 Seeking re-election, Maple Ridge mayor believes voters care more about what he’s done than who's been alienated | | |  | | | Maple Ridge Mayor Mike Morden, by his own admission, is not exactly one for niceties.
“I don’t care to actually do these interviews,” he said, talking about his bid for re-election after years of rejecting the vast majority of interview requests.
“I just would rather just [go] here's the task at hand, let’s go get it done, put together a plan, implement it, measure it, make sure that it's working well and go to the next thing. And that's what my council has done.”
As an example, Morden points to his main focus in the 2018 campaign when he became mayor: the question of crime, safety, and homeless camps in the community.
After early heated arguments with the province, the city has worked with the government in creating new social housing and a project called the Community Social Safety Initiative, mixing a hub for social services like showers with more bylaw officers and case workers.
“It's an understanding of how the system works, and it took me a little bit to get a hang of that,” said Morden of his initial heated rhetoric with the province.
It seems to have some impact — no major municipality in Metro Vancouver saw its crime severity index drop by as much in the last two years as Maple Ridge, and neither of Morden’s competitors for mayor are highlighting the issue in their opposition to him.
But that doesn’t mean his re-election will be smooth sailing. |  | “If you limit debate, that's where you get the animosity,” said former Liberal MP Dan Ruimy, who has put together a team called A Better Maple Ridge to try and defeat Morden.
Over the past four years, two councillors that were previously pro-Morden switched sides due to what they allege is an environment of bullying, believing the mayor and three councillors who support him use the code of conduct to limit debate and remove councillors from committees.
One of them took the city to court, while a different councillor has said she’s scared to speak publicly. “He hasn’t been listening,” said Corisa Bell, a former two-term councillor who is also running to replace Morden as an independent.
“There’s a lot of broken relationships in Maple Ridge … and you can’t get things done when you can’t even talk to each other.”
For his part, Morden says his opponents on council play “political games” and aren’t focused on the community. “My council … makes our decisions for our community, for our citizens first," he said.
Which may well be the case. As the incumbent, Morden certainly has the advantage of four years of accomplishments to run on.
But if a majority of voters decide they’re weary of another city hall that has become dominated by infighting, and if either Ruimy or Bell can become their main choice, it may not be Morden’s council for much longer. | | |  | | | 1. Surrey | | | In the wake of an avalanche of coverage over Doug McCallum's promise to build a 60,000-seat stadium in Surrey for football and hockey that's surrounded by a giant park, some people have asked, "Why are you giving this promise such coverage?" To that we would say: anytime the mayor of B.C.'s second-largest city makes such a grandiose promise, it deserves to be scrutinized — along with all of the questions it raises.
Read more | | |  | | | 3. Coquitlam | Can a community just refuse to hold a byelection and get away with it? Turns out you can — so long as there are plenty of extenuating circumstances, and by the time a judge makes a ruling it's too close to the general election for it to make any difference. At least that seems to be the takeaway from a ruling over Coquitlam's decision not to fill a council seat vacated last year. Read more in Tri-City News | | | | | |  | | | 4. Municipal Elections 2022 | The mayors of Vernon and Kitimat confirmed they would be running again, the mayor of Keremeos said goodbye, while in the Lower Mainland a number of interesting candidates officially put their name forward, including former solicitor general Kash Heed for Richmond council, and former longtime cabinet minister Rich Coleman — who spoke to CBC News about his decision to enter a new level of politics.
Listen to more | | | |  | | | 5. Pickleball | Seemingly every municipality has a slightly different pickleball controversy (enough that the New York Times is now on it). But few have been as long-running as in North Saanich, where despite council approving $3,000 for private security guards (yes, really) after a year of controversy and an apology from the mayor, the company that agreed to step in has stepped out, leaving the small community in the lurch. Read more in Victoria News | | | | | | 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. | | | |
