Let’s put one of the craziest Comox Valley elections into the history book, and then close it

Let’s put one of the craziest Comox Valley elections into the history book, and then close it

Let’s put one of the craziest Comox Valley elections into the history book, and then close it

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Well, that was fun. Or was it? On the surface, the 2022 local government election should go down as one of the most unusual, maybe even the craziest campaign in Comox Valley history.

We had gun-toting Trumpers, Freedom Convoy Truckers and climate change deniers. We had women claiming our schools were grooming children for sexual exploitation. We had long-winded rants on social media over racism and sexual health education. We had groups of wannabe players that were afraid to show their faces.

We had candidates running for office in places where they don’t live because they think they know better than the people who live there. We had two secret political action groups pretending they represented the views of the average Valleyite when they really represented no more than their little clubs.

We had signs that violated city bylaws by a candidate who displayed them recklessly. And we had candidates, mostly of the conservative, pro-development persuasion, that boycotted public debates.

It was weird.

But when the sun rose on Sunday, Oct. 16, Comox Valley voters had made it clear they liked the direction charted by our local governments over the last four years. In the municipalities, they elected all but two incumbents. In most races, the vote was a definite pat on the back for a job well done.

The rest of it was just meaningless noise.

But there was something new and disturbing this year. It was the idea that telling a lie or otherwise intentionally spreading misinformation should be considered an acceptable campaign tactic. And those advancing this idea justified it because, they said, the underlying purpose of telling lies is to start public conversations about legitimate issues.

When Take Back Comox Valley (TBCV) ran social media ads and stated on its website that some unidentified local council members are trying to defund the police and had taken money from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation via the Dogwood citizen action network, they were telling a lie. They have no proof of either claim.

In fact, a founding member of TBCV told Decafnation that he knew the defunding the police claim wasn’t true and had disagreed with the majority of the group about telling that lie. But he went along with it because, you know, the mob rules.

And they rationalized telling the lie because it’s just a big joke. Nobody actually expects it to be true. It’s just part of the game. Just like Trump claiming he won the US election. Just like Freedom truckers creating a fake letter from Prime Minister Trudeau or spreading the lie that Ottawa police officers were exempt from vaccine mandates.

It’s a reckless game that degrades public discourse. It turns voters off and diminishes the integrity of democratic elections. Those who play it sacrifice all claim to principle.

There were no meaningful community conversations created by TBCV. They encouraged no consequential dialogue and proposed no resolutions to the issues they raised. A quick look at their Facebook page shows a lot of angry and vitriolic invective thrown back and forth.

Most of the TBCV’s contempt was directed at the Courtenay council, which was wholeheartedly vindicated by voters and given a strong mandate to continue its work.

So what was achieved by telling the lies other than to have a laugh?

Fortunately, the people who cared enough to vote didn’t get the joke.

 

A CHANGING POPULACE

Has the mainstream of Comox Valley politics turned slightly left?

New Democratic Party candidates have won the last two provincial elections and the last three federal elections in our ridings. Progressive candidates won majorities on municipal councils in Courtenay and Cumberland in the last two elections and in Comox and the rural electoral areas in 2018.

In terms of which political parties voters have supported, a shift has definitely occurred. But why?

One reason might be found in this story. A Courtenay incumbent told Decafnation that they had knocked on 3,000 doors over the last four weeks and had spoken with many new Valley residents. The general consensus among those new residents was that they love it here and see comparatively fewer problems than where they previously lived.

The newcomers laugh at our traffic issues. They’ve already accepted the introduction of bike lanes. They’ve seen real traffic congestion, more serious crime and the problems associated with unsheltered people. They know these things exist everywhere.

So, maybe it’s not an ideological change that has occurred, but growth in the number of people who have had broader and more diverse life experiences. Maybe our issues don’t seem as problematic to them as they might to people who haven’t lived anywhere else.

Maybe what we’ve been labeling “progressive” is now the mainstream perspective of Comox Valley voters.

 

OTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS ELECTION

It’s too bad more people don’t appreciate the difference a mayor and council can make in their lives. Voter turnout for local government elections has always been low, but this year it was really low.

We don’t know why, but the turnout was lower across the board. Perhaps it was because of an uninspiring race for mayor of Courtenay – Bob Wells didn’t have any serious competition. Or maybe because there was no mayor’s race in Comox – Nicole Minions was acclaimed.

Maybe it was because there weren’t many all-candidates debates and something like half the candidates refused to show up anyway. If the candidates don’t give a damn about the process, then why should voters?

Maybe a few of the candidates disgusted people about local politics. The Comox Valley Mainstream and Take Back Comox Valley groups might have turned people off.

Maybe it was just the nice October weather.

But you know something’s in the air when the number of eligible voters in Cumberland more than doubles from 2018 but fewer than half as many voters turn out in 2022. Voter engagement dropped by 50.9 percent in the Village, according to data from Civic Info BC.

Twenty-one percent fewer voters turned out in Courtenay. Twenty-two percent fewer in Comox. Slightly lower in the rural areas.

Having fewer candidates on the ballot might help. Too many candidates seem to overwhelm voters. It looks like too much work to find out about each candidate and what they stand for.

We could start to pare down the ballot by requiring a candidate’s residency in the jurisdiction where they seek public office.

It’s a double standard, as one Capital City voter put it. “I have to prove that I reside in Victoria to vote for a candidate who doesn’t. Huh?”

On the other hand, interest in the School District 71 Board of Education quadrupled. In 2018, only 4,392 ballots were cast, partly because four of the seven trustee seats were filled by acclamation. But this year, 11,472 ballots were cast, and only two seats went by acclamation.

Why such a huge and sudden interest? Maybe because several incumbents retired and more seats were up for grabs.

More likely, though, it was the age-old debate over sexual health education. Several candidates strongly opposed sexual health education in our schools and made wild claims about teachers encouraging kids to become gay males or lesbians and to engage in ‘deviant behavior.’

Yeah, that campaign platform might have brought out a large backlash of voters from the bulk of people who support LGBTQ rights and policies.

Daniel Arbour received 80.2 percent of the vote (1,807 votes) in Electoral Area A. That was the largest percentage of support for a regional district director in all of BC. Well, except for incumbent Gerald Whalley who received 96 percent of the vote (215 votes) to represent Kyuquot/Nootka-Sayward in the Strathcona Regional District.

“I attribute this to being thorough and proactive on all the issues facing Area A’s five communities,” he told Decafnation. “People also appreciate my positive engagement at the provincial and federal levels on municipal-related issues, and bringing forward authentic policy proposals for our region and beyond.”

The loss of Arzeena Hamir in Area B will be deeply felt in the Valley, especially in her leadership relating to environmental, food, and social policy issues. She lost by 23 votes to Richard Hardy, who will be the first K’omoks First Nation member of the Comox Valley Regional District board.

 

 

 

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Here’s the latest Comox Valley local government election results

Mayor Bob Wells and all Courtenay incumbent councillors have been re-elected. Evan Jolicoeur has also been elected. Manno Theos has lost his seat.

Jonathan Kerr, Jenn Meilleur, Steve Blacklock, Chris Haslett, Ken Grant and Maureen Swift have been elected in Comox.

Vickey Brown has been elected mayor in Cumberland, defeating long-time mayor and councillor Leslie Baird.

Voting down -20.6% in Courtenay, -22.3% in Comox and -50.9% in Cumberland.

Full results with Electoral Areas A, B and C, school board and Islands Trust results in the morning.

Daniel Arbour in Area A and Edwin Grieve in Area C won by wide margins. Richard Hardy defeated Arzeena Hamir by 23 votes.

Shannon Aldinger topped the polls in races for SD71 school trustees.

Click the headline on this page for complete results and voter turnout.

Our recommendations in the 2022 Comox Valley local government elections

Decafnation announces its list of preferred candidates in this year’s local government elections and for the first time we identify candidates that we think show promise and provide our reasons for not endorsing the other candidates. Our endorsements fall on the first day of voting at advance polls

Join the discussion Oct. 3 about food system security in the Comox Valley

Join the discussion Oct. 3 about food system security in the Comox Valley

Join the discussion Oct. 3 about food system security in the Comox Valley

The newly-formed Watershed Sentinel Educational Foundation is presenting its first public event on Oct. 3 – a zoom-based discussion on Food System Security in the Comox Valley.

The last couple of years has shown us how fragile the networks that deliver our essentials (and non-essentials) can be, from snow storms to war, to drought and climate crisis.

Join Maurita Prato and James McKerricher of Lush Valley Food Action and Arzeena Hamir, Amara Farm to discuss with us the local food situation, how vulnerable is our Comox Valley food system, its strengths and what’s needed from the perspective of food production and food distribution.

Everyone is welcome. The discussion will be facilitated so that we all get a chance to speak.
The event is being presented with the help of the Watershed Sentinel magazine on Monday Oct. 3 at 6.30 PM. Register at www.watershedsentinel.ca. For more information, phone 250-339-6117

 

 

 

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ELECTORAL AREA B: Candidates (most of them) answer our three questions

ELECTORAL AREA B: Candidates (most of them) answer our three questions

ELECTORAL AREA B: Candidates (most of them) answer our three questions

Decafnation asked this year’s candidates for public office to respond to three questions. We are publishing their responses by the jurisdictions in which they are a candidate.

Electoral Area B

One representative to be elected

Candidates

Incumbent — Arezeena Hamir

Challengers — Richard Hardy, Keith Stevens

Candidate Richard Hardy did not respond.

1. In the event that a new dangerous variant of the COVID virus emerges or if a new pandemic arises would you use your position as a civic leader to support federal and provincial public health orders and encourage others to do likewise?

Arzeena Hamir
Absolutely. Local government needs to work hand-in-hand with Federal and Provincial Health Orders. Saying that, I do believe that we, as a community, need to support and protect the most vulnerable and we can only really do that collectively. No one should be left behind in a pandemic, especially not our seniors, our children, and immunocompromised. By ensuring that we are protecting them, I feel we protect the greater whole as well. This very much aligns with how I work in the community and how I feel the Comox Valley has grown: neighbours helping neighbours with local government supporting those who don’t have that help.

Keith Stevens
Yes. I believe that would be a public safety issue.

2. Do you support the Regional Growth Strategy as it’s currently written? In particular, do you support its theme to funnel new growth into already defined urban boundaries, leaving the rural areas as rural as possible. And, do you support not adding any settlement nodes until the Union Bay Estates and K’omoks First Nations developments in the Union Bay area are well underway?

Arzeena Hamir
I do support the part of the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) that puts densification in specific areas to enable better services like transit in these areas while protecting the rural areas from development pressures. That’s why we love the Comox Valley – the beauty of our forests, our beaches, and our rivers where anyone can access these amenities and they are protected.

I do, however, question the idea of Settlement Nodes outside of what’s happening in Union Bay. I don’t feel that they have developed into complete communities the way that they were envisioned. This means more people driving into towns to get their groceries, their banking, their doctor’s appointments, etc, which leads to congestion on our roads. I look forward to opening up the RGS in 2023 and working with the community to figure out how to plan smarter for the 21st Century.

Keith Stevens
In regards to the Regional Growth Strategy, it needs a regular review and adjusted to the needs of the community. As a farmer at heart, I am all for protecting the rural areas for agriculture. However, I believe there has to be a provision for the land owner to be able to supplement his income by adding an in-law suite or a small rental home. This would help many farmers with the high input expenses. No, I do not support the “not adding more nodes”. I believe we need to control the growth by ensuring any addition includes affordable housing.

3. Do you believe it is the responsibility of local governments to take climate change-focused actions and to consider how to minimize carbon emissions from municipal operations and facilities in all of the council deliberations?

Arzeena Hamir
I think it’s incredibly irresponsible for anyone to come into local government without a deep understanding of how climate change is going to impact our buildings, our neighbourhoods and our community as a whole. As Electoral Area B Director, I have supported and encouraged our Board and our staff to use climate impacts as a lens on every decision we’ve had to make.

In some instances, it’s been incredibly easy – using the waste heat from our ice surfaces to heat the swimming pool at the Sports Center. Makes fantastic sense and saves tax dollars in the long run. In other instances, it’s been very difficult to encourage change at a time when residents in the valley have had to suffer through so much through COVID.

Moving forward, I’m energized with ideas of how to engage our youth to help us in our climate work, providing dignified, paid employment to support building retrofits, reforestation, stream-keeping work and more. Climate change is undeniable. We’ve lived through heat domes, atmospheric rivers, epic cold, and forest fire smoke – all attributed to the heating of our planet. We can and will do more and our community will benefit from our mitigation and adaptation work.

Keith Stevens
I believe that climate change and carbon emission are important issues, however, I feel there are more pressing issues that are facing local governments at the moment. These issues are in our control and can be corrected in the short term.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHERE AND WHEN TO VOTE

General Voting Day is Saturday, Oct. 15 for all local government positions.

Comox Valley Regional District

General Voting Day and advance voting take place at the CVRD building in Courtenay from 8 am to 8 pm.

Go to this link for General Voting Day locations in the three Electoral Areas.

Additional voting takes place on Oct. 6 from 9 am to 12 pm on Denman Island and on Oct. 6 from 2 pm to 5 pm on Hornby Island

Courtenay

Advance Voting begins on Wednesday October 5, 2022, 8 am to 8 pm at the Native Sons Hall, and again on Wednesday October 12, 2022, 8 am to 8 pm at the Florence Filberg Centre.

General Voting Day, Saturday, October 15, 2022, 8 am to 8 pm at the Queneesh Elementary School, and at the Florence Filberg Centre.

Comox

Advance voting begins Wednesday, October 5 from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. at the Comox Community Centre, and on Saturday, October 8 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Genoa Sail Building at Comox Marina, and again on Monday, October 10 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Genoa Sail Building at Comox Marina, and on Wednesday, October 12 from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. at the Comox Community Centre.

General Voting Day runs from 8 am to 8 pm on Oct. 15 at the Comox Community Centre.

Cumberland

All voting in the Village of Cumberland takes place from 8 am to 8 pm at the Cumberland Cultural Centre. Advance voting takes place on Oct. 5 and Oct. 12.

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Arzeena Hamir: implementing a bold new Ag plan and a new spirit of collaboration

Arzeena Hamir: implementing a bold new Ag plan and a new spirit of collaboration

Among Arzeena Hamir’s priorities for a second term representing Area B include supporting home-based businesses and creating childcare closer to rural residents

Arzeena Hamir: implementing a bold new Ag plan and a new spirit of collaboration

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Arzeena Hamir is seeking a second term as the Electoral Area B representative on the Comox Valley Regional District board.

She has a Master’s degree in sustainable agriculture and worked as an agronomist and a food security coordinator before moving to the Comox Valley in 2012 to start her own farm, Amara Farm. She helped found Merville Organics, the Mid-Island Farmers Institute and the Comox Valley Food Policy Roundtable.

She is in the process of starting a farmers cooperative for organic farmers and is a regular at the Comox Valley Farmers Market.

 

Why should voters re-elect you?

In the last four years, Hamir says she was able to accomplish the main goals of her campaign: fixing the Comox Valley Economic Development Society problem, protecting the Exhibition Grounds from a giant convention center and getting an Agricultural Plan started for the Comox Valley.

“Now, I’m going into the next term a bit more wide-eyed, understanding how long it takes to affect change and get things done,” she told Decafnation.

Hamir found that new ideas require the buy-in of colleagues to be successful and that requires making a convincing case for the importance of those ideas.

“I know now that working together is the best way and usually the only way to achieve political goals. I’ve gone through a big change to realize the wisdom of the depth of collaboration,” she said. “Yet, I’m still passionate about the issues involving farming, the environment and our community of people.”

Hamir says the COVID pandemic exacerbated polarization on many issues so she’s now focused on bringing people together to solve problems and to serve as a conduit for ideas that come from the community.

 

What are some of your key accomplishments?

Hamair says without a doubt that the review and restructuring of economic development for the region was a major victory in her first term.

“It was hard work that required me to be tenacious and brave to challenge a bastion of the old guard that had outlived its purpose,” she said.

In one of her first Comox Valley Regional District board meetings, she was the lone vote against the approval of the CVEDS budget.

“Being on the short side of a 9-1 vote was tough, but I was not willing to cave on my principles and I am comfortable being the lone voice if necessary … But what a savings, $1.2 million now being used for other things!” she said.

Hamir was also the prime motivator behind the new regional agriculture plan. She pushed for it, asked staff to apply for grants and lobbied to get the funding. It will be implemented this year.

The old Ag Plan was drafted in 2002 and was two decades out of date. It had, for example, no references to the effect that climate change is having and will continue to have on farming.

“But now, as extreme temperatures and potential water shortage issues change the landscape for farmers,” she said. “I hope the agriculture community can come together and develop ideas on how to address these issues.”

Hamir also championed the drive to convince the Province of BC to help farmers store rainwater during the wet season and irrigate from those storage areas in the dry season. Farmers have been hesitant to create water storage because it costs about $15,000 to $20,000 to construct a water storage pond.

“I successfully pressed the Minister to adopt my motion and lobbied the Standing Committee on Finance. Now water storage funding is part of the BC Environment Farm Plan. Knowing all the players and where the levers of power helped me get this done.”

One of the intangible accomplishments that Hamir championed involves improved efforts to work with community partners. She said this means realizing that local government can’t do it all due to limits of staff capacity and funding, but that the regional district can’t ignore what needs to be done. So, she has looked more to community partners to help.

For example, there was little the regional district could do alone to address the opioid crisis, so they turned to the Community Health Network. Now the CVRD provides administrative support to help the nonprofit submit grant applications and manages the grant money when they get it.

Also, she said, the CVRD Recreation department is doing a fantastic job with community partnerships, especially with activity-based groups. Their work now includes more than pools and ice sheets, it’s trails, fostering biodiversity, and leading educational walks.

Hamir was successful in shifting the master plan for the Exhibition Grounds away from a giant Agriplex and toward the real needs of the actual Exhibition Grounds users. The new plan integrates the exhibition grounds into the larger recreational services plan with facilities like the Sports Centre.

“We came up with a better plan for the site,” she said. “The idea was simple: recognize the Exhibition Grounds users – Lush Valley, Fall Fair, horse groups such as Therapeutic riding, the Farmer’s Market and Music Fest – and shape the plan to serve them best.”

Hamir is also pleased that the Valley will finally move food and kitchen waste out of landfills and into a new composting facility that opens this fall in CR. For the past eight years, Cumberland and Comox have been running a pilot project to collect and compost food waste. It’s been successful but couldn’t be expanded at the Cumberland landfill.

Because the Campbell River landfill is closing, they will be trucking garbage to the CV Waste Management Center, so local food waste and organics will go back on the otherwise empty trucks. It’s estimated that removing food waste from the landfill cells, which are expensive to create, will extend their life by 30 percent and provides the huge benefit of reducing methane gas emissions.

“And in the end, we get fantastic compost that is safe for food gardens. As a farmer, I give a big thumbs up!” she said.

 

Goals for the next four years

Hamir’s top goal for a second term is to plan a new service that supports the business of farming and home-based businesses in rural areas. She envisions using Tourism Vancouver Island to help market those rural businesses that are tourism based. Local government didn’t do economic development well, she says, but now the regional district can support the underlying economic infrastructure.

She would address affordable housing in Area B by allowing more carriage houses, granny flats, second homes and suites on properties. She wants to clear the current four-month wait list for building permits by Christmas, a backlog that was created during the pandemic when some staff were diverted to other planning needs. 

Hamir hopes to increase child care facilities in rural areas by working with the Early Childhood Collaboration nonprofit in her next term. She would like the CVRD to provide small grants to start and operate childcare closer to rural populations so that parents to take jobs outside of the home.

It’s a top priority for Hamir to steward the implementation of the Ag Plan, which is a bold new vision for agriculture in the region.

“We have less than 10 years of enjoying California food growing – salads, strawberries, citrus, tomatoes, cucumbers – before the unprecedented drought and lack of water access collapses that state’s agriculture sector,” she said. “I predict we’ll all be eating differently in 10 years.”

To prepare for that, Hamir says we need to create a new generation of local farmers by making land more affordable and calling on NIC and the province to assist people entering into a farming career.

She says the Comox Valley has 100,000 acres of ALR farmland, but only 30 percent of it is currently being actively farmed. That has to increase, she says, as food from California and Mexico decreases.

And finally, protecting the natural beauty of our area is always a top priority for Hamir.

“The CVRD has approved a Regional Parks Service that will start gaining momentum. At the same time, we must start connecting our parks and trails so people can walk or ride eBikes on safe routes into the urban areas without going on dangerous highways,” she said.

 

The most misunderstood thing about the CVRD

“I hear some people say the CVRD is wasteful, has a huge budget and doesn’t use its funding wisely. The truth is that the opposite is true,” she says.

There are 102 separate services managed by the CVRD and every household pays their share of a different combination of those services depending on where they live.

“The bottom line is that you pay for what you get, nothing more or less.” she said.

If any service has a surplus in a year, it’s put into that service’s reserve. That means tax levies for that service may go down in the next year. She says it’s a very cost-effective system.

Many people didn’t realize it, but regional district taxes went down by 0.75 percent last year and are up just 3.8 percent this year.

“On average, the CVRD has budgeted and managed its funding well. People don’t realize that we’re always budgeting for the replacement cost of things over that thing’s life expectancy, so we always have a reserve starting in year one.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHERE AND WHEN TO VOTE

General Voting Day is Saturday, Oct. 15 for all local government positions.

Comox Valley Regional District

General Voting Day and advance voting take place at the CVRD building in Courtenay from 8 am to 8 pm.

Go to this link for General Voting Day locations in the three Electoral Areas.

Additional voting takes place on Oct. 6 from 9 am to 12 pm on Denman Island and on Oct. 6 from 2 pm to 5 pm on Hornby Island

Courtenay

Advance Voting begins on Wednesday October 5, 2022, 8 am to 8 pm at the Native Sons Hall, and again on Wednesday October 12, 2022, 8 am to 8 pm at the Florence Filberg Centre.

General Voting Day, Saturday, October 15, 2022, 8 am to 8 pm at the Queneesh Elementary School, and at the Florence Filberg Centre.

Comox

Advance voting begins Wednesday, October 5 from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. at the Comox Community Centre, and on Saturday, October 8 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Genoa Sail Building at Comox Marina, and again on Monday, October 10 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Genoa Sail Building at Comox Marina, and on Wednesday, October 12 from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. at the Comox Community Centre.

General Voting Day runs from 8 am to 8 pm on Oct. 15 at the Comox Community Centre.

Cumberland

All voting in the Village of Cumberland takes place from 8 am to 8 pm at the Cumberland Cultural Centre. Advance voting takes place on Oct. 5 and Oct. 12.

 

 

 

 

 

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Here’s the latest Comox Valley local government election results

Mayor Bob Wells and all Courtenay incumbent councillors have been re-elected. Evan Jolicoeur has also been elected. Manno Theos has lost his seat.

Jonathan Kerr, Jenn Meilleur, Steve Blacklock, Chris Haslett, Ken Grant and Maureen Swift have been elected in Comox.

Vickey Brown has been elected mayor in Cumberland, defeating long-time mayor and councillor Leslie Baird.

Voting down -20.6% in Courtenay, -22.3% in Comox and -50.9% in Cumberland.

Full results with Electoral Areas A, B and C, school board and Islands Trust results in the morning.

Daniel Arbour in Area A and Edwin Grieve in Area C won by wide margins. Richard Hardy defeated Arzeena Hamir by 23 votes.

Shannon Aldinger topped the polls in races for SD71 school trustees.

Click the headline on this page for complete results and voter turnout.

Our recommendations in the 2022 Comox Valley local government elections

Decafnation announces its list of preferred candidates in this year’s local government elections and for the first time we identify candidates that we think show promise and provide our reasons for not endorsing the other candidates. Our endorsements fall on the first day of voting at advance polls

Mack Laing goes to court today and, have spies infiltrated local government?

Mack Laing goes to court today and, have spies infiltrated local government?

Hamilton Mack Laing, a man who gave his house, property, many possessions and money to the Town of Comox, who took it and then snubbed him.

Mack Laing goes to court today and, have spies infiltrated local government?

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It’s a shame the Town of Comox waited almost four years before finally taking their petition back to the BC Supreme Court today (Wednesday, Sept. 7) to vary the town’s trust agreement with Hamilton Mack Laing to tear down his heritage house and spend the money he gifted for purposes other than his original intentions.

The Town Council could have collaborated to find a win-win with the Mack Laing Heritage Society and those community members who have volunteered to preserve some form of the house, called Shakesides. Instead, the Town Council stopped listening.

And they also stopped going to court for the permissions they need.

The court dates this week fall just 37 days before the 2022 municipal election, making it unlikely the Justice hearing arguments will rule before voters go to the polls. Win or lose, we would have preferred that those incumbents seeking reelection had to account for their voting record on this issue.

As an intervenor, the Mack Laing Heritage Society has asked the court in public filings to dismiss the town’s application to vary the trust, and instead order a forensic accounting of the Trust Fund, an independent assessment of the viability of the Shakesides structure and to direct the town to include the rental income it derived from Shakesides into the trust fund or a related separate fund.

“In breaching its obligations as trustee and allowing waste and neglect of the culturally valuable and irreplaceable trust object (Shakesides), Comox has manufactured the very crisis it now claims as justification to vary the trust; Comox does not come before the court with clean hands and is the author of a delay of several decades,” the society says in its written submission.

The society goes on to assert that the town has “willfully ignored all evidence, offers of assistance and reports that do not contemplate the demolition of Shakesides, or that require a proper accounting of the Trust Fund.”

If the court agrees with the MLHS and orders an accounting and structural assessment before ruling on the town’s application, it could be another year before the matter is finally settled.

Of course, the Town of Comox has had about 40 years to atone for their neglect, so what’s another dozen months?

What’s important for this election is that only one incumbent candidate in the race for Town Council, Nicole Minions, had the ethical integrity to vote against proceeding with this petition and for continued collaboration. Stephanie McGown voted with Minions, but she is not likely to seek office in Comox this year.

Jonathan Kerr no doubt would have joined those two in doing the right thing, but he only joined the council nine months ago.

Stay tuned, as Decafnation will file additional reports on the court case later in the week.

 

Candidates coming out of the woodwork

Former Courtenay mayor Starr Winchester has filed again for City Council, and so has Deana Simkin. They both ran in 2018 and missed the cut by about 10 percent. Brennan Day, who failed to get elected provincially, is now trying local government again. He fell short by nearly seven percent of the vote last time. Nobody has filed for mayor except perennial candidate Erik Eriksson.

Incumbent Arzeena Hamir will have at least two challengers in Area B, Richard Hardy and Keith Stevens. And Tamara Meggitt will challenge incumbent Daniel Arbour in Area A.

Big news, Don Davis has filed again in Comox, as he has every election since, well, forever.

Bad news, Courtenay resident Peter Gibson has filed in Comox. The last time a Courtenay resident filed in Comox, to our knowledge, was when former Comox councillor Tom Grant moved to Crown Isle and tried to keep a seat in Comox. That ended badly as it should have and as it should again.

 

American political creep

The four or five people who are behind the vacuous website, Comox Valley Mainstream, are either rebranding themselves or they’ve gained partners.

A new anonymous website has cropped up called Take Back Comox Valley. Take back from whom, we wonder? The people who built a plant so we wouldn’t have regular boil water advisories? The people who have kept governments going during the pandemic and kept taxes reasonable while doing it?

The people who have taken the backroom dealing out of local politics and put their work transparently into formal policies to deal fairly and consistently with everyone concerned?

It seems these folks are dragging a little right-wing conspiracy tendency across the southern border. Even their name sounds a little like Make America Great Again.

Based on their website, the Taker Backers are going after some group they won’t name that wants to “to stop the expansion of our business community, disrupt our industries, and defund our police.” Holy Moly, who are those evil people?

Frankly, I haven’t heard anybody around here calling to defund the police. Anyway, wouldn’t that be the RCMP? Good luck with that.

And what industry is being disrupted? Even if we stop cutting old-growth timber, the logging industry will remain robust. The Alberta oil industry? Whether the Comox Valley allows 1,000 new gas stations or zero, it won’t send chills down anybody’s spine in Calgary.

But, these concerned citizens claim a righteous fight, “to keep American money and foreign activists out of our local politics.” That’s right, American billionaires are so concerned with issues like garbage and kitchen waste pickup in the rural areas that they are paying undocumented secret agents to infiltrate our local governments.

Sorry, Taker Backers. When you try to get QAnon-style conspiracy thinking going outside the American South, it just doesn’t roll so easily as it does in Alabama.

 

Heads in the sand

There is always a small element of the public that wants our municipal councillors to do nothing more than fill potholes and make the toilets flush. They may be the same people that want schools to do no more than teach students to read, write and add numbers.

The basics are important in every aspect of life but don’t people want, even demand a quality of life that goes far beyond that? Where would we be without music and art in our lives? Without hobbies? Parks and trails? Access to all the things that people are passionate about? Visionary thinking?

Those aren’t the basics, but they enrich our basic lives and in the Comox Valley it may be the single most common reason that people live here.

Councillors who only think about sewers and potholes won’t lead us toward a more vibrant, interesting and rewarding community. Such stunted thinking will do the opposite. And who wants to live in a town without any charm or soul?

 

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