Municipal elections ask a lot of voters. Courtenay residents, in particular, will choose a mayor and six councillors, plus school trustees, from a long list of names, many of whom they didn’t know existed. It’s no wonder many people feel overwhelmed and some don’t vote for that reason.

Comox residents will choose from six incumbents and four new challengers. Cumberland has four incumbents and three newcomers. There are races in Electoral Areas B and C, and on Denman and Hornby Islands for the Islands Trust positions.

The good news is that you don’t need to become a political expert to vote well. You just need a few good sources of information and a clear sense of what matters to you. Here are some ways to get there.

Start with what matters to you

Before you look at a single candidate, decide what your most important issues are. Housing, taxes, the environment, local business, safety and infrastructure are all common ones. Having your own short list makes every other step easier, because you’re no longer evaluating candidates in the abstract. You’re asking whether they will work on the things you care about.

Do some homework

• Review candidate materials. Websites, social media pages and news articles show which issues a candidate takes a stand on, and endorsements can show who they’re aligned with. This year, a lot of candidates chose not to create campaign-specific websites or even Facebook pages. That can be seen as a way to avoid accountability. Without a public record of what a candidate promised, it’s harder to hold them to those promises once they’re elected. When a candidate has put their platform in writing, you have something to point back to later. When they haven’t, it’s worth asking why. We have a list of candidate sites here.
• Look at incumbents’ records. If a candidate is already on council, you can look up how they’ve voted. What someone has done is often a better guide than what they promise.
• Attend candidate forums, or watch the recordings. Hearing candidates answer unscripted questions shows you how they think, and it lets you compare them side by side.
• Meet individual candidates. Many candidates host their own meet-and-greets and are happy to talk with voters one on one.
• Reach out directly. If you have a specific issue, email the candidates and ask where they stand. How they respond, or whether they respond at all, tells you something too.
• Read Decafnation’s articles, recommendations and candidate questionnaire.  Read through the candidate’s responses to our questionnaire, and note who didn’t respond. Then have a glance at who we recommend in each of the races.

Use your community

• Ask your friends and neighbours. Often the most trusted information comes from people you know. Ask who they’re considering and why.
• Ask candidates you already trust. If there’s a candidate you feel strongly aligned with, ask who else they’d recommend and why.
• Join the online conversation, carefully. Facebook groups like Comox Valley Local Politics can be a good way to find leads, but treat them as a starting point rather than a source of truth. Check claims against other sources, and be wary of accounts that seem to exist only to attack or promote.

You don’t have to fill the ballot

Here’s the most helpful thing to know for Courtenay voters: you can vote for fewer candidates than there are seats. A ballot with three or four names on it is perfectly valid. This is sometimes called “plumping.”

Here’s why it matters. In a multi-seat race, the top vote-getters win the available seats, and every vote you cast counts the same for every candidate you choose. If you vote for someone you’re only lukewarm about, you’re helping them just as much as you’re helping your favourite. And if a lot of other voters make the same choice, that “maybe” can end up with enough votes to win a seat that would otherwise have gone to one of your “yes” candidates.

For example, say there are six seats and you’re excited about three candidates. If you fill in three more names you feel unsure about, you’ve given those three the same boost you gave your favourites. If you leave those spots blank, your “maybes” don’t get that boost.

The simple rule is this: vote for the people you’d be glad to see on council, and leave the rest of the ballot blank. You aren’t required to fill every council seat.

The  Comox Council race is different

The website ComoxVotes.ca is taking a different approach to the Town of Comox 2026 elections. A press release from the website urges Comox voters to fill the ballot with the four new challengers and two incumbents they endorse: Neil Ladell, Lisa Bourgeois, Jessica Wegg, Vivian Chislett and incumbents Jenn Meilleur and Jonathan Kerr. Plumping on the Comox vote, “accidentally splits the vote,” the release says. “It leaves the door wide open for candidates backed by a tight single block to sweep through on a lower threshold.”

Mark your calendar

General voting day is this Saturday, October 17. Whatever approach you take, take a little time with it, then go and vote. Being informed enough to choose a few candidates you believe in is all it takes to make a real difference.

We still have the upcoming provincial election on the following Saturday, Oct. 24 to get through. After that, we can set election fever aside for a couple of years.

There really is only one issue in the Comox municipal election this year, and it’s whether the Town Council’s current four-vote majority’s vision for the future matches the broader community’s vision.

There are other issues in this election, of course. Should Comox rejoin several regional initiatives that the Old Block deserted? Should they join the chorus of other municipalities protesting Bill 44? Should the town strengthen its tree protection bylaw?

How will the next council handle a 20 percent increase in policing costs when updated census data tips Comox over the 15,000 population threshold?

But as a strict differentiator between candidates, none of the other issues provides such a stark and obvious contrast among the candidates.

In the process of updating the town’s Official Community Plan, the Old Block – Ken Grant, Steve Blacklock, Chris Haslett and Maureen Swift – painted a clear picture of how they ideally want the town to grow. They envision tall buildings all along Comox Avenue and possibly even taller buildings at the marina and at the top of Comox Hill. Maybe even along the Point Holmes promenade, just like Nanaimo, according to one of them.

These four have operated in a near lockstep majority on almost all important issues in the last four years, often letting development override community concerns. That’s not surprising when a councillor has strong ties to developers.

Ken Grant, for example, was supported for the 2022-2026 term by the biggest names in the local development community. Eight of Grant’s nine campaign contributors for the 2022-2026 term were developers.

And when Cameron Contracting applied to build apartment blocks at 1533 Cedar Avenue, Grant did not recuse himself from voting. Given that Teresa Cameron is one of his financial contributors, he should have.

But residents who think of the town as “Comox By The Sea” disagree with the Old Block’s vision. They envision modest height buildings throughout downtown, and appropriate developments that complement and enhance residential neighborhoods.

Comox residents who share this vision came out in large numbers last year to the public hearings on the Official Community Plan and expressed their dissent to the OCP. Most of them felt that the block majority ultimately did not listen to their comments.

Four new highly-skilled candidates – Lisa Bourgeois, Jessica Wegg, Neil Ladell and Vivian Chislett – share that vision, as do incumbents Jonathan Kerr and Jenn Meilleur. They hope to break up the Old Block and provide a fresh approach to community planning. 

They envision community-based planning where all voices are heard and taken seriously. They see balanced growth evolving by the community and developers working together to create the Comox of the future, one that retains its current charm and does not include light- and view-blocking tall buildings sprouting up randomly without careful thought.

As always, Comox residents will have the last word at the ballot box. And the Town of Comox will get the future that voters choose.

Election Day is on Saturday, Oct. 17.