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Six candidates we are voting for

For four years we have kept track of what this council decided and what it cost. We looked at everyone running against that record, and these are the people we feel we can stand behind so far, with our reasons for each.

Why we are doing this at all

For four years this network has done the same steady work: reading the agenda, going to the meeting, checking the numbers and writing down what was decided. Endorsing candidates was never the plan. What we wanted, and still want, is a city hall that talks with residents before it makes up its mind.

We are speaking up this time because other groups already have. The Victoria Labour Council settled on a full slate of eight names for the eight council seats, privately, before nominations had even opened, and a coalition of advocacy groups is preparing letter grades for everyone running. If we said nothing in that company, the only organised voices in the race would be the ones asking for more of what the last four years gave us. So we would rather say plainly who we are voting for, and show our reasoning.

So we are saying plainly who we are voting for, and showing the work.

How we decided

We built this site around six issues: governance and public trust, development and neighbourhoods, housing and affordability, the urban forest, transportation and infrastructure, and safety and well-being. Every one of them is documented on this site against council's own record, with the sources linked.

We read every campaign website in the field, along with public statements and, for the sitting councillors, their voting records. Then we asked one question about each of them: on our six issues, has this person already shown the judgement we are looking for, rather than simply promised it? Six people have, so far.

Six people cleared that bar.

How to read this

  • No money has changed hands in either direction. We have not donated to any campaign, and no campaign has paid us anything.
  • Nobody signed a pledge. We judged people on what they have already said and done in public, so you can check our reasoning against the same material we used.
  • This is not a slate. The six are not running as a team, they have not agreed a common platform, and they owe nothing to each other or to us.
  • If any of them wins and then votes for the things this site was built to question, we will write that down too.

The six

Two are sitting councillors and four would be new. Each name links to that candidate's own website, because we would rather you read them in their own words before you take ours.

Marg Gardiner

Council · Incumbent

Sixteen years with the James Bay Neighbourhood Association before she was elected, and the councillor who has most consistently been the dissenting vote on the decisions documented on this site. She voted against the 2026 budget on process grounds, saying the annual budget ritual is fundamentally flawed, and she is running on zero-based budgeting and measurable results. On governance and on taxes she has been saying for four years what this network has been saying.

marggardiner.ca

Stephen Hammond

Council · Incumbent

He brought forward the motion that became Victoria's strengthened renoviction compensation bylaw in August 2026, raising compensation to between five and twenty-four months' rent depending on length of tenancy. He is a landlord, and he brought a tenant protection motion anyway, then spent a year getting it through amendments. That is the kind of work we want more of, and it is why we still push him on the one piece the bylaw left short.

votestephenhammond.ca

Wendy Bowkett

Council · New candidate

A former leader of the Victoria Downtown Residents Association with an MBA and board service at the 9-10 Club soup kitchen. She follows council meetings in unusual detail and can tell you what was decided and what it cost from memory. She is asking for clearer public reporting on council decisions and for a safety system that includes non-police crisis response, which is the combination of consultation and safety this network has argued for.

wendybowkett.ca

Karen Rothe

Council · New candidate

A career British Columbia public servant who has worked on Metro Vancouver's regional growth strategy, wildfire evacuation policy and search and rescue funding. She has done the unglamorous part of the job in other governments and knows what an infrastructure plan has to contain. She is running on transparent decisions and on a downtown revival built with neighbourhood associations rather than around them.

karenrothe.ca

Arthur McInnis

Council · New candidate

A law professor and former international construction lawyer with more than thirty years in governance work. His platform is the most specific in the field on the machinery of accountability: an integrity commissioner, a lobbyist registry, a public inventory of city-owned land, performance dashboards, and a ninety-day public consultation before any tax increase above inflation. Four of those are items this network has asked for by name.

arthurmcinnis.ca

Melissa Cseszko

Council · New candidate

Born and raised in Victoria and a downtown small business owner for five years, so she sees the state of the core every opening shift rather than in a staff report. She is running on predictable downtown conditions and on stronger oversight and performance measurement at city hall. On safety she talks about what was actually spent and what actually changed, which is the question this network keeps asking.

melissacseszko.ca

Six so far, and room for more

You can vote for up to eight councillors, and you do not have to use all eight. Every vote spent on someone you feel lukewarm about works against the candidates you actually want, because they are all competing for the same eight places. A ballot with six considered marks is stronger than one with eight where two were guesses.

Every vote you spend on a candidate you are lukewarm about is a vote working against the candidates you actually want, because they are all competing for the same eight places. A ballot with six considered marks on it is stronger than a ballot with eight where two were guesses.

Six people have cleared our bar so far. We are still reading, still going to meetings and still asking questions, so if others show us the same judgement we will say so here. And if you find a seventh or an eighth you believe in, vote for them. It is your ballot, not ours.

Read the rest of the field anyway

Twenty-one people have publicly announced for the mayor's chair and the eight council seats. We have listed all of them, with links to their own websites, including the ones we disagree with and the ones we have not endorsed.

If you want to test any candidate yourself, including ours, the benchmark we measure people against and the five questions we think everyone should be asked are both on this site. Bring them to an all-candidates meeting and see what happens.

Most people who read this were sent it by someone they know.

Where the deep detail lives

  • the OCP guide walks through the 2025 Official Community Plan clause by clause.
  • the real tax bill traces where the money went, with every figure sourced.
  • the media tracker collects what local reporters have written, sorted by issue.
  • the glossary explains the terms council uses in plain language.

October 17, and eight council seats to fill

Get one short email when candidates answer the five questions, when nominations close, and when advance voting opens.

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