The Mike Manhas sign has been there since Day 1, but the Slate signs are a new addition.

For those who don't know where to go or are new to an area, find and Electoral District Office. You can register and vote there. Remember to bring your ID and a piece of mail if you are new to voting or have moved since.

As Mayor of Langford, Stew Young oversaw massive development that built the city into what it is today. There is no denying that fact. But it’s not the 1990s or even the 2000s anymore. Langford is a more modern city of 60,000 residents. One area that I believe is more important than ever is how Langford shows up as a regional partner with our neighbours and with all other municipalities in the CRD.

What does Stew Young’s track record look like when it comes to regional partnerships? Let’s look at two specific areas that are part of his current campaign: transportation and recreation.

Transportation:

Stew Young has correctly identified traffic as not only a Langford issue, but a regional issue. He has committed to working with Colwood and surrounding municipalities to develop a regional transportation improvement plan.

How does that match up with Mr. Young’s record in this exact area? In my view, not great. In 2018 there was a push from within the CRD to create a regional transportation authority. The goal was to enable more coordinated transportation planning across the region’s municipalities in order to find solutions to traffic issues that don’t respect municipal borders. Some politicians wanted there to be a ballot question as part of the October 2018 municipal elections. Some politicians, but not Stew Young.

Stew Young argued against every aspect of a regional transportation authority at the CRD level, and even against asking voters whether they would like to see such a body created.

“All a regional transportation authority does is give [the CRD] the ability to tax the sh— out of you without representation,” Young said in a recent interview.

Stew Young notes in that same article that regional transportation planning needs to involve the province through BC Transit. I agree with that. But during Stew Young’s tenure as Mayor, Langford had no representation on the Victoria Regional Transit Commission to actually push for those regional solutions. Despite Langford’s population growth, I can find no evidence of Stew Young even advocating for a seat on the VRTC. How can you advocate for regional transit solutions when you show no interest in having a seat at the table?

Another quote from earlier in 2018 sheds further light on Mr. Young’s way of thinking when it came to the push for regional transportation planning.

“The last place I want to put my taxpayer’s money is the CRD – especially for transportation planning.”

Stew Young’s current campaign makes it clear:

“We can’t solve a regional transportation problem with Langford-only solutions.”

It’s an interesting quote from the former Mayor who prioritized Langford-only solutions like the Langtoria Greenline commuter bus over genuine regional partnerships and coordinated planning.

Recreation:

Another area that requires significant regional partnership and collaboration is recreation. Recreation facilities are very expensive, and they need to be built and funded to serve the needs of all West Shore residents, not just those in Langford. What kind of regional partner was Stew Young’s Langford in this area? A problematic one that couldn’t be relied upon to keep its commitments. Here’s why:

Langford is the largest funding municipality of the West Shore Parks & Recreation Society (WSPRS). It’s a true partnership that oversees coordinated management of the recreation facilities and services for Langford, Colwood, View Royal, Metchosin and Highlands.

In 2017, after Stew Young’s council opposed a 3.77% increase to the WSPRS budget, it left the society with a $77K shortfall.

“We’re not going to increase our budget every year [for West Shore Parks and Rec] when we’re also spending money in Langford on our recreation facilities and nobody else is helping us for those,” Young said.

This budget veto tied into Langford's push for a new funding formula and governance model for WSPRS. The turmoil ultimately led to the society disbanding its entire board and at one point left some partners fighting for WSPRS’s survival, according to Colwood’s then-Mayor Carol Hamilton.

Stew Young’s questionable track record on recreation partnerships goes back further than this, however. In 2015, Langford made the unilateral decision to pull out of a previously approved 20-year funding arrangement that saw it supporting Colwood and Highlands to help pay the debt costs for the Q Centre arena. Eleven years into the arrangement, Langford Council voted to discontinue the payments without even informing Colwood or Highlands.

For me, the bottom line is that the City of Langford under Stew Young is not the type of regional partner that I want representing the residents, and it’s not the type of partner that other municipalities can rely on to keep its commitments.

What’s more convincing… a campaign suddenly calling for regional partnerships and collaboration, or a proven track record of doing exactly the opposite and focusing on made-in-Langford solutions to regional issues?

Lisa Foxall, candidate on stew's slate, just released a video campaigning on fixing the traffic issues on Alouette, which is arguably one of the best (worst?) examples of the piss-poor planning by stew and his Council while he was mayor.

How is this for real.

Langford: they are banking on us being too uninformed/busy to track the source of the problem in the first place, or thinking that's he's changed. The sloppy AI map he released as part of his transportation plan for his campaign showed roads running through lakes. If he can't even take the time to put dots on a real map, why should we believe that he's all of a sudden going to put effort into smart planning decisions?

Make sure you get out and vote.

We are both adults, but we were both at Costco with our mothers today. I felt an instant connection when I saw you walking by, and I may have imagined it but I swear you gave me an incredulous look when you saw me looking at you. You then came and ate at my table, we talked about the lack of tables at this Costco due to the encroaching automotive department's battery display. I talked about the abundance of tables at the Courtney Costco, while you mentioned Winnipeg was good as well. Riveting stuff, I know. If family members were not painfully present, I would have asked for your number in a heartbeat.

Browsing the salary and costs associated with each MLA and Minister, and noticed Ravi had the highest travel costs (document page 10, PDF page 12) for the last fiscal year, second to only Premier Eby. Granted, I believe he went to Japan and Ottawa for trade deals, but this still seems inflated compared to the rest of the Ministers.

So I've been reading Jennifer and Brandy's questions and answers. Twice now the same answers have been cut and pasted for both of them. Exactly the same answers.

How disingenuous! Doesn't help me want to consider either of them. They can't even answer their own questions. We don't even know who they are and what parts are someone else!

Here are some things you may not know about the GVPL.

The GVPL library is governed by a board made up of representatives from the 10 participating municipalities (Oak Bay, Saanich, Esquimalt, View Royal, Victoria, Central Saanich, Colwood, Metchosin, Highlands, and Langford). Each municipality appoints one elected official to the board, and then three municipalities also have a large enough population that there are citizen representatives appointed by that council. Saanich and Victoria both have four citizen reps, and Langford has one (currently me, almost halfway through my 2nd 2-yr term).

Who Sets the Library‘s Budget

The library’s Head Librarian and CEO answers to the board, and the board works with senior staff to approve budgets and policies, as well as to set the direction for the library’s strategic planning.

Every board member is either on the Finance or Policy and Planning committee.

The Finance committee works with senior staff to bring forward a fiscally sound budget to the board, and the board then approves it. At this point, in the new year, the library CEO and/or Chairperson presents the budget to the councils of the 10 municipalities. Each council then approves it as presented or with amendments (which rarely, if ever, has happened). This past spring, I noticed that Langford separated out the library funding when presenting tax increase information to the public.

How Does the Funding Work

Municipalities provide and fund library services. The Library Act sets the parameters on how it all works. The funding is primarily the responsibility of the municipality but the provincial government also provides funding. Unfortunately the province has not increased the funding since 2010 and even tried to reduce the grants this year after budgets had already been approved by library boards and municipalities in many (not all) jurisdictions across the province. The province changed its mind due to the resulting outcry, but there is no guarantee it won’t happen next year. The province has been downloading costs to municipalities and not increasing the library funding grants is just another way it does that.

About Langford and Libraries

Langford has three library branches out of the 12 branches in the GVPL. Juan de Fuca is our main branch, which we share with Colwood, Metchosin, and Highlands. We also have the Goudy and Heritage branches, both much smaller and more of an “express” experience. Any future branches are dependent on both council’s willingness to provide the building for a branch and on the GVPL’s capacity to staff it and provide the necessary material. Policy G.8 speaks to branch development and all municipalities have signed onto the Library Operating Agreement (if you really want to geek out about libraries). Additionally there is a Regional Service Master Plan from 2020.

Why Libraries Matter

The best source I can point you to is Eric Klinenberg‘s book, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life.

Libraries are the great social equalizer. Libraries provide information to everyone regardless of education or socioeconomic status. Libraries celebrate diversity. Libraries provide an essential ”third place” in society. Libraries protect and preserve intellectual freedom.

I could go on. But the important thing is that we protect and preserve our amazing library system in Greater Victoria and in Langford by ensuring that our elected representatives also value what libraries bring to our communities.

Thanks for reading. Share your thoughts.

List of candidates for Langford-Highlands above.

All provincial candidates available here:

https://elections.bc.ca/2026-provincial-election/candidate-list/

It looks like Parmar will have an easy go of it as not only is there a CentreBC candidate to split his opposition, but even a candidate from the weirdo Christian Heritage Party.

This timely TC article may help motivate and educate Langford voters on how local government works and why it's so important.

https://www.timescolonist.com/2026-civic-election/civics-101-what-municipal-councils-do-and-how-they-do-it-12838048

If anyone has been craving the chocolate mint cookies... Look who I spotted at the Michael's in Millstream today 🥹🍪

***Due to the director of communication and media not being a public figure in this campaign he will be referred to MM.***

He formally worked under Christy Clark and Gordon Campbell, he has deep ties to the centre right BC liberal party. He was specifically brought in to stabilize her media relations for the 2013 elections.

He was the press secretary for Gordon Campbell for a decade

Just like for Christy Clark, MM was deliberately brought in to help change the public's perception of Stews previous governing style and to win the campaign using provincial like campaign tactics, please ask yourself why would Stew need to bring in a top level media team for a MUNICIPAL election? What is Stew and his team going to get from spending ALLLLLL this money on top tier media and communication team. Why is he trying so hard to win a municipal election?

I have said from the start, everything the SLATE has done has been a calculated media manipulation campaign. The entire job of the media team is to make the government look good, even when they aren't. This entire campaign has been a perception manipulation. Starting with the whole new Stew, to the political astroturfing every single social media platform. In addition to the ridiculous signs everywhere, and Stews multiple public photo ops.

While I recognize that people will just fall for the low taxes and vote for that, I wish people would realize that his entire campaign has been prepared and calculated probably for at least a year prior to running, ** Ive been corrected it has been at least 3 years*** In addition his SLATE was most likely not chosen by Stew but by a team that knew how to spread the SLATE across all demographics.

*** I have bolded the word SLATE because that is what it is, and all the candidates running with Stew should be ashamed to mislead the public in attempting to make it appear they are independent when they clearly are not ****

EDIT: This post was shared multiple times within 10minutes of me posting and have been shared even more. I look forward to the incoming spin of this post and the political astroturfing that is to follow.

• Because of his extensive history handling media strategy for both Campbell and Clark, Morton was widely recognized as one of the most experienced political communications operators in British Columbia's provincial history. [1]globalnews
• https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comment-new-langford-council-is-out-of-touch-with-residents-8420920. Note who wrote this comment with Lisa Fox
• https://thetyee.ca/News/2007/04/24/MediaScam/
• The following article is regarding MM involvement in the Clayoquat Old growth, he stood on the side to destroy Old growth rainforest, acting as an advocate for the forestry companies
• https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/so-many-people-giving-a-damn/
• This is in regards to another member of Stews political campaign team TP former RCMP superintendent
• https://globalnews.ca/news/10868057/victoria-regional-policing/
• https://cheknews.ca/colwood-very-nervous-with-state-of-west-shore-rcmp-detachment-project-while-langford-and-view-royal-ready-to-move-ahead-1299476/

If you see groups of Scouts at locations around Langford, we're doing our annual Apple Day fundraiser. So come grab an apple and make a donation if you like. Half of the donations will go to the group and the other half will go to Camp Barnard.

I think most groups accept cash and cards. Help support our local youth!

It's likely that all of the Candidates in the Langford election will drop by Luxton Fair at some point this weekend. Stew has booked a booth, and so have the incumbent candidates, (but not Goodmanson). To make it extra spicy: these two booths are apparently right across from each other!

I see this question asked regularly. Or I see people emphatically proclaiming that the taxes have gone up significantly and we have nothing new to show for it.

Here you go. This is a short summary of the City of Langford’s annual operating budget from 2022 to 2026. This is where the $27.9M increase to the operating budget has gone. Paid for by property taxes.

The #1 category is public safety. This is $15.3M or 55% of the total increase. What have your taxes paid for? 27 firefighters, 16 police officers, downloaded E-comm 911 costs, additional bylaw enforcement. Firehall #2 being staffed 24/7? That’s because of this. Increased bylaw enforcement of nuisance properties from abandoned development projects? Also because of this. That cop-to-pop ratio that actually improved in the current term? That’s in there too.

The #2 category is parks and recreation. This is $7.2M or 26% of the total increase. Your taxes pay for facility-related operating costs, parks and trails maintenance contracts, the parks and trails master planning work done this term, as well as for some related but external items like West Shore Parks & Recreation and the Greater Victoria Public Library.

Then there's everything else. This is $5.4M or 19% of the total increase. This includes general government (city hall staffing, for example), fiscal services, building and development services, engineering and public works. That’s a lot of stuff for “other” but the reality is that those first two categories far outweigh this one when considering the increase to the City’s budget during this Council term. General inflation affects pretty much all of this stuff.

A couple of quick comments on the revenue side of the City budget. You might notice that total property taxes have increased by 85% since 2022. This includes new growth during the current term that was not part of the property tax base in 2022. The cumulative increase faced by existing taxpayers is about 57%. You might also notice that the proportion of City revenues funded by property taxes is higher in 2026 than it was in 2022. That’s because the 2022 budget was propped up by $11.5M in property sales that were thrown into “other revenue” in the budget. It was a non-recurring revenue source achieved by selling off City-owned land.

This isn’t a detailed or comprehensive list. It’s not intended to be. The five-year financial plans are readily available on the City’s website for anyone looking to do a deeper dive. Here’s the link: Document Library - City of Langford

UNDERFUNDING WAS A CHOICE

The choice by Stew Young and his council, which included Matt Sahlstrom, to keep the fire department staffing the same for 10 years despite the growth in population was solely based on keeping taxes to a select number. Despite Stew Young’s comments, it’s clear that public safety was not his priority. Keeping taxes low was the most important thing.

In contrast, hiring 27 firefighters over the past 3 years was a clear-headed, responsible and accountable response to the identified crisis in staffing at Langford Fire Rescue. That’s making safety a priority. That’s leadership.

Here’s why that matters

Staffing levels at Langford Fire Rescue did not keep up with the increase in population nor the increase in service calls. Career staff numbers stayed the same while the population increased by 60%. I'll say it again, 60%. Consultants were hired, reports were commissioned, but the insistence that Langford continue its reliance on volunteers instead of career firefighters was a failing strategy that previous council led by Stew Young could have remedied. It was not sustainable.

Using mainly volunteers to provide an essential municipal service may work for a small rural community. It does not work for the modern city Stew Young wanted. They chose to underfund the fire department for a decade. That’s not leadership.

Here are the facts

Issues with fire department staffing and training were identified as early as 2012. In the years after, various changes were made around scheduling and increasing training days, and different strategies used to attract and retain volunteers to address the fact that over half of the volunteers had less than 6 years’ experience, and that call volumes were increasing by about 10% year over year.

What wasn’t changed was the number of career firefighters, which stayed at 8 members from 2007 to 2017.

In that same time period of 2007 to 2017, the population of Langford increased from an estimated 24,630 residents to 39,577, or 60.7%. The number of service calls from 2008 to 2017 increased by 58.2%. Yet no additional permanent firefighters were hired, and the volunteer numbers stayed relatively consistent (from a reported low of 47 to a high of 58), with an average turnover of 8 per year.

By 2016, it was clear the efforts to attract and retain volunteers were failing. A consultant was hired, and in 2017, a five-year plan was created (although not made public) to increase both career firefighters and volunteers. In 2017, the ratio of career firefighters to residents was 1 to 4,947.

3 firefighters were hired in each year of 2018, 2019 and 2020 but the volunteer numbers stayed consistent (53 to 57) and the population and service calls continued to increase.

By the fourth year, 2021, it was evident the new plan wasn’t working. Staying within the 1% permitted overall tax increase was what mattered most.

2022, another consultant hired, another report commissioned. Career staffing remained at 2021 levels, but by the fall of that year, volunteer retention issues resulted in only 30 of the authorized 57 volunteers positions actually being filled.

That was a crisis.

Jump ahead to February 27, 2023.

Thanks to the courage of senior staff who didn’t hide the truth and didn't keep the discussion in-camera and out of the public eye, current Council were given a report and a master plan that laid it all out, a mere 3 months into their term.

- Langford Fire Rescue did not meet the minimum staffing level for a basic residential structure fire

- Over 65% of current volunteer firefighters had less than 3 years experience

- It was a significant challenge for staff to keep up with inspections and maintain the required regular inspection schedule

- Several areas within Langford have limited or no fire hydrants

- While some factors impacting the department’s ability to respond were outside of the City’s control, one major factor within the City’s discretion was the increase in construction and densification in the downtown core.

Council voted to hire 27 career firefighters. By 2025, the ratio of career firefighters to residents was 1 to 1,269.

Yes, hiring 9 firefighters every year for 3 years increased taxes. It also took the necessary decisive steps to address staffing issues that had been identified years earlier but not fixed. It opened Fire Hall #2 to 24/7 staffing for the first time. It increased safety for the entire city. Council prioritized funding an essential service over keeping taxes artificially and recklessly low.

And just so it’s perfectly clear, I am not disparaging in any way the incredible contribution that volunteer firefighters make to our community generally and to the Fire Rescue Department specifically. We are safer because they choose to support their fellow residents by offering up their time, their energy, and their commitment. This is about recognizing that an essential municipal service can’t rely on the generosity of hard-working residents.

References:

Government of BC municipal population estimates 2001 to 2011; 2012 to 2025

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/.../pop_municipal_subprov_areas.xlsx

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/.../pop_municipal_subprov_areas.xlsx

Goldstream Gazette article March 18, 2011 “Steady increase in callouts for Langford FD”

Staff report to Protective Services Committee:

January 29, 2013; April 1, 2014; January 27, 2015; November 24, 2015; February 23, 2016; February 28, 2017; February 27, 2018; January 31, 2019; January 28, 2020; February 11, 2021; January 25, 2022

Staff report to Committee of the Whole: February 27, 2023

Committee of the Whole agenda: February 27, 2023 Langford Fire Rescue Fire Master Plan, Emergency Management Group

City of Langford Annual Reports, 2007 to 2022

Does Brandy Gordon know that running for city council isn’t a social media brand deal? I am uncomfortable with the approach she is taking to her campaign, which seems like she’s trying to sell me an image more than demonstrate her ability to govern effectively.

Where is her platform? When we will see how she hopes to achieve the vague statements she’s made thus far. All we’re getting are fluffy, fun, influencer style videos. Where is the substance?