Do your homework before casting your ballot, you'll pay for it

I’ve been keeping a jaundiced eye on Nanaimo civic politics for parts of five decades and can’t help but feel there’s never been another election like this one.

We have a good group of highly-qualified candidates in the race and some of them may very well deserve to get elected. That would translate into some of the existing councillors not making the final cut.

With 29 candidates for city council and four for mayor there appears to be more than one level of candidates. One part of that group knows what they are doing and the other is without a single clue. They were ill prepared and did not do their homework on what was involved. Out of kindness, never call them stupid, lack of knowledge is not stupidity.

I talked to a candidate about his platform and he replied he didn’t need one, he’d simply go to council meetings to vote on the issues. A number responded they had no budget for a campaign, they were depending on people to vote for them. An election campaign is essentially a job interview with a projected $275,000 salary package over four years. Not being prepared to simply supply ideas about what they would like to contribute, and submit a photo is simply too much.

It's really slim pickens after the first batch that includes about half of the candidates.

There’s one group which claims it’s not running a slate but is acting like it – unofficial slate, no spokesperson, representing anti-government-mandate policy.

One of the individuals told me he was protective of his privacy and didn’t want information about him in the public eye. I know it’s a secret ballot but . . .

Though unidentified as part of a group, at least five candidates’ nomination forms show they are cross-nominations, apparently as part of a group. They don’t have a group name as such but their agenda is to do away with government mandates – no more rules.

The group includes mayoral candidate Natasha Brown. You can check out the posted nomination forms to see who took part in the nomination party. They don’t have a platform I can find but that doesn’t matter, they want to use the Nanaimo election as a platform for issues nothing to do with Nanaimo – trucker convoys, mandatory vaccinations, and on. And they say they have no money to conduct campaigns. Great strategy.

So, dear readers, focus at the top of the pile, those candidates who know what they are doing and would bring a positive impact to Nanaimo City Council. You have a little more than two weeks to check them out to find out if they are real or imaginary.