johnducker.ca, rather middling but does suppport more development in general. Is endorsed by labour unions, and is strong on community activities but that's secondary to the purpose of government. Not an outstanding candidate, he should have left challenging the mayor to Attril. He got some votes, perhaps from unhappy union people.

COUNCIL Tim Morrison is economically ignorant, he claimed that Rogers Communications wanted to spend a lot of money building a Councillor cellular telephone antenna tower that no one needed. I say "Turf Tim."
(www.TimMorrison.ca)

Another councillor claimed people's hair would be turning green from all the radio signals, I say "wash Ms. Green Hair out of council".

Josh Steffler espouses good values, communicating clearly, his depth remains to be seen. See www.joshsteffler.ca, an awkward to use website, his brochure is better. The "Creed of Freedom" he mentions is quite good in itself, it appears to be based on the "natural rights" approach of Locke and the founders of the US whose ideas we benefit greatly from. But Unfortunately the author and some promoters of the creed are xenophobic conspiracy theorists who think fixed-pie (I've no indication that Mr. Steffler is one, he just needs to be careful about them).) I'd probably vote for him but would first ask if he supports more policing (he has a concern about police priorities, but I would need to know his full view, I have concerns about administration of police but support the principle).

VIEW ROYAL
Candidates list is on page A28 of Goldstream News Gazette of October 29, 2014, and on www.viewroyal.ca.

David Screech voted against rezoning to allow construction of Janeece Place charity residence beside Victoria General Hospital.
In my experience Screech is clever at dropping context and talking past an issue.
He's running on the coat-tails of Graham Hill, the mayor who is not running for re-election. Hill was generally against development though voted for Janeece Place, he's a grand-stander.
I say "Scrub Screech".

His opponent Brian Burchill is chair of the ARESST organization trying to stop the CRDs massive sewage treatment program. He ran a company that made lumber from recycled plastic, until the BC government changed recyling to favour a different collection operation eliminated 60% of his supply - so he ought to know how dumb and arrogant government can be.
Unfortunately, while he appears to have researched sewage and is rebutting the push for more treatment - see SEWAGE TREATMENT later herein, the has fallen for the blame-humans-for-climate scam, the result of not digging into that subject.
See www.brianburchill.ca

Among candidates for council, Kennedy, Mattson, and Rast seem most sensible, Weisgerber sounds shallow, and Brennan and Rogers sound too much like environmentalists.

COLWOOD
Colwood's list of candidates is on page A6 of the Goldstream News Gazette of October 22, 2014, and October 29, 2014 page A25.
The present council may be doing better than past ones, especially than pro-active bully Dave Saunders. (An example of the need for solid values not just eagerness and drive.)
Colwood recently came to realize that they could issue building permits within weeks rather than months if they got their administrative act together - years after Langford showed the way, but "better late than never".

Candidates for council this eyar include: - Chong, against tax increases and the grand sewage plan, for cooperation with neighbours, seems confused in asking for an "elevated crossing where the Galloping Goose crosses the highway" (that Trail does cross Island Highway and 6 Mile Road in View Royal, otherwise its route into Langford does not cross major roads).
- Day, vague blather
- Devito, says little
- Huneck, for fiscal responsibility
- Lebedynsky, for openness and ethical behaviour, didn't mention motherhood and applie pie
- Logan, vague blather
- MacNeill, seems to be for development, good budgetting, and open government
- Martin, for good finances and strengthening arts
- Nault, vague on most things, supports "sustainable development" which is Green Facism
- Trace sounds good in general but is vague

LANGFORD
Candidates list was in Goldstream News Gazette of October 29, 2014, page A26.

Stu Young has been mayor for decades. Generally for development but quite willing to extort money from property owners to pay for public facilities that suit his preferences.
Provided a good example of speeding up the building permit process, which Colwood has now followed.
He is becoming slack on administration, and is spending on glitz - the unsafe mess at the roundabout on Goldstream Road in Beautiful Downtown Langford, for example.
His only opponent this time is David Shebib, see top of this page regarding him.

As for councillors, if I were a Langford voter I'd probably favour Mollon, Seaton, Barber, and Power - explicitly rejecting McLachlan, Munro, and Siefert. (McLachaln is for affordable housing, but also for maintaining valuable agricultural land - where is there any in Langford?)
Five challenger candidates are grouping themselves as for change, whereas incumbents Blackwell, Sahlstrom, Seaton, Sifert, Szpak are advertising jointly.

Langford has a clearly stated question on amalgamation.

METCHOSIN
Metchosin's list of candidates is on page A7 of the Goldstream News Gazette of October 22, 2014, and A27 of October 29, 2014, and statements of mayor and council candidates are in the November 2014 issue of the Metchosin Muse newspaper along with a list of SD62 candidates.

Ed Cooper is challenging John Ranns for mayor, seems much of the same eco/subsidize-farms mold but concerned about finances, so may be a change for somewhat better.

Looking through candidate statements, I read Karen Watson as having sense and experience, Moralea Milne as rabid environmentalist, Kyara Kahakauwila as confused (claims to be independent but her beliefs are copycat, claims to provde a fresh approach due to her age of 36 years but a fresh approach does not come from age, rather from thinking), others muddling or copycat statements.

CENTRAL SAANICH
A list of candidates is in the Peninsula News Review of October 22, 2014, page A9, and page A5 of October 29, 2014.

Of note is one Jack Mar, mayoral candidate who claims that workforce housing is not a concern because people choose where they work. Sure, I say, and employers choose where to be - will the Schneider Electric conglomerate, who make 50,000. electrical meters each year in Central saanich, put up with higher costs and inability to expand because housing costs in Central Saanich are too high for potential employees? (Mar is highlighted in the Peninsula News Gazette of November 5, 2014, along with some other candidates.
He did not win, councillor Ryan Windsor is now mayor. Windosor is in favour of lower housing prices for workers, but also for a "Regional Sustainability Policy" which sounds bad.

Recent councils have been against development, so much that they almost drove the Co-op grocery store away by preventing it from expanding where it is, and blocking building at a crossroads that already has businesses. (The Co-op decided to relocate to tribal land far to the north, but the economics weren't good enough at the moment. So they'll stick with a medium-size store on an awkward property, it's not a good destination store in the face of planned shopping centres to the north.)

NORTH SAANICH
North Saanich, which Victoria International Airport is in, has grudgingly approved some housing development near the airport and adjacent industrial area. That's much needed for the many employees of Nicholson machine works, Ramsey fabricators, and Viking Aviation - they and many smaller manufacturers export most of their products.
The 2014 election defeated several councillors, most members of the "Team North Saanich" alliance, but re-elected the mayor. I have no knowledge with which to predict whether freedom and quality of administration will improve, debate in council will probably be less rancourous.

Tucked in the corner of North Saanich.
Sydney's list of candidates is on page A7 of the Peninsula News Review of October 22, 2014.

Former mayor Don Amos is running again after a few years absence. He's against sale of downtown waterfront the town owns, but when mayor he made a deal to sell some prime frontage. A likeable fellow but confused?

He did not win election.

SOUTHERN GULF ISLANDS
A list of candidates for school trustees in SD 64 is on page 6 of the Gulf Islands Driftwood of October 22, 2014. Non-resident property owners may register to vote but certain ownership proof and agreement is required. It appears that registration can be done at the polling station. Polling stations will include Sydney and Richmond not just on the islands.

A list of candidates for representatives of SSI and other islands on the CRD board, and information on two money bylaw votes, is on page 18 of the Gulf Islands Driftwood of October 22, 2014. Non-resident property owners may register to vote but certain ownership proof and agreement is required. Mail-in voting is available, register at www.crd.bc.ca/mailballot.

A list of candidates for Trustees of each island under the Islands Trust is on page 23 of the Gulf Islands Driftwood of October 22, 2014.Non-resident property owners may register to vote but certain ownership proof and agreement is required. Mail-in voting is available, register at www.crd.bc.ca/mailballot.
Refer to www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com. For properties with more than one owner, written agreement of all owners is required. If one co-owner lives on the property they may be able to vote as resident, one other as a non-resident property owner.
Residents of tribal reserves can vote in the larger jurisdiction the reserve is in. (Another confusing mess.) See www.cscd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/elections_home.htm, www.elections.bc.ca, www.civicinfo.bc.ca/11.asp, and www.bced.gov.bc.ca/legislation/trustee_election/welcome.htm.

POLICING
Policing protects individuals against the initiation of force.
Common occurrences of that include murder, assault (including rape), endangering others, and fraud.
What should the priority for funding be, for police versus many other competing interests?

First I'll touch on what human life is and how initiation of force impairs life.
Life requires action to sustain it. A plant must seek water, sun, and nutrients. Animals must find shelter and food, while avoiding hazards including other animals. Humans must find shelter and food, as well as avoiding hazards including animals and errant humans, plus in most climates we must find covering for our bodies as we do not have fur to insulate and protect it.
How do living things accomplish those actions? Plants tenaciously do what is built into their botany. Animals operate primarily on instincts, very focused on food, but are able to learn from experience and teach their young - and can communicate the location of food to others of their species, and the presence of hazards to a broader audience (by making alarming noises). Humans lack instincts but have a powerful mind we must use.
Both animals and humans have to be free to act using their brain - sitting thinking but unable to act does not sustain our life.

Obviously initiation of force prevents that necessary action. Police are the first line of defence against initiation of force by persons other than government officials. (Courts are the backup defence, as they deal with those police arrest, and they deal with some questions of initiation of force by government officials.)

Often those who object to funding policing claim to want to help poor people. But poor people are the most vulnerable to thieves and assaulters, as they have fewer financial resources and sometimes less mental resiliency the impact of crime is much greater. For example, loss of a bicycle or a cart used to carry groceries really impedes an individual. Assault really impedes an individual and causes loss of income during recovery. Thus poor people need policing more than rich people.

(The same people who falsely claim to want to help poor people also work against defence against external forces, which is the job of the military. Today Islamic Totalitarianism is a threat, Canadians have directly suffered from the combination of its influence and mental illness, in recent attacks in eastern Canada and the blocked plot to bomb crowds in Victoria on Canada Day.)
Politicians tend to go on statistics, which may show that crime has decreased - as though any crime is acceptable, and that rates are below average (as though slightly below the mediocre average level is good enough).)

A key aspect is surge capacity, which police here do not have. The incidence of violent protesters such as those blocking survyors in Burnaby BC, home-grown terrorists, mass shooters, violence in parades (such as occurred for 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver and Victoria), and hooligans (Vancouver's periodic sports game riots and Victoria's troubles on Canada Day), require surge capacity. Between such times of need extra police can be put to work investigating and watching. (Including traffic safety - I think that people who deliberately drive dangerously have the same explitation mentality that thieves and assaulters do, and some will go on to those actions. Their mentality is to endanger others for their own convenience or psychological jollies.

And there's the problem of courts and jails/prisons, which cannot re-educate many offenders, look at trashy repeat assaulters for example, who continue until they kill someone.

Of course police must be lead well, that is far less likely with today's politicians and the societal rot in general - read articles by former RCMP head Beverly B., for examples of the bad influence of Post-Modernist thinking.

PROPERTY RIGHTS
Local governments routinely violate property rights, often pandering to NIMBYs who want something like a view at someone else's expense - they've got their piece of the rock, no one else can have any. And NIMBYs peddle fallacies about utility costs and traffic safety - ignorant of how utilities are actually paid for, of who actually causes traffic safety problems (drunken owners and their teenage miscreants - not poor people living in basement suites), and of policing as the proper solution.
As life requires action to sustain it, and humans must use their mind for that action, confiscation of the results of productive effort is essential. Refer to POLICING above for more explanation of why initiation of force works against life.

THE ALBERG PROPERTY
The Alberg family's few acres on Mt. Douglas CrossRoad has become an example of the control freak, environmental activist, devious nature of Saanich government.
Their parents having died, the Albergs want to develop the land into 16 house lots.
Besides rezoning needed from Saanich, the land is in the BC Agricultural Land Reserve. The Agricultural Land Commission long ago recommended that Saanich apply to have several properties in that neighbourhood removed from the ALR. Saanich did not do that, so one-by-one they've been removed, the Alberg property is the last of them. The land is not good for crops, as soil is shallow and there are rock outcrops.
A problem for the owners is that Saanich would not recommend removal to the ALR, leaving the owners at risk of having land even less farmable. They're in a bunfight with Saanich over which change has to come first, rezoning or removal from the ALR. Saanich is claiming established procedure but I challenge that.
One councillor deviously tried to get the area Official Community Plan changed, it had long recognized that the land should be used for housing. Fortunately the rest of council that that the Community should be consulted, a concept that apparently escaped the devious councillor.
The owners proceeded to try to get farm income out of the land. Saanich blocked a chicken barn by using setback rules. (It's an odd situation, owners are somewhat subject to Saanich laws but somewhat protected by a BC law exempting farm activities from complaints.) So the Alberg's set up a cattle feed lot, supported by their farm up island. They've had cattle here for over a year, and sell meat at the farm gate on Fridays and Saturdays. While they reduced the population last summer, they are planned to increase it for this winter of 2014-2015. Within the context of farming, that is probably the best use of the land to produce food.
Many many neighbours - even some of the NIMBYs who wanted to retain open space at someone else's expense - now support use of the land for housing, in writing. But Frank Leonard continues to block proper use of the land.
Along the way environmentalists embraced a "tree canopy" fad (which I've shown is flawed) and worship "Garry Oak Meadows" (which I've explained are not a natural state of vegetation here), and a "local food" fad to keep the land as farmland. (Of course raising cattle is local food but the neighbours would forgo that to get rid of the smell and rats). But Frank Leonard has bullied against farming elsewhere in Saanich. Saanich's bureaucrats and politicians do not grasp that freedom is what feeds humans, whereas statism starves - as in North Korea today.)
The whole situation smells worse than the trailing end of the cattle.

(The natural state of Garry Oak vegetation is forest, which will be supplanted by Douglas Fir in the normal progression of tree types, as explained by Saanich parks department in Cuthbert Holmes Park, and as happened in Metchosin. Human activity has suppressed competing species, creating the "meadows" (not really meadows, just variable tree cover). Often that activity was tribal people felling trees to create interface area so they could harvest more deer and berries - those don't grow in full forest, and camus lillies in the open area. On the Alberg land, children, modest gardens, and Mother Alberg's cows probably kept competing species from taking hold.

SEWAGE TREATMENT
Is a major issue in the election here.
The Capital Regional District has been trying to implement secondary treatment for area sewage disposal.
The push is provincial and federal government regulations, though federal has been questioned as to whether their regulations are meant for relatively static bodies of water like lakes, rather than ocean water with its wave action and in the case of Victoria the deep fast-flowing Strait of Juan de Fuca. (Some of the push is tourism, as hypocrites from Seattle bash Victoria while ignoring their problem in the shallow slow-moving waters of the south end of Puget Sound.) The cost is huge, perhaps several hundred dollars per house per year.

After much churn, CRD chose southeast Esquimalt as the site for a single treatment plant. (The main outfall is now at Clover Point on the Victoria side of the harbour.) Part of the scheme is to pipe truck sludge well away to the Hartland garbage dump in the northwest corner of Saanich (which increases costs and pollution), perhaps dewatering it there and using water to irrigate crops - if anyone will take it (concerns about health if used for cropland). People in Esquimalt opposed that vigorously, so council refused rezoning, plans appear at a standoff.

Some municipalities including Esquimalt are claiming that local plants can be built more economically, Colwood may be planning one as it's sewage situation is different - much of it uses septic fields. (There are several local treatment plants in SW BC and NW WA, and a few small ones for large developments here. I don't know if they are truly successful, that takes at least several years of operation to determine. Selling energy from methane gas or other schemes may also be viable.)

In addition to scientific arguments that secondary treatment is not necessary, including from many environmentalists, some opponents of the plans note that treatment for metals and medicines is needed (CRD is trying to add tertirary treatment in the same plant design).
Along the way, the idiots of CRD spent money on PR and a fancy name for the project: "Seaterra", whatever that means.

Two worthwhile articles on the debate are: http://www.oakbaynews.com/opinion/letters/281008832.html, "Add truth to sewage treatment", in which Jack Hull defends choice of a single treatment plant but misses some economics.
http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2024164911_brianburchillopedvictoriasewage27xml.html, in which Brian Burchill explains why secondary treatment is not needed, quoting the US government.

Beware that most pitches on the subject are incomplete, some supposed experts do not understand present-value accounting and transfer data from one situation into another, many advocates omit facts of the context (typically just going on assumptions instead of checking).

© Keith Sketchley, Page version 2017.04.25