Open Victoria is a “slate”, which is kind of like the municipal equivalent of a political party except it is a much looser organization. They’ve “endorsed” Paul Brown for mayor, and Linda Lisa McGrew, Aaron Hall and Sukhi Lalli for council. Ross Crockford, one of the main forces behind saving the Johnson Street Bridge, is their communications advisor (it was widely speculated that he would run for mayor if the borrowing referendum failed). Bernard von Schulmann, who writes the Victoria Vision blog, is Paul Brown’s campaign manager.

As a slate, the candidates can have whatever policies they want, but they’ve decided to emphasize the theme of open government. I’m a big supporter of open government. But it appears that these four candidates, and therefore the slate, is right wing:

• Paul Brown is obviously the right-wing candidate for mayor. He’s an accountant and his main messaging is about cutting expenses.
• Although I love to read Bernard von Schulmann’s blog, his posts show an obvious right-wing bias.
• All three candidates for council are small business owners, which tend to only run for council when they think things have gone too far left (otherwise they’re busy running their businesses).
• Linda Lisa McGrew appears to be one of those financially-conservative Greens.

It appears that their idea of open government is opening up the budget so they can find all that waste. Just like Rob Ford in Toronto. I won’t be voting for any of them.