Wim Owe’s letter, Aggressive tactics threaten to undermine will of Saanich voters, is filled with inaccuracies and assumptions that he presents as facts.
He wrongly assumes that the approximately 15,000 (his estimate) who voted for the current slate of candidates in 2022 unanimously voted for more housing. Voters have many reasons to vote for a candidate, not all of which necessarily align with the candidate's position on particular issues. Furthermore, approximately four times as many people didn’t vote in the election. There is no way to know which way they would have leaned on the housing issue. At best, Owe can claim to speak for about 16 per cent of Saanich voters.
One thing conspicuously absent from the letter is any mention of the word “affordable.” It is simply advocating to ‘build! build! build!’, something that sounds like the mantra espoused by the development lobby.
It is the development lobby that is working aggressively behind closed doors with every level of government to encourage high-density, high-end housing at the expense of affordable housing. Part of their strategy is to propose means and ways to restrict and obfuscate opportunities for the public to oppose them.
There's the real threat to democracy.
M. Laplante
