I t’s a crowded race for the mayor’s chair in Courtenay. Newcomer Trish McPhail has challenged incumbent Mayor Bob Wells, putting both candidates in a battle for the larger portion of centrist voters.

And then there’s Manno Theos — a wild card, in every sense of the word — a polarizing candidate who may or may not live full-time in Courtenay or anywhere within the Comox Valley. He might not even live full-time in Canada.

His actual residence has been questioned for many years and became a major issue in the 2022 municipal elections, when voters rejected him and he finished a distant ninth. In his nomination papers for that election, he listed his residence as Nanaimo. This year, he claims residence in a trailer park at the top of Ryan Road hill.

Complicating matters, Theos also appears to live part-time in Greece. He is pictured with his wife on the Facebook page for Modern Greek, a spa and retreat business on Skopelos Island.

The photo caption reads: “Passionate bi-coastal life means we’re part time on Vancouver Island, part-time on Skopelos Island.”

The email address on the Modern Greek page matches the one on his wife’s Nanaimo-based business. Her website describes Nanaimo as her home base and states: “I have the good fortune to own a home on Skopelos with my husband, whose family roots are there.”

Decafnation has requested an interview with Theos. He has not responded.

Let’s take stock of what that picture actually looks like. Theos’ wife runs her own businesses out of Nanaimo and calls it her home base. The couple jointly owns a home in Greece.

Theos’s apparent justification for claiming Courtenay as his primary residence this year appears to be a part-time serving position in Courtenay and an address in East Courtney.

Why does this matter?

In the distant past, candidates ran for office where they lived. It wasn’t a legal requirement, but most people accepted it as an informal code of conduct. That social norm seems to have elapsed.

This year we have candidates running for Courtenay council that live in the Little River area, Royston and even Fanny Bay. But, as far as we know, every candidate at least lives full-time within the Comox Valley.

Theos does not meet this new construct. But that’s not the most disturbing aspect about his residency. It’s his refusal to come clean.

When a person refuses to answer a simple direct question, it’s natural to assume they are hiding something. The presumptive conclusion is that a truthful answer might be embarrassing or damaging politically.

Theos put a Courtenay address on his 2026 nomination papers. That’s a good start over 2022, but it leads to other questions. Does he live there full-time? Is he renting that trailer or does he own it? How many nights a week does he sleep there? Is this address real or is it a political facade? How many nights a week does he spend with his wife in Nanaimo?

And, how much time does he spend at the home he appears to own in Greece?

If he wins the mayor’s race, will his wife move to Courtenay? Will they live full-time in the Comox Valley?

These are important questions. We think Courtenay residents would not vote for a candidate who intends to spend a significant portion of their of time in Nanaimo and/or Greece. And that could be the reason Theos refuses to provide a straight answer to questions about his residence.

He could put this whole debate to rest in an instant by revealing his residency situation plain and clear for everyone to see and answering question about it. Instead, he declines interviews and hides behind social media blockades.

Unlike his opponents in this election, who have public websites, campaign Facebook pages, and candidly respond to questions, Theos has walled himself off from the public behind a private Facebook group.

Once a daily presence on local Facebook pages, he has gone quiet. Someone named Bob says Theos will respond to questions from his private group. But no questions on his residency have been asked and answered there. The group has about 90 members.

Of the 19 Courtenay council candidates running in this election — excluding trustees — Theos and five of his running mates scored the lowest on our public engagement chart.

And the questions he won’t answer are not only about his residency.

Theos has spread misinformation about the city’s debt and interest payments on his door hanging campaign brochures. We’ve tried to question his math, but no response.

From earlier public Facebook posts, Theos appears to oppose the pay agreement with unionized city employees. He has spoken against water meters — a plan approved by the last council for 2027 to monitor water usage as droughts worsen.

He has criticized the pedestrian and cycling bridge at Sixth Street — a curious position given his own enthusiastic support for the project in 2019, when he was a sitting councillor. His change of heart on the Sixth Street bridge appears to have occurred just months leading up to this election.

And it’s ironic that he’s now promoting a twinning of the 17th Street drawbridge, an expensive mega-project outside municipal jurisdiction.

Courtenay deserves a mayor who lives here and shows up — publicly, consistently and with their record on the table. People want a mayor who is forthright. Whatever Manno Theos is offering, it isn’t that.