Left image, Mike Hicks, Conservative candidate for the Juan de Fuca-Malahat, speaking at an all candidates meeting last week. He chose twice to use the word "conquered," when speaking about the BC government's treaties with First Nations. The moderator did well to cut off the ignorant choice of verbiage. Still somehow a candidate, unfortunately.

Right image, a former co-founder of Sooke Brewing Company, who chose to wear a "Show Me The Evidence" shirt on Truth and Reconciliation Day. Has since been terminated from the company.

Both of these very public displays of r*cism happened just in the last few weeks. R*cism (manifesting in these cases through choices in language and clothing), must not be tolerated. This kind of behaviour is willfully ignorant, sad, and disappointing anywhere, let alone in such a close knit indigenous-led community.

HOLD THE IGNORANT ACCOUNTABLE!

I went through all 71 pages of the BC Conservative platform. Quite the collection of recycled promises.

Repeal CleanBC, scrap EV sales quotas, repeal SOGI 123 and DRIPA, expand private delivery of publicly funded care, cut taxes and somehow reduce deficits while spending more.

They promise affordable housing while handing more control over density back to municipalities. They promise to protect students while scrapping SOGI 123.

Same old Conservative playbook. Less regulation, more fossil fuels, tax cuts and a whole lot of wishful thinking.

They call it "Ready to Deliver." Deliver what, exactly?

The BC NDP won 47 of 93 seats in the 2024 election, giving them a tiny majority. Looking at the final results, there are some interesting examples of how vote splitting could have affected the outcome. (shoutout to a similar post - which is even more detailed if you nerd out on this)

In 2024 there were ELEVEN BC NDP losses where Green voters could have made a difference!

The number of votes separating the BCNDP and Conservative candidates was small enough that a shift of some Green voters to the NDP could have changed the outcome. Some percentages are much larger than others - and less realistic. The most striking examples are Courtenay-Comox, where the number needed was just 94 out of 7,202 Green votes, and Kelowna Centre, where it was 41 out of 1,111 Green votes.

• Kelowna Centre: 41 votes needed (3.7% of Green votes)
• Courtenay-Comox: 94 (1.3% of Green votes)
• Maple Ridge East: 98 (6.0% of Green votes)
• Penticton-Summerland: 318 (21.6% of Green votes)
• Surrey-Cloverdale: 587 (51.0% of Green votes)
• North Island: 640 (26.7% of Green votes)
• Columbia River-Revelstoke: 671 (46.9% of Green votes)
• Langley-Willowbrook: 868 (52.0% of Green votes)
• Langley-Walnut Grove: 1,173 (93.5% of Green votes)
• Boundary-Similkameen: 1,439 (99.0% of Green votes)
• Kamloops Centre: 2,004 (77.2% of Green votes)

The BC NDP also won nine ridings by fewer than 1,000 votes. In several of these close races, Green candidates received a significant number of votes. This highlights an important point: if more voters had shifted from the NDP to the Greens, the BCNDP may have lost those ridings.

• Surrey-Guildford: won by 22 votes (824 Green votes)
• Juan de Fuca-Malahat: 141 (5,522 Green votes)
• Surrey City Centre: 232 (877 Green votes)
• Coquitlam-Burke Mountain: 368 (no Green candidate)
• Vancouver-Langara: 419 (969 Green votes)
• Vernon-Lumby: 476 (no Green candidate)
• Richmond-Steveston: 484 (803 Green votes)
• Surrey-Fleetwood: 753 (1,321 Green votes)
• Cowichan Valley: 849 (5,773 Green votes)

Now I totally understand my Green voting friends vote Green because they want to - but the risk of a Conservative government undoing many of the progressive policies across the province likely scares many on the left. So obvious caveat - these are hypothetical scenarios, not predictions of how Green voters would actually have voted.

A note on the numbers: These are based on Elections BC's final voting results in the BC Data Catalogue, November 25, 2025 version.

So, does this make you consider changing your vote or voting more strategically?

Since STV and Proportional Representation failed by the same percentages because of conservative voters wanting to keep FPTP, i think Ranked Choice Voting could pass if they put it to a referendum since now conservative voters have a choice if they feel their party is not "conservative" enough given their party infighting. A lot of provinces have tried referendums on electoral reform with proportional representation on the ballot, particularly MMP, but they always fail.

RCV is the best chance to pass and it would be fair that if no candidate gets 50% of the votes then it should run off to the next round after eliminating each last place finisher until someone at the top gets 50%.

It's win/win for everyone so they don't have to worry about who they want to win with their votes

Pete Fry, the son of Liberal MP Hedy Fry handidly won Vancouver Mayor by more than 20k votes thanks to other left wing candidates dropping out in favour of Fry and even canvassed for him. Ken Sim was a "moderate" but noticably shifted right in this election that did him but it was mostly the left wing coalition that voted Fry in so they didn't split the vote.

This is a lesson to next week's voting where left voters should vote whether their candidate realistically has a chance of winning then to vote for them but if they are nowhere close to having a chance to win then to vote for the best one who does have a chance. Island Conservatives Brennan Day and Anna Kindy for example could have gone another way if the voting wasn't split

This is your annual reminder that the leaves of the Katsura leaves are dropping and as they decompose they emit a sugary smell. St.Charles in Fairfield is lined with these trees, as is the corner of Fairfield and Quadra. The block on Blanchard outside Habit on Yates is also a hot spot.
P.S: their heart-shaped leaves give them away

My takeaway from the recent municipal election is that local politicians will most likely win if they cater to the older demographics. This goes for most levels of government, but even more so for municipal. A "young" leaning platform/campaign can get a lot of hype, but young people just won't show up for you in the end.

18-24 (the age bracket where the elections really matter) show up to vote around 55%, while every bracket from there is 60% up. That 55% of younger voters is actually really bad because of Canada's inverted population pyramid. So 55% of 18-24's is actually far less than 55% age 55-64's.

So if you are a young person living in a municipality with a lot of progressive older people, than good for you. If you are a young person with a bunch of conservative NIMBY's, well you are SOL because they are going to pull the ladder up from under you.

Crazy how people are just okay with this. Name calling in politics teaches everyone that bullying is okay. It's not okay. Can we normalize calling this out?

Thank you Cllr Loughton for your service the past four years, it did not go unnoticed, you were a great asset to this city.

I would love to know what made 1000 people who voted for Dell and Caradonna decide not to also vote for Thompson and Loughton. I am very glad that Dave Thompson (who is a great councillor and active on this sub) squeaked by, but if half of these voters had chosen Dave and Krista as well, Krista Loughton would be #8 and we would not have a raging transphobe on council right now. Sad to see.

I wanna buy a used e cargo and they seem cheap and a dime a dozen. Whats the deal

this thing has saved me from pissing myself countless times

Yes, I'm posting late (it's 3:45 AM as I'm starting to compose this), because I can't sleep and also my partner and I spent a few hours late this evening into the wee hours of the morning removing all of my election signs; I'm missing 10 of them, so if you see any of my signs somewhere, please let me know!

Firstly, a message from me:

Last night's results weren't what I had hoped for, but I want to thank everyone who believed in my campaign: volunteers, supporters and endorsers, my partner, and those who voted for me. The conversations I had with you about safer and more inclusive schools, learning supports, funding for public education, and a transparent and accessible SD61 School Board didn't end last night. I'll keep showing up for students and families, and I hope you will too. Thank you, Victoria. Thank you to the 6,393 people who voted for me! And thank you to u/awkwardkestrel who keeps saying nice things about me! I'n happy to hear I'm rad!

I want to congratulate Maiya and Ann on their successful campaigns, and I want to say thank you to the other candidates: Tanner, Evan, Angela, James M., and Ken. Despite campaigning against one another, we were cordial with one another.

I also want to congratulate the other successful candidates for the SD61 Board of Education. Here are your nine School Trustees:

Trevor Barry and Tracy Humphreys (Saanich)

Maiya Beech and Ann Whiteaker (Victoria)

Andrea Mears (Oak Bay)

Andrew Gage (Esquimalt)

Alexandra Bomphray (Highlands / View Royal)

John Rice (Songhees Nation)

Chésa Abma-Slade (Esquimalt Nation)

Lastly, please pay attention to school districts and their boards of education (school boards). SD61 had a budget last year around $330 million, your public tax dollars, and there were a lot of political issues with the Board and the province that made the news. How we voted for the Board this time also changed! Despite all of that, I came across people on the campaign trail who said to me, "I don't vote for school board." Despite the 31,281 ballots cast in Victoria (a voter turnout of 41.44%) even fewer of those ballots voted for a school trustee candidate!

Anyway, I've talked and cried a lot tonight. Attached are a photo of me placing a campaign sign and a dog tax, a photo of Maple. Thank you, r/VictoriaBC !

- James Le, unsuccessful candidate (first runner-up) for SD61 School Trustee in the Victoria electoral area in 2026

Slates work.

Going into next municipal election, progressives, housing advocates, and left-leaning supporters need to pool their resources and run as political parties or slates.

I know it sucks, but gone are the days of independent municipal councils.

We’ve just had many NIMBY slates get into government, because the candidates worked together and used their resources to get out their voting base.

Also, Millennials & Gen-Z, we need to step it up when it comes to voting. We’re the biggest voting blocs, and still we don’t show up to vote. Our parents/grandparents generations are showing up in droves, which is why we got the result that we did tonight.

I'm one of the game's authors and a local, so I look forward to joining in myself. Sign up! The Black Company Roleplaying Game is a tabletop game of soldiers & sorcery based on the dark fantasy novels by Glen Cook.

We have no shortage of people with opinions about what’s happening in our communities.

Housing affordability, development, traffic, infrastructure, public safety, property taxes, the list goes on.

And yet, when the opportunity comes to elect the people who will actually help make decisions about them, so many don’t participate.

Municipal elections are arguably the most important election to vote in because those results will directly affect your neighbourhood.

C’mon people. Do better.

—

Edit to add:

So far, the percentage of eligible voters who didn’t vote is 67% in Langford, 60% in Sooke, 68% in Colwood, 67% in Sidney, and 78% in Duncan.

We went for a walk through Goldstream Park the other day and just loved the sight of the falling leaves and all the colors!

Later we drove from broadmead to Mt Doug and again there were pops of yellow leaves along the drive.

What are your fav places or even streets / drives for getting your hit of Fall colors? 🙂

It's deeply embarrassing that this many people in Vic have decided naked bigotry is not an issue for them.

Welp, enjoy having another time-wasting culture warrior on Council.

I was happy to lose Kim. Replacing her with the right-wing version is dumb as hell.

Little backstory ive been doing swing dancing for a number of years but recently I injured myself so I have to take a break from that. So ive been looking at classes/hobbies to get into since i dont feel like doing nothing for months. So i am wondering what kind of classes/hobbies people enjoy in Victoria?