Welcome to North Saanich Community Voices
Community Announcement
September 4, 2026
New Elector Organization, North Saanich Strong, Formed to Bring Clarity and Transparency to Voters
A new elector organization, North Saanich Strong, has been formed to bring greater clarity and transparency to the 2026 municipal election. Founded by North Saanich citizens who believe the future of North Saanich should be shaped by its residents and by leaders who understand and respect the unique qualities that define North Saanich, North Saanich Strong is proud to announce its formation as an elector organization.
At the centre of North Saanich Strong is a set of principles that endorsed candidates believe should guide decisions about the future of the community: principled leadership, fiscal responsibility, housing that meets community needs, agriculture and food security and community led planning. Candidates share a commitment to those principles while retaining their individual perspectives and responsibilities as elected representatives.
Municipal elections are an important opportunity for residents to consider not only individual candidates and their experience, but also the values and approach to governance those candidates bring to public office. North Saanich Strong provides voters with another way to make those distinctions. “We believe voters deserve to know what candidates stand for,” said Susan Chandler, Authorized Principal. “Democracy works best when voters have meaningful information about the choices before them. Being transparent about shared principles gives residents another way to understand candidates and make informed decisions.”
North Saanich Strong believes democratic process benefits when political choices are clear, transparent and openly discussed. An elector organization is one of the ways candidates and voters can participate in that process. It allows candidates to say, “These are the principles we believe in, and we are prepared to stand behind them.” “We believe candidates should be prepared to state clearly what they believe in, what principles will guide their decisions and what kind of leadership they intend to provide,” said Chandler. “Our community is strongest when people are willing to listen to one another, explain their reasoning and be accountable for their decisions. This organization is about making those principles visible to voters.”
All new candidates seeking endorsement complete an application process that includes an interview and detailed questionnaire. Incumbents seeking endorsement complete the same process, with the additional review of their voting record to assess whether their actions in office are consistent with their previously stated campaign commitments and the principles of North Saanich Strong.
A positive choice for voters
North Saanich Strong endorses a group of independent, thoughtful candidates who bring their own ideas and perspectives. Its goal is not uniformity of opinion, but rather to support a council whose members can work together respectfully and effectively in the best interests of the community. Further details about the endorsements will be announced in the coming days.
North Saanich Strong believes that greater transparency about what candidates stand for is good for voters, good for candidates and good for democracy. When candidates are willing to clearly identify the principles they share, residents are better positioned to have meaningful conversations about the future of their community and to make informed choices at the ballot box.
Contact:
Susan McIntyre
North Saanich Strong
Preserving Important
Environmental and
Agricultural Values in North Saanich
May 2022
North
Saanich is considered one of the best rural residential communities in Canada
for a reason. Our 40 kilometers of marine coastline surround fertile
agricultural lands, forests and large lot neighbourhoods. Residents have
appreciated and enshrined the rural, marine and agricultural values so
prevalent in North Saanich in our Official Community Plans for decades, and its
uniqueness can be attributed to the long-term vision of so many who advocated
for preservation of these qualities.
The Capital Regional District’s
(CRD) Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) has further protected those values through
designating North Saanich as a rural rural-residential municipality. Among the RGS’s primary objectives is keeping urban settlement
compact and protecting the integrity of rural communities. The overarching intention of the RGS is to
reduce development pressures on the Saanich Peninsula and other rural areas “to
ensure that they remain strongly rooted in the agricultural…land base . . .
allowing the rural countryside and natural landscape to remain as a durable
fact of life in the Capital Region”.
But
our environmental and agricultural values are constantly under pressure from
development, and development interests have had an oversized influence on our
current Official Community Plan Review.
North
Saanich Community Voices, a group of concerned residents originally established
in 2014 to advocate for the preservation of these important rural values, is
once again stepping up to provide an important long-term perspective that is in
danger of being pushed aside by short-sighted development interests.
In support of the conversations we need to be having as a community as the OCP Review continues, we offer this site as a sort of clearing house for those perspectives which are more closely aligned with the unique rural identity so many North Saanich residents have come to appreciate about North Saanich.
We are including a small selection of articles in the Blog Archive from the 2014-15 era and 2021 that pertain to issues that are still timely.
Please take some time to read these perspectives and talk about them with your friends and neighbours, sign up for email updates, and help us shape an OCP that truly reflects the values of this community.
We can't do this without you.
Our Vision
We are a group of engaged citizens with a vision of North Saanich that respects our rural lifestyle, and includes protection of agricultural land and our natural amenities. We support long-term, sustainable and planned development as specified in the Regional Growth Strategy.
We advocate collaboration with our neighbours within the CRD to maximize the comparative advantages of each without detracting from their unique attributes.
Members include Bernadette Greene, Spring Harrison, Alan Osborne, Warren Schiewe, Lorrene Soellner, Jack Thornburgh, and Lydia Wingate.
We welcome comments, corrections and submitted articles that offer facts or informed opinion to help us all make better choices about the future of our community.
