Municipal Election Watch – West Shore of Vancouver Island, BC
Metchosin municipal election preview
As published in the June 15, 2018 issue of West Shore Voice News
June 19, 2018 ~ METCHOSIN. For District of Metchosin Mayor John Ranns, this fall’s municipal election will be his eighth. Holding tight to a no-growth policy for the rural west shore municipality (population 4,706 as of 2016),
Ranns has built a resilient and somewhat self-contained community that embraces low-density housing and large tracts of untouched land. Notably, Ranns guided Metchosin in striking a three-way deal with the City of Langford and Beecher Bay First Nation in March 2017, to increase a protected area of natural ecosystem while relinquishing 354 acres to Langford for high-density development.
Earlier this year Ranns expressed his appreciation for recreational opportunities in nearby Langford. The juxtaposition of the passionately rural Metchosin and the intensely high-density urban Langford seems to work for both jurisdictions.
Metchosin has a small council of four councillors (compared to six in larger municipalities).
> Locals will remember that Metchosin Councillor Andy MacKinnon ran for the BC Green Party in the 2017 provincial election, largely on a pro-environmental campaign.
> Councillor Moralea Milne who served on the district’s finance committee and on the West Shore Parks & Recreation board is not running again.
> Councillor Kayara Kahakauwila is running again in 2018. She has served as the Highways and Public Works Committee Chair, on the CRD Arts Committee, and on the CREST (Capital Regional Emergency Service Telecommunications Inc) board.
> Councillor Bob Graminga who has served as Metchosin Planning Committee Chair and on the CRD’s Juan de Fuca Water Distribution Commission is not running again this fall.
Ranns says the four-year term (that came into effect with the 2014 election) makes it more difficult to find solid council candidates who can make that longer-term commitment (up from the previous three years).
>> This article was first published on pg4 in the June 15, 2018 print/PDF issue of West Shore Voice News.
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