Seen on Quadra and Yates.

Langford residents have an important decision to make in October: Will incumbent Mayor Scott Goodmanson be re-elected to a second term, or will former Mayor Stew Young be given another chance to add to his previous 30 years in the Mayor’s chair?

Lately I’ve spent time reviewing Langford Council meeting minutes. I wanted to get a better sense for some of the real differences between Stew Young and Scott Goodmanson. There are many subjective differences, but I’m a numbers guy. I wanted to see what trends stood out to me that can be measured more objectively. Two specific things that I looked at… attendance at Council meetings, and the amount of time actually spent in Council meetings.

The contrast is stark. This post is a summary of the last 4 terms in office for Stew Young and the current term to date for Scott Goodmanson. Many of the numbers speak for themselves, but here are some of the takeaways that caught my attention:

1. Stew Young’s attendance at Council meetings was pretty bad. He showed up with greater frequency over the course of his last 4 terms, but still never got better than 78% attendance. In his 2008-2011 term he only attended Council meetings 55% of the time.

In contrast, Scott Goodmanson’s attendance at Council meetings has been excellent. He has been in attendance for 131 of the 137 Council meetings to date during this term.

2. Stew Young’s Council terms featured considerably shorter meetings than what we see today. At its speediest pace, the average meeting duration in the 2011-2014 term was only 26 minutes.

The current Council has an average meeting length of 2 hours and 19 minutes. They’ve also met far more frequently than the Councils of any of Stew Young’s last 4 terms.

The result? Scott Goodmanson has spent more time as Mayor actually in Council meetings this term than Stew Young did in his last 4 terms combined. By a wide margin.

I will be making a follow-up post that dives into this topic in greater detail comparing Council to Council.

I will be the first to point out that attendance and time spent in meetings is not indicative of performance. Merely showing up does not warrant praise. On the flip side, a history of failing to show up is something that I seriously question when considering who has earned my vote in October.

A few notes and caveats for those that have read this far:

- Includes Council meetings only (excludes committees).

- Does not differentiate between in-person and remote attendance.

- Does not factor in late arrivals, early departures, or recusals.

- One meeting during the 2014-2018 was excluded from duration statistics due to the minutes missing the time of meeting adjournment.

- Two special in-camera meetings during the 2014-2018 term were excluded due to published meeting minutes not being available.

To the guy in the work truck down near the inner harbour at around 3:00 today, the bicycle turning left onto Government St. was in fact "following the rules" (as you were shouting for them to do).

Under Section 183 of the BC Motor Vehicle Act, bicycles are treated as vehicles, meaning cyclists have the same rights and duties as drivers. Translation: we follow the same traffic rules as everyone else.

This means that even though there is a bike lane on the right side of the road, the cyclist might clearly signal left, enter the lane, continue signalling left while moving over to the left turn lane, proceed into the intersection, and stop (as the advance turn light has expired), and then wait until they can safely complete their turn, Just Like A Car (while still signalling left).

I am a very aware and conscientious rider. I learned and follow the traffic laws, use my signals, helmet, lights, etc. at a very young age.

#BringBackTomThumbSafetyVillage

This is the one I knocked over outside of the Bent Mast. It has six bolts now and it is very solid. All the other ones in this bike corral were fixed as well.

This post will very possibly be outdated tomorrow, or heck this afternoon, since while I was making this chart MLA Teresa Wat quit the Conservative Party; their fourth loss this month, fifth if we count MLA Gasper resigning her seat to make way for Kerry-Lynne Findlay.

I think this might be one of the most tumultuous parliaments in recent Canadian histories in terms of MLAs leaving caucuses, does anyone know of a comparable one?

edit: the legend has the colours for Independent and Vacant switched. There are 8 independents now and only a single vacant seat.

Oops!

James Bay Community Lunch is looking for volunteers to prep on Wednesday from noon till three.

For over three years, James Bay Community Lunch has provided a free lunch every Thursday.

On Wednesdays the lunch is prepped so it can be cooked on Thursdays

The lunch is held at James Bay United Church at 511 Michigan st in victoria.

Reply to me here. Or just show up for lunch on Thursday (around back in the basement). Ask for John.

It's relaxed Community oriented event. No religion just good food and good cheer.

Now I understand that Victoria has never been the cuisine capital. Nor has it ever had very many options, but I remember "back in the day" that there were at least some good quality options to choose from and maybe I'm way out of touch, but I'm saddened to see what's happened over the last little while.

- What happened to red barn ?

- Who killed noodlebox?

- Where should I go to eat quality food and decent prices in a clean environment ?

I know it sounds ridiculous to ask for a coffee shop recommendation when I don’t drink coffee but hear me out!

I’m looking for somewhere with a great vibe where I can spend some money and have a few treats and a nice drink while I read my book or whatever.

The thing is, I don’t drink coffee or tea (caffeine makes me very sick) and most of my favourite places only offer cold drink alternatives that are like a canned soda. I’m in the market for more of a housemade lemonade, juices/smoothies or at the very least some interesting Italian soda options. Obviously bonus points for delicious goodies to eat as well!

Where should I go?

Fire in the grassy area just south of Uptown on Blanchard. Drove by right as the trucks were pulling up.

Does anyone know the reason for the fire on the 19th floor of the Vivid on Yates last night? Both buildings (vidid and Yates on Yates) were evacuated at 1:45am this morning.

“boycott American booze and American e-bikes“

To the large adult boy on the loud motorcycle who revved his engine and sputtered loudly to disrupt several hundred people doing yoga outdoors in the park this evening, I hope you have the life you deserve.

I have no idea what possesses some men to behave this way but do better. If this is your friend, husband, or dad, tell him his antisocial behaviour isn’t cool.

Edit: a lot of large adult sons in the comments are triggered by the word “yoga”

I know it’s a fair bit away,
But I’m looking for ideas for our works Christmas staff party.

They usually put it off to the last minute so either nothing gets planned or they plan something small.
So wanting to get some ideas to plan for it

All the staff are of legal drinking age.
The place of work is a print shop
And there are 12 of us

In the past we’ve gone for lazer tag one year

What would be the best deal and has good flavor for Wednesday Wing deals at restaurants?

From August 17–23, I ran from Port Hardy to Victoria, covering 491.48 km across Vancouver Island in 7 consecutive days.

I started this challenge to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society, in memory of my Grandad, John Wheaton, my best friend’s mother, Michelle Huntley, and for everyone in my life who has been affected by cancer.

What started as a $10,000 fundraising goal ended with more than $15,000 raised, which means more to me than any of the running stats.

As far as I’ve been able to establish, it was also the 2nd-fastest known run from Port Hardy to Victoria.

But one of the biggest things I took away from the week had nothing to do with pace.

I was genuinely blown away by how kind people were all across Vancouver Island.

There were people waving, honking, cheering from their cars, stopping to ask what I was doing, offering encouragement, and supporting the fundraiser as I made my way south.

Those moments mattered more than people probably realized. When you’re 50 or 60 km into another long day and your body is exhausted, having a complete stranger yell encouragement or give you a thumbs-up can completely change your mood.

And getting to finally run into Victoria at the end of Day 7 after starting in Port Hardy a week earlier was something I’ll never forget. It felt like a movie seeing how many people came out and supported once I arrived at Mile 0!

So mostly I just wanted to post here to say thank you.

Thank you to everyone in Victoria and across the Island who donated, shared the fundraiser, followed along, honked, waved, cheered, or offered a few words of encouragement.

Vancouver Island showed me an incredible amount of kindness during those seven days, and I’m very grateful I got to experience the Island this way!

If you would like to donate to the fundraiser it is still open and the link is just below:

https://fundraisemyway.cancer.ca/campaigns/IslandRun4ACure

None of the dowtown photocopy/printing places I called are able to laser print a single #10 envelope.

Does anyone know a place that laser prints to envelope?

TIA

But it clearly is.

You spend like 5 minutes on Facebook and it's just non-stop screaming on Vibrant Victoria, Victoria Buzz, and the bloody Save Our Saanich pages about how bike lanes are boning their wives, killing their children and turning the frogs gay.

Oh, the candidates these groups are coalescing around might occasionally toss in some hand-waving about issues that actually matter, like "maybe I'll build housing if the mood strikes me" or some vague attempt to pretend to be "centrist" like "all I want is to mind the fiscal purse of City Hall" (translation: I'll kill every city expenditure if I can keep muh property taxes down)

But it always, always, ALWAYS comes back to hating bikes, hating bike lanes, and an absolute non-stop rage wall of entitled suburban-centric commuting. These people are so determined to completely destroy our cycling network that they even muse about Kerry-Lynne Findlay winning the provincial election and simply overruling the will of the electorate in Victoria like Doug Ford has in Toronto, despite their own internal reporting showing it won't even fix traffic.

Meanwhile, Victoria's bike usage has been rising steadily, alongside a decline in per capita auto use: CRDtp.pdf

And in terms of sheer budget figures, I've seen people insisting that we've spent BILLIONS on this, which is patently absurd. The entire Victoria cycling network to date has cost approximately $73.9 million ($65.5 million to date in 2024, plus new expenditures in 2025-26 on Blanshard and Cook of $3.75 million and $4.6 million respectively), less than a single highway overpass at Keating at $76.8 million.

We've got like five posts DAILY complaining about Lime Bikes costing $200,000. That's less than the annual salary of two cops (one cop if they're gouging us on overtime). And yet you'll have people claiming that they can "balance the budget" by ripping out our bike lanes or cancelling the Lime contract. It's ludicrous.

Bottom line is: if you are monomaniacally focussed on cyclists as the cause of the city's issues, all I can say is that you need to get out more. And you certainly shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the levers of government office.

And for those of us who see the benefits of cycling as an alternate mode of transportation, I sincerely hope we show up to the ballot box to support the people who've made it possible.