Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne launched his re-election campaign Sept. 18 by offering support for the incumbents seeking to retain their council seats, promising the crowd of around 100 supporters he’ll keep pushing the Sunshine Coast Regional District board to change its approach on the water issue, and dismissing critics as “the party of self-interest.”
Incumbent councillors Doug Wright and Alice Lutes spoke in support of Milne and their own re-election efforts and Milne, in turn, said: “I am strongly favouring and supporting every single incumbent who wants to run again for their position.” Incumbents Mike Shanks and Darren Inkster were also in the audience.
Milne said water is “undoubtedly the number one issue” of the campaign, and said some members of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board were openly hostile to Sechelt’s effort to make storage and supply the top priorities of the water strategy.
He drew a round of applause by promising a Sechelt council under his leadership would continue to work to get the SCRD to change direction on water.
“This council has been pushing for water supply, we understand it’s the number one issue and we’ll push forward on that as fast as we can.”
Milne also highlighted increasing the stock of affordable housing, managing spending responsibly and ensuring transparency and creating “an economy that works for everybody – not just a few” as key platform planks.
He pointed to the increase in business licences and building permits under the current council as evidence that Sechelt is doing well under his leadership. “Business thrives when government is managed well by people who actually understand government and understand its limitations,” he said.
Milne said an effective council is made up of people with character and “strong values” that doesn’t cater to special interests.
“There is in this community a small network that has self interest at stake… They emerged in 2011 with a vengeance under the banner For a Better Sechelt (FABS),” he said. “They brought two things into local government that we’ve never seen before: lots of money and negative advertising.”
Milne claimed there’s a direct link between what happened in 2011 and what’s been happening in the run-up to this year’s campaign with the anonymous third-party group Sechelt Deserves Better, which he dismissed as “Twelve proud citizens … so proud that they’re ashamed to give you their names,” and “a virulent, toxic little cell of six to seven names” active on social media.
Milne wrapped up the launch by referencing his campaign tagline “Keep the Change,” urging supporters to work to get the vote out to keep “the changes that took chaos and turbulence … into the kind of routine, solid and measured government we have.”
Milne’s campaign website is mayormilne.ca.
