The Victoria election glossary

Gang of 5

Also written: Gang of Five, the bloc

The nickname Victoria residents use for the five councillors who vote as a bloc on the term's major decisions: Matt Dell, Jeremy Caradonna, Krista Loughton, Susan Kim and Dave Thompson. Mayor Marianne Alto usually votes with them, which produces a reliable 6-3 majority on the nine-member council.

The name stuck because of the pattern: the Victoria 2050 OCP, the 9.34 percent budget increase, the council pay raise, the Romeo's and Hermann's land purchases, and the social service centres policy all passed the same way, over the objections of the remaining councillors. Several members share a common background in the housing advocacy group Homes for Living. In the 2026 race, bloc members have publicly backed new candidates Jack Sandor (endorsed by Dave Thompson) and Bella Lee (praised by Matt Dell), which is why the label keeps coming up in candidate coverage. See who the bloc is backing.

No Alto

Also seen: #NoAlto,"anyone but Alto"

A slogan used by residents who want a new mayor on October 17, 2026. It refers to Marianne Alto, Victoria's mayor since 2022 and a city councillor for more than a decade before that. Alto has voted with the Gang of 5 on the decisions this site documents, and she personally brought the motion behind the social service centres policy.

The slogan is shorthand for a change vote rather than an organization: there is no formal"No Alto" group. Whether the mayor seeks re-election, and against whom, becomes official in the September 2026 nomination period.

Victoria 2050

Also called: the new OCP, the 2025 OCP

The Official Community Plan the City of Victoria adopted on October 2, 2025. It replaced the 2012 plan and eliminated every individual neighbourhood plan. Its most consequential change is citywide zoning by right for buildings of at least four storeys on residential lots. Fewer than 2,500 people answered the city's survey before adoption, in a city of more than 90,000.

Read our full plain-language walkthrough, or the city's official OCP page.

Official Community Plan (OCP)

The master planning document every BC municipality keeps. It sets what can be built where, how streets and parks evolve, and what protections apply to heritage and green space. Once adopted, city decisions are supposed to be consistent with it, which is why the contents of Victoria 2050 matter more than any single development application.

Zoning by right

Also called: as-of-right development, pre-zoning

Development that is approved automatically when it meets the written zoning rules. No rezoning application, no public hearing, no council vote, and no neighbourhood plan review, because under Victoria 2050 those plans no longer exist. Supporters say it gives builders speed and certainty. Critics, this network included, point out that it removes every formal avenue a neighbour once had to modify or oppose what is built next door.

Missing middle housing

Housing between a detached house and a large apartment building: duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, small multiplexes. Victoria's 2023 Missing Middle Housing Initiative already permits roughly six units on lots across the city. This matters in the OCP debate because the four-storey citywide allowance in Victoria 2050 came on top of that existing density increase, not instead of it.

Linear parkway / street plaza

Victoria 2050 designations that convert street space into park-like corridors or plazas. The plan expects few opportunities for new, large parks in the coming decades, and answers by repurposing streets, which can mean closures or what the plan calls balanced vehicle access. The affected streets are mapped on page 234 of the plan document. If your street carries a light green line there, this term is about you.

Social Service Centres policy

A 2025 City of Victoria policy that allows social service facilities, including homeless shelters, to locate across the city without advance notice to the surrounding neighbourhood. Mayor Alto brought the motion; council's majority approved it. Residents told reporters they were dismayed to learn services could open near them with no heads-up. Coverage: Times Colonist, CHEK News.

Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan

Abbreviated: CSWP

The City of Victoria's plan for downtown safety and social wellbeing, launched in the final stretch of the 2022-2026 term. Downtown businesses had reported years of street disorder before it arrived; voters can weigh the timing for themselves. Read the City's Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan page.

Homes for Living

Abbreviated: HFL

A Victoria housing advocacy group that campaigns for maximum housing supply. It is influential: councillors Dell, Loughton and Thompson were each involved with the group before or during office, and 2026 council candidate Jack Sandor is a former vice-president. Critics have documented developer involvement in the group's earlier days. Background reading: CRD Watch's article index.

Third-party sponsor

An Elections BC designation for a person or organization that registers to run election advertising without being a candidate. Sponsors must register and disclose spending. In Victoria's 2022 election, registered sponsors included Dogwood BC, Capital Bike and the Victoria Labour Council, all of which endorsed the Gang of 5 plus Mayor Alto. The 2022 list is public; we will link the 2026 list when Elections BC publishes it. See also the groups shaping this election.

CRD (Capital Regional District)

The regional government for southern Vancouver Island, covering 13 municipalities and three electoral areas. It runs regional services like water, parks and housing programs. It matters at election time for a plain reason: Victoria councillors appointed to CRD boards earn additional pay on top of council salaries, which is how some members of the current council clear six figures for part-time roles.

Advance voting

Voting days held before general voting day, required by BC law. For the October 17, 2026 election, the first advance day is expected on Wednesday, October 7, and Victoria has typically added a second the following Wednesday. Any eligible elector can use them; no reason needed. Details land on the City's election pages and in our how to vote guide.

Non-resident property elector

A person who owns property in Victoria but lives elsewhere in BC. They can register to vote in Victoria's election on the basis of that property, one vote per property, with the written consent of a majority of the property's owners. Renters, note the contrast: living in the city for 30 days is enough to vote here, no property required.

Renoviction / demoviction

Tenant displacement through renovation (renoviction) or demolition (demoviction) of a rental building. These terms dominate Victoria's housing debate because the buildings most attractive for redevelopment under Victoria 2050 are older, cheaper rentals. Council raised compensation in August 2026 to between five and twenty-four months' rent, by length of tenancy. The right of return is still set at 20 percent below market rather than at the tenant's own rent, and that remaining gap is one of this election's sharpest issues.

MNP governance review

An independent review of City of Victoria governance, delivered in 2022 by the consulting firm MNP for the previous council. Its message about public engagement was blunt: residents want to be consulted and listened to, not consulted and ignored. This network's view is that the 2022-2026 term proved the reviewers' point. The report is archived here (PDF).

IAP2 public participation standard

Also written: International Association for Public Participation

The international benchmark for how a public body should involve the public in a decision.

It sets out a spectrum running from simply informing people, through consulting and involving them, to collaborating with them and finally handing them the decision. The point of the spectrum is that a body should say honestly which step it is standing on. The City of Victoria references IAP2 in its own engagement materials. Our view, set out on the governance page, is that recent consultations have sat at the "inform" end while being presented as something further up.

Local Area Plan (LAP)

Also written: neighbourhood plan

A plan written for one neighbourhood, setting out what fits where on its particular streets.

Local area plans were the layer between the citywide Official Community Plan and an individual development application, and they were written with the people who live in the area. Victoria 2050 revoked them and replaced them with citywide land use classes. In our view that is why "what suits this street" is no longer a question the planning system asks. Restoring them is one of the asks on development and neighbourhoods.

Rental Use Zoning

Also written: Burnaby rental policy

Burnaby's policy requiring that a share of new units be rented below market, with real protection for the tenants displaced to build them.

It required 20% of new units to be below-market rentals until October 2024, when Burnaby council reduced that to 15%. It also gives a displaced tenant the right to return to the redeveloped building at the rent they were paying before rather than at a discount off the new market rate. The owner bridges the difference in the meantime. It is the comparison used throughout housing and affordability, because it shows these protections need no change in provincial law, only a council that decides to adopt them.

Tree Protection Bylaw 21-035

Also written: Victoria tree bylaw

The City of Victoria bylaw governing when a tree may be cut down.

As far as we can find, it has not been updated since the provincial housing directives of 2022, and it cannot protect an existing tree that stands inside a proposed building envelope. That limit is the reason setbacks matter so much: the space around a building, rather than the bylaw, is what decides whether a mature tree survives development. See the urban forest.

Consult-first governance

Our shorthand for the standard we want the next council held to: ask residents before deciding, publish the evidence behind projects, give neighbourhoods notice of what is coming, and treat consultation as an input that can change the outcome rather than a box to tick after the decision is made. Every candidate on our tracker gets asked whether they will govern this way.