I’ve been asked a few times what I think the outcome will be in Saturday’s municipal election in Victoria.

The simple answer is, I have no idea.

I don’t know who’s leading, who’s trailing and who may as well have saved themselves the nomination deposit (but it’s returnable anyway).

The campaign has been a series of surprises and I fully expect another one Saturday night as the results come in.

The one thing I would say with some certainty is that the pending result doesn’t seem to bode well for those throughout the Capital Region who have called homelessness the most pressing issue facing the region.

When the Victoria Foundation polled people across the CRD this year, 58 per cent told them homelessness was the largest worry.

It’s dominated discussion in Victoria, about a third of the record 35 council candidates and eight mayoral candidates seem to believe (mistakenly) it is in fact the only issue.

But if you listen to the debates in the region’s other municipalities, you may find it hard to realize that there are in fact people camping in the woods from Sooke to Saltspring, and most of them aren’t doing it for recreation.

In Esquimalt, some candidates got into the race over the future of the Archie Browning Centre, some are focused on getting a proposed sewage treatment site moved to MacLaughlin Point from Macauley Point.

Saanich’s candidates have been primed to discuss affordable housing - but of the sort that would benefit working families stretched to cover living costs, not the already absolutely homeless.

News came that housing built for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics will cross the strait and settle in Saanich after the games are done, but candidates haven’t been pressed on how they’ll vote if and when it comes time to rezone the land the 36 modular homes will sit on.

Transit, sewage, “smart growth” and the sorry state of Saanich’s sidewalks have taken most of the attention at all-candidates meetings.

Oak Bay’s candidates have focused on sewage treatment, keeping tax increases in check and preserving the village’s “ambience.” Council candidate Michelle Kirby got a round of applause for calling homelessness an Oak Bay issue at an all-candidates meeting, but that’s been about it.

I don’t mean to suggest that the other issues don’t matter. If there’s a strong argument against regional amalgamation it’s precisely that keeping the 13 municipalities separate allows for that kind of focus on things like Archie Browning that clearly matter to people.

But it’s very worrying – mystifying, even – to see politicians in other parts of the CRD aren’t embracing homelessness as a regional issue when they are willing to latch on to issues such as sewage treatment and transit.

Downtown bears most of the burden, but homelessness is not unique to Victoria and the capital city can’t solve it alone.

It’s going to take more money and more land for supportive housing projects than Victoria alone can provide.

If the political will doesn’t exist across the region to get all 13 municipalities fully engaged, the future is bleak indeed.

One last thought.

Usually when we go to the polls, you get one vote and there’s one winner.

That may be the case when you cast your ballot for mayor, but the council vote is a bit different.

Whichever municipality you vote in, you’ll get to cast as many votes for council as there are seats to be filled.

Consider saving at least one of them for a candidate you disagree with. Or, put differently, vote for a team, not a slate.

Partisanship doesn’t loom large in the Capital Region’s municipal politics - not as large as in some cities - but ideology can.

You may want to tilt your city hall to the left or to the right of where it’s been for the last three years, depending on your own politics, but vote with an eye to equilibrium.

Keith Vass covers Victoria city hall for the Victoria News.

kvass@vicnews.com.