 | Saturday, June 18, 2022
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | Why the departure of Abbotsford's mayor could be part of a trend | | |  | | | “Four years is a long time when you’re 72 years old.”
That was the main reason given by Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun this week, when he announced he wouldn’t be running for re-election this October.
“The flood in itself made this 10 times more difficult for me because there is a part of me that feels I should stay. But I don't know if I have the energy and the stamina to do it,” Braun said on CBC’s The Early Edition, referring to last year’s massive flooding damage.
Being mayor of Abbotsford, B.C.’s fifth-largest municipality, is a big operation, and Braun would have been a favourite for re-election if he went for a third term (as evidenced by there being no other candidates at the moment). Giving four months' notice allows time for plenty of people to consider stepping forward.
But regardless of the city's size, it’s the time of year for announcing political intentions: Fort St. John Mayor Lori Ackerman also said this week she wouldn't run again. Last week it was Campbell River’s Andy Adams, and the week before it was Squamish’s Karen Elliott.
The number of mayors seeking re-election has been steadily dropping in B.C. — from 79 per cent in 2011 to 65 per cent in 2018 — but it’ll be a couple more months before we know if that trend continues in 2022.
However, many of the mayors stepping down are known for leading council in a low-key way without much drama: Braun and Ackerman are two of them, but so are New Westminster’s Jonathan Cote, Langley Township’s Jack Froese and Dawson Creek’s Dale Bumstead.
“Council has been really strong over the years about taking that planned and principled approach,” Ackerman said to Energetic City in announcing her retirement and talking about her accomplishments. “Making sure that we have a vision for the future and that we don’t distract from that vision.”
There’s a worry among many local politicians that the commitment of a four-year term and the effects of social media are causing mayors to step down earlier than they would otherwise. There’s also concern that politicians who end up replacing them could provoke the type of council infighting that have doomed many a municipality.
That’s all speculation and anxiety at the moment, though.
For now, Abbotsford has a mayors' race on its hands. |  | | | Better know a local election:
Langley Township | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Speaking of municipalities with interesting mayoral races: Langley Township Mayor Jack Froese won re-election bids with relative ease in 2014 and 2018, but decided against a fourth term.
Stepping up to try and replace him at this point are two councillors — Eric Woodward and Blair Whitmarsh.
Metro Matters spoke to both candidates this week, and on the surface there isn't much difference in their campaigns so far: both are looking forward to the incoming SkyTrain line, both talk about Langley's rapid growth in recent decades, both talk about the need to ensure there is better infrastructure to support all the new people (from 66,040 in 1991 to 132,603 in 2021).
"It's a great community to live in to raise your family. But there are some things that we need to address as we go forward," said Whitmarsh, citing traffic issues and a diversity of new homes as priorities.
But when you dig beneath the surface, there's a big personality clash between the two of them.
"We need a council that's very collaborative, that agrees to work together to solve these problems," said Whitmarsh.
"There's lots of different perspectives out there, but we need to work together. So we need a council that can work together."
It was one of multiple times he emphasized collaboration, implying that Woodward — a developer who has faced some controversy in the past — lacks that skill.
That prompted Woodward's ire.
"The track record that I have on council is 10 pages long, Blair's is maybe two lines," he said.
"Of course he's going to want to pitch collaboration. But if you don't have any ideas, there's nothing to collaborate on."
Ultimately, it seems like the race will be less about policies and more about personality — along with how much people in Langley Township enjoyed Froese's reign in retrospect.
"Right now, we really do have a very entrenched status quo that thinks things are fine, and a lot of residents think we deserve better," said Woodward.
For being British Columbia's eighth biggest municipality, a lot of politics in Langley Township tend to fly under the radar, with voter turnout hovering around 30 per cent.
That might change in this year's election. | | |  | | | 1. Sports! | | | It was a mega-sport planning week in Vancouver, with a concept plan for a 2030 Winter Olympics bid announced and a hosting spot in the 2026 World Cup confirmed. In the case of the World Cup, there’s still the question of how much financial support the city will provide, while in the case of the Olympics, it’s a question of whether the city will support a bid period — and how that decision will be made.
Read more | | |  | | | 2. Pot | Just because cannabis policy issues are no longer on the front pages of newspapers doesn’t mean they aren’t happening. In particular for municipalities, the issue of provincial governments continuing to keep all government revenue — despite municipalities being in charge of licensing and enforcement — remains a sore point where lobbying continues.
Read more | | | |  | | | 3. Floods | | | | | | |  | | | 4. Rentals | With the summer tourism season picking back up after two years of minimal travel, so too are council discussions around short-term rental regulations. Gibsons and Cumberland discussed the issue this week, while an extensive report by CHEK News looked at how policies play out across Greater Victoria — with a hodgepodge of effects from Sooke to Salt Spring.
Read more in CHEK News | | | |  | | | 5. Regionalism | The regional government of Metro Vancouver is moving forward on its growth strategy for the next decade, but the City of Surrey is blanching at what it argues is a regional government getting too heavy-handed in local zoning decisions. Incidentally, a new poll appears to show an increased interest in some form of amalgamation in our 21-municipality confederation. Read more in Business in Vancouver | | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you. | | | | That's it for this week! In the meantime, check out the latest headlines at cbc.ca/bc and follow our municipal affairs reporter Justin McElroy on Twitter. And if you have any questions you might want answered in a future mailbag, drop Justin a line at metromatters@cbc.ca. | | | |
