Cst. Luna Lafontine with VicPD checks in with us for the Tour de Rock route.

As we race towards local elections, one of the long-term issues the peninsula has been grappling with looks like it won’t be resolved neatly before new councils take over. Earlier this month, Sidney council has again not decided to share a $9+ million CRD borrowing bylaw for a proposed regional rec centre in Central Saanich. Central Saanich Councillor Niall Paltiel is not running again, but he’s been serving as the chair of the Peninsula Recreation Commission throughout this.

The Nanaimo Cath Lab and Patient Tower was an election promise in 2024, but two years later we’re heading back to the polls without this complete. Last we checked in; the Regional District of Nanaimo was fronting some of the funds and Island Health had opened the requests for proposals for a concept plan for the campus. Fair Care Alliance chair Donna Hais joins for more, ahead of an event they are hosting later today focused on local governments’ changing role in healthcare.

The BC Conservatives say they’re changing party rules to allow interim leader Lorne Dorkeson to remain party leader if he becomes premier in this election. Meanwhile, CentreBC saw a mass influx, then exodus, leaving now party leader Elenore Sturko as the sole incumbent with the party, and they’ve just announced they’re running former BC Green leader Andrew Weaver in Oak Bay-Gordon Head.  Current BC Green Leader Emily Lowan will run in Saanich North and the Islands as Rob Botterell steps away. Amid all this fallout Premier Eby is defending his decision to call an election, citing the trade war and refuting the idea that he is taking advantage of the chaos in the conservative party by justification of the duration of the instability. Royal Roads professor of communications and culture David Black joins. 

Plus, David Arthur Johnston, who is known by many as the man who’s taken an oath against handling or using money, will be on the ballot this year in Victoria’s election.