The fight to make your vote count.

We are a grass-roots, community-based network committed to change at Victoria City Hall. We are issues driven, and we are not endorsed by, supported by, or affiliated with any political organization or special interest group.

Victoria deserves better than this

Over the past four years, a majority on Council, the five councillors residents call the Gang of 5, has eroded public trust and changed Victoria for the worse by undermining the safeguards of local democracy: consultation, transparency and accountability. What did we get instead? Little citizen input, quick decisions, narrow in scope and rationale, and favouritism to special interests.

Victoria deserves better. Your voice should count between elections, not just on one day in October.

October 17 was when you got a say. The follow-through is now.

Good government is something we do together. On October 17 Victoria voted; between elections, the work is holding council to what it promised.

1. A Parks Sequencing Plan with limited consultation

   The plan approved the re-design of Centennial Square and pushed the mega Crystal Pool project forward, with limited consultation with the citizens who pay for both.

   Parks & projects

2. $15 million of land bought without asking

   The city purchased Romeo's on Blanshard for $11 million, to eventually become a park, and Hermann's for roughly $4 million, again without consulting citizens. Parks, yes. But who would agree that a park right beside Blanshard is a good idea?

   Spending

3. Taxes up every single year, and a raise they backed down on

   The residential increase has climbed every budget of this term: 6.0, then 7.93, then 8.18, now 9.34 percent, roughly 35 percent compounded, while the announced headlines stayed conveniently smaller. In March 2024 council also voted itself a 25 percent raise, from $52,420 to $65,525, effective that May rather than at the next election. It backed down after public objection, and the smaller rise that survived does not start until after October 17.

   Taxes & spending The real tax bill

4. Downtown left to fend for itself until election year

   Council all but abandoned downtown business owners to crime and disorder for most of their mandate, and acted only in their last year, before the election, with the Community, Safety and Wellbeing Plan.

   Public safety The plan

5. "Social Service Centres" allowed anywhere, without notice

   Council approved a policy that allows social service centres, including homeless shelters, to open anywhere in Victoria without the community, or even council, being aware it is occurring.

   Public safety Times Colonist CHEK News

6. Bike lanes built without meaningful consultation

   The continual construction of bike lanes has gone ahead corridor after corridor without meaningful consultation with the businesses, residents and road users affected by them, including cyclists themselves.

   Transportation

7. The worst of all: an OCP almost nobody knew about

   Council approved an Official Community Plan that less than 2 percent of the populace is even aware of. At no time was the public consulted when council asked staff to create a plan that would allow 4-storey condos on every lot in Victoria.

   Planning City OCP page Our plain-language guide

8. A governance review, ignored

   Clearly this council learned nothing from the MNP governance review prepared for the last council, which found that people want to be consulted and listened to, not consulted and ignored.

   Governance Governance review (PDF)

That is the record of five councillors and the mayor. Change meant none of them going back, and none of the people they backed getting in. We named six who should; four of them were elected, and three of the five went back.