As an activist politician, I stand out as a radical outlier, and predictably my social media posts get a lot of pushback by a sizeable portion of the electorate that wishes I focus more on core municipal issues like infrastructure, which commenters perceive as more in alignment with the priorities of voters.
This begs for the obvious retort: Are you sure you know what voters want in 2026? Because they want very different things than in the previous election cycle.
Americans south of the borders have been having this conversation for a while, especially among Democrats. There has been a growing disconnect between the Democratic Party’s establishment and its increasingly restless base, a gap which is largely to blame for its defeat in the 2024 presidential election. Nowadays outliers are taking over the party from within, like Kat Abughazaleh, Zohran Mamdani, and Abdul El-Sayed, all three of whom would have stood no chance four years prior.
And don’t just dismiss this as American drama far removed from our own reality, because the provincial NDP’s grassroots base is having this very conversation, right here in BC. The wind of reform is blowing across municipal politics as well, with groups like Dogwood and the West Coast Climate Action Network working to mobilize the vote for local elections this October.
Those pesky activists are right. Only one in three eligible voter in BC casts votes in local elections, because the remaining two thirds feel their candidates are disconnected from their concerns. Have you thought about whether our elites are wrong about what the electorate wants, and whether a wave of disruptive candidates can increase the turnout? If it were to increase to fifty percent, all bets would be off.
Let’s have a look at issues which do mobilize people on the ground and have them vote with their feet, so to speak. Because I sense that voter priorities for municipal elections in 2026 have shifted dramatically from those of 2022.
Environment
Since we’re discussing turnout, I’d like to draw your attention to one recent protest with an unusually large turnout: the United For Old Growth rally in February 2023. Over two thousand marchers flooded the streets of Victoria, under the banners of about 210 organizations, including the BC General Employees Union (BCGEU), the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association, and the BC Teachers’ Federation Committee for Action on Social Justice. Even Neil Young and David Suzuki showed up. Seriously, it was Woodstock; everybody in town was there—except you.
On that day, groups with constituencies as far removed from environmental advocacy as workers, migrants, doctors, nurses, teachers, churchgoers, peace activists, and even ordinary parents made a joint statement in support of preserving old growth forests for future generations, because that was one of their leading priorities.
Considering this, would you, as a municipal candidate, tell the electorate that you care more about jobs than preserving old growth forests? Many politicians don’t look past “It’s the economy, stupid!” and would indeed dismiss preserving old growth or opposing oil and gas pipelines as irrelevant to municipal politics in a locality like Victoria which has no old growth forests and no pipelines. Such politicians would fail the test of the newest generation, which judges candidates’ character over their stance on issues such as these.
Indigenous rights
Among issues which consistently rally the masses on the ground is indigenous rights, especially pertaining to violence against indigenous people. Every year, events like Moose Hide Campaign Day, Red Dress Day, and Orange Shirt Day mobilize hundreds of marchers at a time.
In December 2025, hundreds of counterprotesters gathered at the University of Victoria to repel an unsanctioned event held by residential school deniers including embattled MLA Dallas Brodie, who recently faced a recall petition and a revolt within her OneBC party.
And if you think the rights of indigenous peoples aren’t a municipal issue, you haven’t been paying attention to the news lately. Recent court decisions pertaining to the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) superseding the Land Title Act have led the City of Langley to intervene in the appeal of Cowichan Tribes v. Canada. By the way, two parcels of land in downtown Victoria may soon be transferred to the Songhees Nation under a new treaty agreement.
Transgender rights
I get a lot of backlash from conservative voters who feel like local politicians should stay clear of divisive issues like the rights of transgender people and stick to playing Sim City. I say those who think likewise have failed to read the room, because transgender activism has repeatedly mobilized crowds against regressive forces in municipalities across the country, and Victoria is a particularly hot battleground on that front.
Back in 2023, an angry mob of hundreds forced the cancellation of the so-called 1 Million March 4 Children, which advocated for the repeal of the SOGI 123 charter advocating for the inclusion of school kids irrespective of sexual orientation or gender identity; this compelled our municipal council to issue a Declaration of Ongoing Solidarity with Gender-Diverse Residents. By the way, education curriculum is a local election matter, which is why school board elections have been more heated as of late.
Then in June 2024 I led a campaign with 1 Million Voices For Inclusion, a transgender activist group, to cancel We Unify’s Reclaiming Canada conference and its speaker lineup of notorious transphobes, to be held at the Victoria Conference Centre. Over two thousand people sent a letter imploring the city to cancel its contract with the organization. How’s that for a municipal issue?
Palestine
Israel’s campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza has mobilized people like no other issue in our lifetime—unless you’re old enough to have fought in World War II. Millions of activists have marched worldwide calling for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against the Zionist regime, and many keep doing so weekly, including in this very city, leading our own municipal police force to complain of resource drain and burnout.
Recently the City of Duncan became the fourth municipality in the country to sign an apartheid-free city pledge condemning human rights violations against the Palestinian people. The mostly symbolic gesture has been widely dismissed by detractors as mere virtue signalling. And you know what? Voters clamour for virtue signalling nowadays. They want accountable politicians who display integrity. How can they trust a politician to uphold human rights at home if that same politician cannot be bothered to take a stance against genocide abroad?
I’m just back from a rally at our MP Will Greaves’ office, attended by a crowd demanding commitment to close the arms embargo loophole allowing proscribed weapons to be funnelled to Israel via the United States. There were no less than three of us municipal council candidates, the other two being Susan Kim and Peter Gibbs of Victoria For All. As we activists keep saying: Money for homes and education, not for war and occupation! Don’t you think such a slogan has a local election ring to it? The attendance sure did, as I got ten of them to nominate me for municipal council all at once!
