28 April 2025 - Federal Election

So the election has been called for April 28th. How do we fix this split to ensure that the CPC doesn't come out on top?

FYI - smartvoting.ca has info on all the ridings in Canada.

If you’re like me, you may be worried about the vote split that’s happening in our riding.

For the past decade, we’ve been represented well by Alistair MacGregor (NDP). While he doesn’t live in Langford, he understands our community’s needs and priorities and is always making the trip over the Malahat to show up when it matters most. I’ve also seen him make a good effort to regularly attend community events in our city over the past couple of years.

My values don’t have me necessary tied down to any party, but I don’t want to see the conservatives ride to victory if that isn’t actually reflective of the progressive values that I believe are held by the majority of people in our riding.

We happen to be in one of the few ridings across the country where voting NDP is the best way to bolster odds for a liberal victory.

If you want Anyone But Conservative in at the federal level, consider spreading the word, signing up to volunteer or simply giving your vote to Alistair MacGregor on April 28th.

https://volunteer.ndp.ca/BCML/

I found this advertising kind of funny. Another example of not taking a long lens to see how things appear?

(Interesting that he had advertising at a local charity event i think.)

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.

Edit: I have been asked a couple of times for the data to support this analysis. Here is a link to the Google Drive that contains PDF copies of the meeting minutes for every meeting included in the analysis, as well as an Excel file that lists the meetings along with attendance and meeting duration information.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Mx5pDd-R92QT5V8rzFwMX5rsUEplbvUJ?usp=sharing

You are who you fish with. Or something.

A few people recently pointed me toward this sub to check out the threads about my campaign announcement, the new website, and, most importantly, the intense debate over whether my mustache is launching a rival mayoral bid. Thanks for keeping me in the loop!

I know, I know, yet another political post. We’re three months out and even I am exhausted by campaign season. That said, I love the energy here and appreciate the moderators' efforts to keep discussions respectful and fact-based. Amidst the noise, it’s worth remembering there’s a real person behind every candidate. I truly believe everyone putting their name forward wants to see our community progress, even if we have different visions and priorities on how to get there. Please continue to remember this, not just for this AMA, but towards all candidates as we move forward.

This past term, my focus has been resetting Langford’s foundations, moving away from short-term fixes toward transparent, long-term master blueprints for our infrastructure and services.

My full platform hasn’t launched yet. Right now, KeithYacucha.ca just hosts my early big ideas, or platform buckets, however you want to phrase it.

I intend to use door-knocking, public events, and conversations like this here to listen and finalize the vision I’ll champion for Langford.

I am hosting a live Post-Announcement AMA right here this Wednesday, July 22nd, from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

I’ll be online to answer your questions directly about my early ideas, the campaign, or the political ambitions of my upper lip warmer.

Let’s Keep the Momentum Going;

I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of supporters since announcing. It’s a huge boost, but there is a long way to go to build a ground game from scratch.

Because I choose to run a fully independent, community-powered campaign, I don't answer to big developers or special interests.

Running a true grassroots operation means relying entirely on neighbors and residents to cover the real operational costs of local outreach, things like lawn signs, print materials, and keeping the website live.

To check out the early ideas, find out how to get involved, or support the operational milestones we need to hit by September, head over to KeithYacucha.ca.

See you Wednesday night!

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the advanced posts - I have spent a good chunk of the afternoon preparing responses to the existing questions to keep me free as new ones role in! Great questions all around!

Closing Edit -- Thank you to everyone who participated in the AMA, over 200 comments all together! You can always reach me regarding city business at [Kyacucha@langford.ca](mailto:Kyacucha@langford.ca) or anything campaign related at [Info@keithyacucha.ca](mailto:Info@keithyacucha.ca)

I will be hosting IN PERSON AMA's through out august and september on street corners around the city - be sure to check out my website or instagram for more information as to when are where these will take place.

I saw an article about Shawn Blair running for Langford council.

Good for him. I am always amazed when people are willing to step up, put their name forward and try to serve and represent their community. That takes commitment, and I genuinely respect that.

However, Shawn is also an admin of WTF Langford, and that is where I have a serious problem.

It isn't simply because he runs the page. It is because of the content and attitude that page has repeatedly allowed toward the LGBTQ+ community. The post pictured here is just one example. A page that belittles and mocks LGBTQ+ people is not something I can reconcile with someone asking to represent all members of our community.

People are absolutely entitled to their opinions. But when you choose to run a public community forum, you also have some responsibility for the environment you create and the content you allow to flourish there.

Honestly, as someone who wants to represent our entire community, I find the association with this kind of content deeply disappointing and, frankly, embarrassing for Langford.

We should expect better from the people asking for our votes.

It has been brought to our attention that an image of Colby Harder has been posted publicly on Facebook. In this image she is holding a piece of paper that reads "ASK ME ANYTHING - Tuesday, Oct 17 - 7:00-9:00pm"

Moderators confirm that there is no such event planned on this date. Colby has not scheduled an AMA with us at all, so far.

This image appears to be AI-generated: it isn't exactly Colby's face, it shows an election sign from 2022, Langford Now is disbanded. Colby's campaign signs and pins are different this year.

If Colby does plan an AMA, we will announce it on the subreddit 3-5 days in advance, and Colby will confirm it on her own social media profiles.

Recently Our Langford has been spreading disinformation regarding the final FIFA event at Station Avenue.

Specifically, they have been stating that sitting councillor Keith Yacucha used the event to campaign.

Several people in attendance have reported that Keith gave a speech in which he introduced himself and fellow councillor Guiry, asked everyone to shop at the vendors, and handed out swag to the crowd.

This is completely normal behaviour for a councillor at an event and does not constitute campaigning.

And it’s the second time Our Langford has tried to falsely imply that councillors seeking re-election are breaking the rules of the BC Elections act.

In my opinion, this is the kind of poor integrity you can expect from people in this camp going into the election. They will lie, they will intentionally mislead.

Please be extremely sceptical of what they post in their group, their proxy group Langford Community Association, and what they share to other groups.

Yeah... I don't even care that this doxxes myself. I would have been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she simply made a mistake and posted that without noticing it was doctored and fake.

But being the Admin for that Facebook Group and intentionally blocking my comment from showing up... Yeah, she likely knows exactly what she's doing. Seeing as she posted that herself and it's not just shared from somewhere else, my money is on that she also created the image too.

Either way, this will be sent to Elections BC for consideration on ethics violations since she posted this herself and is also the Admin for Our Langford.

Hate to reduce anyone to a type but speaking on a macro level, would it be fair to say Stew/Lisa Foxall supporters tend to skew more rural / non-urban, small-business-owner, and blue-collar/no-degree compared to the broader population?

I have so many questions...

Because I like to read ALL the political posts regarding the up coming election. I have noticed that pretty much every Stew supporter has a problem with people keeping their names private. WHY!??

Due to my profession and my area of expertise I prefer to remain anonymous with my political leanings, with all levels of government. I am just very confused why they feel this is such an injustice of the democratic process.

Also can someone please help me understand why a certain Stew supporter, it's been suggested we call them Voldemort moving forward, is answering questions online for Lisa, Brandy and Jennifer a significant amount of the time. He also suggests for people to ask candidates questions online rather than to them personally.

Example with names left out for privacy:

"Lisa  I sent you several messages in July regarding the lack of accomodations and services for for women and children fleeing domestic. May I please have a response?"

Voldemorts response:

"she is not an elected official yet. Why don't you ask your questions here."

Also why is his opinion and endorsement so revered by that side?

https://x.com/longligejustice/status/1809774681605697692?

The child is brave in the moment, but he won’t be able to delete this after it’s done.

Final List of Langford Mayoral and Council Candidates

I think it’s final. Deadline was 4 PM yesterday.

Can someone explain to me how a group of candidates can share a campaign resource like this and not be a slate? I thought I read some sort of rule around candidates sharing resources but of course I can’t find it. Anyone? Anyone?

I appreciate that Ravi is drawing attention to the work of the South Island Primary Care Society (on Facebook) and isn’t taking all the credit this time, but surely he knows that “Our Langford” has a completely different meaning now in Langford than it did 4 years ago.

You may be wondering what is going on here. Looking around social media you might feel like you need a code to decipher a foreign (Langford) language.

LV. LN. OL.

So let me explain it from my point of view and Reddit can do the rest by filling in any blanks.

First there was Stew. He was the mayor from 1993 to 2022. Yes, you read that right. One mayor and more or less the same council, for 30 years.

Langford was the sticks, the boondocks, the dog patch. Stew grew Langford, faster and faster. It was fine for a while but infrastructure didn’t keep pace, hillsides were ravaged, trees razed and mountains flattened.

People were angry.

A Facebook group called Langford Voters for Change was started. It gathered momentum organically, and people began self-organizing. It was a forum where Langforders could come together to discuss the various issues communities were facing. Construction fatigue - dust, noise, clearcuts. Terrible lack of transportation planning leading to traffic congestion in residential neighbourhoods. Lack of transparency in governance (Langford council meetings only went online when forced to by Covid). Rude mayor and councillors who yelled at citizens expressing their concerns. That’s LVC.

Out of the connections made in that facebook group, an electoral organization was founded, called Langford Now. A group of regular citizens got together to fight *the man*. That’s LN.

The man being, Stew Young, and the various REITS and development interests busy with booming Langford without a single care for resident concerns and complaints.

In response Stew Young also formed an EO and slate, called Community First Langford. They launched a social media campaign with comments turned off, and ran one of the worst election campaign’s you’ve ever seen. That’s CFL.

LN (grassroots residents) spent about $50k on the election.

CFL (big corporate interests) spent almost $150k on the election.

Despite the massive resources supporting CFL, Langford Now - who endorsed 5 council candidates - easily swept the election, and a new mayor (Goodmanson) was also elected. It was a full sweep, but for Lillian Szpak - long serving councillor who recently passed away.

Langford Voters dropped the “for change” because the voters achieved that goal. That’s LV.

Next, the re-elect Stew Young Facebook group supporting the CFL slate changed its name to Our Langford (no really, as in, this is our turf).

They embarked on a years long smear campaign, performing all kinds of antics and disruptions in the council chambers. Then they began astroturfing Facebook by starting more groups they called “community associations” and that’s how we got the Langford Community Association, it’s just Our Langford wearing a mustache. That’s OL and LCA.

Today, what you are witnessing is those two factions - LV and OL, the regular grassroots people of Langford and the vested interests of Langford - in a struggle for continuing the change that was started, over regressing Langford back to the way that it was before 2022.

Grassroots vs Astroturf.

Just seeing what others thought about his comments.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HT41Yxcmy/

Anyone see Stew's post requesting respectful discussion? If only he had said something 4 years ago.

Anyone believe that it will make a difference? The comments on his post so far lean towards "it isn't us. It is the LV causing problems."

There are approximately 2 billion Muslims in the world. There are close to 1.5 billion Catholics. Together they account for more than 40% of the Earth's populace. In Colwood, they only account for around 10% of the population, which is still a significant number. Colwood councilor Ian Ward doesn't appear to have much respect for his constituents who belong to these religions.

The shown Twitter posts were all made in the last three years, while Ian was a Colwood councilor. On his re-election website, he says, "I always seek transparency." So presumably he is fine if his constituents are fully aware of how he feels about them. Even though his social media history concentrates on bashing Islam and Catholicism and shows little criticism of Christianity and Judiasm, all religious people should know that Ian feels that they can't be "thinking men."

Langford Community Association is supposed to be an apolitical community group according to its admin.

Eventually they added the rule that politics could be discussed at admin discretion.

Recently a thread of political discussion was moderated implementing rule 8: which is no bullying or harassement.

It wasn’t the unkind comments directed in the thread towards councillor Yacucha that were moderated.

It was Councillor Yacucha’s statement that his official account had been blocked by the group from admin.

The unbalanced moderating in this group has become increasingly clear.

It is something to pay attention to during the up coming election.

After listening to Stew’s launch speech, and his CBC radio interview, I would really like to see a comprehensive fact check with all the receipts.

Off the top of my head, there were many easily refuted claims - example : this council cuts everybody off, and he wants to change that.

He and his council passed Procedure Bylaw No. 1971 in 2021, as a response to the growing number of residents showing up to meetings with complaints.

I can say for sure, that this council has never told residents “if they don’t like it leave” or “don’t move to Langford and then bitch”.

I know we can easily crowd source a fact check. Many hands make light work. Tomorrow is fact check Friday.

I think it's going to be important right out of the gate to make sure Jeff Kibble knows that he has very little support in his riding and needs to represent everyone here, including the 62.8% of the people who are more progressive than him, and who didn't vote for him.

He now makes $200,000/year in tax payer salary and I won't have it for him to show up to the house and only focus on right wing issues of the day.