Another civic election has come and gone, and Saanich managed to top the 20 per cent mark for turnout this time, yet is still at the bottom of the list in terms of voter turnout among the region’s 13 municipalities.

Some would suggest that is because we residents are satisfied with the way things are, and I am not so sure this is wrong.

On the Thursday before election day, I attended the last all-candidates meeting at Spectrum secondary.

Almost to a person, a common theme in the candidates’ pledges was to address emission controls and other environmental concerns in our municipality.

Among the several ways candidates would address this concern were to advocate for mixed communities, or villages within the greater village that is Saanich, where the residents do not have to take their vehicles just to get to work, or to shop or play.

Businesses, parks, recreation areas, single-family dwellings, condos and rental units would be intermixed and connected with bike paths, walking paths and sidewalks, so the automobiles could stay parked for the most part.

I learned the next day that a certain home-based Saanich business in Sunnymead which opens to the public but once a year has been told it can no longer operate out of the residence as it has done for a few years now. All because a complaint was received from a resident of the neighbourhood. I wonder if said resident even bothered to vote, or knew what the issues were.

So, coupled with the miserable turnout that is consistent in the municipality of Saanich, are the members of council being hypocritical by saying things that “play well”, but to a public that, though it wants to hear “politically correct” topics, will not tolerate changes to their mutual comfort level?

If it is either, or both, it is nothing less than pathetic.

Rick Weatherill

Saanich