Thank You North Saanich For Your Trust

North Saanich has a new Mayor & Council. On October 17, voters sent a strong message: they want openness and transparency in municipal governance.

The results were clear. Five new Councillors and a new Mayor.

Mayor

• Jack McClintock: 2,907 votes [65.4%]

• Felice Mazzoni: 1,295 votes [29.1%]

• Peter Jones (i): 244 votes [5.5%]

Council (6 elected)

• Jane Burnes: 2,810 votes [63.2%]

• Stuart Mackinnon: 2,669 votes [60%]

• Jim Woolford: 2,557 votes [57.5%]

• Brian Robinson: 2,372 votes [53.4%]

• Phil DiBattista (i): 2,308 votes [51.9%]

• Walter Langer: 2,271 votes [51.1%]

• Kristine Marshall (i): 1,770 votes [39.8%]

• Greg Warner: 1,762 votes [39.6%]

• Sanjiv Shrivastava (i): 1,696 votes [38.1%]

• Irene McConkey (i): 1,502 votes [33.8%]

• Gerald Hannig: 1,306 votes [29.4%]

(i) incumbent

The next four years will not be easy. We have new bylaws to enact to go along with our Official Community Plan (OCP). We have housing directives from the Provincial Government that do not match the will and expectations of the community. We have trust to build with our staff and the community. We have escalating costs and inflation to manage. We have infrastructure deficits to overcome. We have climate change adaptations and mitigation to oversee. And we have public expectations as well.

With the communities help and advice, North Saanich can move forward on all of these issues and more. But this will take time, dedication and your support. We can only move forward together.

Parks advocate, former teacher running on hope for more stability in North Saanich

 Published 8:26 am Thursday, September 24, 2026

By Bailey Seymour, 

Peninsula News Review

After four years of instability in North Saanich’s council chambers, newcomer Stuart Mackinnon hopes to be part of a council that can stabilize the district through trust and dialogue.

“It’s been quite a tumultuous four years. It’s still going on. I think that it’s lacked a lot of trust between council and the community, and I want to bring that trust back,” he said. “I’ve sat on a lot of boards, both community boards and elected, and one of the strengths I have is bringing stability and governance expertise to those boards.”

He spent 11 years on the Vancouver Park Commission, served as a library trustee and sat on a number of environmental and conservation committees along with a 30-year teaching career.

“This particular council has taken a very adversarial position with the provincial government, and I don’t necessarily think that’s the right approach. Of course we want to have local decision-making, but my expression is you make a lot more honey with bees than you do with hornets,” he said. “When I was in governance in Vancouver, I worked with Christine Boyle, who’s the current housing minister. I had a good rapport; I could just call her up and have a conversation with her. I don’t know if she’s ever been to North Saanich and understands what our community is about. So I’d start there. Have the minister come out and try and understand what’s happening here, what our community is about.”

Over the next four years, he says he’d like to see more financial transparency, and more cash set aside in reserves as infrastructure continues to age.

With his background in parks advocacy, he also wants to work on safeguarding the district’s parks and forests, especially as climate change threatens shorelines and natural landscapes.

“This is something that we would not be working on our own. This is something that has to be a regional, provincial, and federal partnership. We have to work with Sidney and Central Saanich as well. There’s limited ability at the local level because we just don’t have the funds. So working with the Departments of Natural Resources and Climate Change at both provincial and federal levels to protect our shorelines, to work in tandem on understanding exactly what that means for a community like ours. Again, it’s about dialogue and partnerships,” he said.

His background as a teacher, along with his extensive experience around governments, makes him someone who can help set North Saanich on the right path, he says.

“I have worked on the park board before in governance, in civic governance, understanding how government works, how to work with staff, understanding that this is not just a job that you’ve got for a couple of hours a week. It takes a lot of time and effort and understanding, and getting out into the community and listening. I have that background to help me. Working with others,” he said. “There’s nothing like being a teacher to learn how to work with others. I think I have the patience and understanding that’s necessary.”

With a provincial election recently called – especially with BC Greens leader Emily Lowan running in the riding – Mackinnon is worried about voter turnout, however he’s hoping residents will still take the time to learn about their options, and of course, go out and vote.

Mackinnon will be vying for a seat on North Saanich council on Oct. 17.

Original post here.

Comment: Political parties have no place in our municipal politics

It would appear that the District of North Saanich has a new civic party registered with Elections B.C.

Stuart Mackinnon in the Times Colonist

It would appear that the District of North Saanich has a new civic party registered with Elections BC. Most municipal elections in British Columbia are contested by independents. Members of the community seek office on their own merit. The exception is the large communities in the Lower Mainland that have developed party machinery, resulting in block voting and a loss of independent thinking.

This is not the first time North Saanich has had an electoral machine. A group called Team North Saanich emerged to contest the 2011 local elections, successfully backing a conservative-leaning majority of local councillors. The organization unravelled during the 2014 general local election. Four of their five slate candidates were defeated, leaving only one member elected to council. In the 2022 municipal election, a registered third-party sponsor group, Save North Saanich, managed to elect all but one of their endorsed candidates, resulting in a very dysfunctional council. Partisan politics has not served this community well.

In a 2024 article about Saskatoon, The Centre for Policy Alternatives describes it this way: “Since the municipal Reform movement of the early 20th century, the public, politicians, and academics have overwhelmingly talked about municipal politics as something that is uncontroversial and fundamentally not about partisan division. Instead, we like to imagine municipal policy-making as a technocratic exercise based around competent management of city services. As the saying goes, there’s no liberal or conservative way to fill a pothole.”1

The issue in North Saanich seems to be preservation of our rural landscape, described as development versus no development. But this appears to be a red herring, as virtually everyone I have spoken to wants to preserve our special relationship with agriculture, nature, and our rural character while acknowledging more housing is necessary. Rather, the issue seems to be no-growth versus smart growth. Anger versus rational debate. Not in my backyard versus development in select areas already zoned for development.

We have seen similar arguments in other wealthy enclaves like West Vancouver, Anmore, and the Shaughnessy neighbourhood in Vancouver: angry, wealthy landowners not wanting any changes in their communities. In Vancouver, one resident referred to themselves as the ‘crème de la crème’ when opposing the idea of having rapid transit at the periphery of their neighbourhood.

Change and growth are inevitable. How that change and growth are managed is not. Anger and exclusionary tactics won’t preserve our agricultural base and natural beauty. As we have seen, this approach has simply brought the interference of the provincial government to a dysfunctional municipal council.

Choosing seven independent individuals shouldn’t be an onerous task. We need folks who will listen to the public, to each other, and to the professional staff, and then make rational decisions. We don’t need puppet-masters pulling strings behind the scenes.

In the next election, we may be faced with the choice of rational debate or anger. Inclusion or exclusion. Smart growth or imposed growth. Let’s keep the anger and nimbyism out of our public debate. Let’s keep rational independent candidates on our municipal council. Political parties, slates, and block voting have no place in our municipal politics.

 Stuart Mackinnon is a resident of North Saanich 

original article can be found here:

 

Advocacy works! Pedestrian Safety Concern at West Saanich Road and Munro Road Crosswalk

A few weeks ago I sent a letter to the District of North Saanich about a controlled crosswalk on West Saanich rd. at Munro, that had a control on only one side:

Dear Mayor and Council,

I am writing to express concern about pedestrian safety at the crosswalk at the intersection of West Saanich Road and Munro Road. I am a resident of North Saanich and a parishioner of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, and I regularly walk in this area.

West Saanich has fast-moving traffic and limited visual cues to alert drivers to the presence of pedestrians. The current crosswalk does not have a control button on the water side, and as a result, vehicles frequently fail to slow or stop. This creates a dangerous situation for residents and visitors attempting to cross.

I urge Council to prioritize a safety review of this intersection and to take prompt action to install a pedestrian control button on the water side of West Saanich Road. Proactive intervention now would demonstrate a commitment to public safety and help prevent accidents.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I would appreciate being informed of any next steps or timelines for reviewing this crosswalk.

Sincerely,

Stuart Mackinnon 

It was placed on the agenda of the next Council meeting, and then I received a reply from District staff saying they would look into it. Today, as I drove by, I saw a new control had been installed. Advocacy works!

If you have a concern, don't be afraid to contact your Mayor and Council.

'Tis the Season

 The days are getting darker and the weather a tad cooler and wetter, but this doesn't stop folks from celebrating the season. North Saanich and Sidney are blessed with many coloured lights and festivities. 

At Holy Trinity Anglican Church I got to play St. Nick at the annual St. Nicholas day event. Cookies and crafts and a story of the real St. Nicholas.

The next event was the annual Sparkles parade in Sidney where I rode along with our MP Elizabeth May on the Town of Sidney float.

Soon we will be driving around to look at all the colourful displays throughout the neighbourhoods. Some other events to watch for:

 

• Wain Park & Noble Garden Open House: Dec 9, 2025, for feedback on park plans.
• Peninsula Firefighters Christmas Food Drive: Dec 13, 2025, for donations to the Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank.

North Saanich is truly the land where its good to be.

Coffee, Doughnuts and Perks

 North Saanich’s Sanjiv Shrivastava has proven to be a most intelligent district councillor. With a master’s degree in nuclear physics and a doctorate in condensed-matter physics, he is certainly one of the most highly academically trained.

He is also one of the most accessible. I have had coffee with Sanjiv several times, gaining insight into his views on local issues as well as global problems that affect us all. At a recent coffee chat, he discussed a conference he had recently attended in Sweden on Doughnut Economics.

Doughnut Economics is an alternative economic model proposed by British economist Kate Raworth. It aims to create a sustainable economy that meets everyone’s needs without exceeding the planet’s ecological limits.

Imagine the two rings or edges of a doughnut. The inner ring (the “social foundation”) represents the minimum standards for human well-being. Falling below this means people lack essential necessities such as food, housing, healthcare, education, income, and equality. The outer ring (the “ecological ceiling”) represents the environmental limits of the Earth. Going beyond this means we contribute to climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and other forms of planetary damage. Between these two rings — the safe and just space for humanity — is where we should aim to live and design our economies.

Traditional economics focuses on growth (GDP). Doughnut economics instead focuses on balance: ensuring no one falls short of life’s essentials (social justice) and ensuring humanity doesn’t overshoot the planet’s environmental boundaries (ecological sustainability). Cities like Amsterdam, Brussels, and Portland have adopted “doughnut” frameworks to guide policy, measuring success by well-being and sustainability rather than growth alone.

Cllr Shrivastava is a believer in Doughnut Economics and wants to bring these ideas to North Saanich. An admirable goal. I will be interested in how he moves forward with this initiative.

What is also admirable is that although Cllr Shrivastava will bring the knowledge and tools he gained in Sweden to North Saanich, he attended the conference entirely at his own expense.

And now the Airport's lawyer is writing to North Saanich Council

 As reported in today's Times Colonist and CHEK TV, the airport’s lawyer sent a letter to council seeking to clarify Mayor Peter Jones’s comment about setting fire to something at the airport. This is all related to the North Saanich Council's inclusion of the Airport in its Official Community Plan (OCP). The airport sits on federal land, not district land, and so should not have been included in the OCP. The mayor, Peter Jones, made an offhand remark, which he called a joke, that offended the Airport Authority. 

When the OCP was passed at the District Council meeting, several Councillors were concerned with the inclusion of the airport. The Airport Authority subsequently asked that the OCP be amended to remove the Airport.

Once again, this mayor has put our community in the spotlight and not in a good way. The mayor should represent the values and interests of our community. They should be an upstanding representative and should shine a light on us that shows the nature of our community--a nature of cooperation, professionalism, and neighbourliness. We deserve better.

The full Times Colonist article can be found here: Heated talk: Transport Canada irked with North Saanich in airport land tussle

And the CHEK TV article here: North Saanich mayor’s comments trigger Victoria Airport Authority’s lawyers