Spending

If elected, my first six months would focus on greater discipline and transparency in municipal spending.

I would press for a line-by-line review of City expenditures, particularly discretionary spending, consultants, contracts and projects that could be reduced, deferred or eliminated without compromising essential services.

For major new projects, I would want Council to see the complete financial picture before making a commitment — not just the initial cost, but financing, operating, maintenance and eventual replacement costs. In simple terms: who pays,

how much, for how long, and what happens if the assumptions prove wrong?

I would also seek a six-month financial and accountability report identifying major expenditures, debt obligations, long-term commitments and significant future financial risks in plain language.

GROWTH

Langford has grown very rapidly in recent years, and I believe we have reached a point where infrastructure and essential services have not kept pace with that growth. 

Transportation, medical services, schools, and other community infrastructure are already under pressure.

 Growth itself is not the issue. The question is whether we are growing faster than our ability to provide the services and infrastructure residents need. 

Development should be better coordinated with infrastructure, and the costs of growth should be fairly shared among existing taxpayers, new taxpayers, developers and senior governments.

Community Safety

If elected, I would focus on visible, preventative measures that make commercial districts and public spaces safer for residents, employees and businesses.

First, I would work with the West Shore RCMP and Langford’s Community Safety and Bylaw Enforcement teams to identify specific locations and times where additional visible patrols are needed, and ensure those resources are being used effectively.

Second, I would work with businesses to expand practical security measures, including improved lighting, appropriate security cameras and better coordination between businesses, bylaw officers and police. Where appropriate, I would support incentives or partnerships that help smaller businesses improve security.

Third, I would examine public spaces from a safety-design perspective: lighting, sight lines, pedestrian routes, parking areas and areas where vandalism or disorder is recurring. Prevention is preferable to simply responding after an incident occurs.

Finally, I would want Council to measure results. We should regularly examine crime and bylaw data, response requirements and feedback from residents and businesses, and adjust our approach accordingly.

Public safety requires more than simply spending more money. It requires putting the right resources in the right places, working with businesses and police, and following the results.

Transportation

Transportation is a regional issue. People, goods and services do not stop at municipal boundaries, so neither should transportation planning.

If elected, I would work with neighbouring municipalities, the CRD, BC Transit and the Province to establish clear regional priorities for improving transportation throughout Greater Victoria.

I strongly support pursuing the restoration of passenger rail between Langford and Victoria. The existing rail corridor is a major regional asset, and the current feasibility work provides an opportunity to finally determine whether it can become a practical transportation alternative.

 I would advocate for senior-government funding for the capital costs, rather than placing a major new financial burden on Langford taxpayers.

I would also support better coordination of major road and transit projects, with particular attention to the West Shore–Victoria corridors, reliable transit, commercial traffic and connections between different modes of transportation.

Langford should be an active participant in the CRD’s Regional Transportation Plan and advocate strongly for the West Shore’s transportation needs.

My approach would be cooperative but results-oriented: work with regional partners, establish measurable priorities, pursue provincial and federal funding, and ensure Langford taxpayers and businesses receive a fair return on regional transportation investments.

Business experience: A manufacturer in Canada for years – furniture, storage systems, mattresses. Worked as a contractor with builders – Heatherbrae and Portage West.  (80 beds and folding tables in former Dominion hotel – now “Dominion Rocket”, 35 beds in Portage West)

Academic:   B.A. University of Victoria, M.A. McMaster University - Specialty in Social Anthropology (what makes societies tick and communities work), Computer Science at University of Toronto. 

Employees from all over the world: Vietnam, Philippines, Africa, China, Latin America, England, Europe, etc.

Legal Experience: Helping individuals with complaints against contractors, ICBC, towing companies, and family court procedures, plus precedent setting action against the municipality of View Royal, with personal agent representation in courtrooms for all of these.

Media experience: Articles written for The Martlet, UVIC student newspaper, Photography for the Times/Colonist.

Languages: English plus conversational French and Spanish.

Creative Design – Storage systems, furniture, business concepts and marketing.

Hobbies: Boating, Latin Dance, Photography, Classic Car Restoration.

Grounded - Not a student, not a bureaucrat. A business owner, employer, and consultant.

Personal History & Family:  Born and raised in Langford. Lived here most of my life. Post- secondary education in Victoria, Toronto and Hamilton. Four children, two still minors. All delightful! 

Manufacturer: These days, when everything comes in a box from Amazon, manufactured in China or Vietnam, Canadian manufacturers are a rare and endangered species. 

Over a number of decades, I’ve built businesses that have produced real and valuable goods right here in Canada, and employed quite a number and variety of people in the process.

Personal Attributes: Like my mum and dad, I have always been very open and very personable. As a rule, I get along with everyone, even those who have radically different views. Exceptions can be people who are forcefully or habitually inclined to aggression or extreme rudeness. Even those I often have considerable patience for. 

This does not mean I won’t stand my ground. I have famously –sometimes a bit controversially - stood my ground against a number of powerful opponents, and will do so again if it is called for. I do suspect it may be called for from time to time in the role of a councillor in Langford. 

A few years back, as a sort of semi-retirement hobby, my dad had a column in the local paper here in Langford, the Goldstream Gazette. He began his writing career long ago, writing for the Cowichan Leader in Duncan as a very young man, but signed up with the air force at the outbreak of WWII. He was assigned to RAF Coastal Command, and spent the war years mostly in Ceylon – now Sri Lanka. 

When the war ended, he attended UBC, but returned to Victoria and took employment with the Daily Colonist as a journalist. He developed a syndicated chatty newspaper column that gained a good degree of popularity across B.C. and beyond (All Aboard with G.E. Mortimore). 

He joined the editorial staff of the Globe and Mail in Toronto in the 60’s, and later studied for his PhD., changing careers to become a university professor. Someone told him there were no PhD’s driving cabs. That was then. 

Always a great friend of working folks and of our native peoples, he won a National Newspaper Award for a series he wrote entitled “The Strangers”, about the mistreatment and plight of our First Nations. He contributed to radio shows and other media on a wide range of topics, including politics and social issues, and advocated for better wages for Canadian labourers and police officers. 

As a result of his career, I was exposed to many unusual things, along with some interesting people. The open character this led me to develop, and these experiences as a whole, have stood me in good stead in business – and likely will do so in politics, if I am elected.