Langford’s newest political organization announces two candidates for council

This story was originally published in The Westshore newsletter, June 18, 2022. 

What began as a Facebook group for concerned locals has become a bonafide political movement in Langford. On Thursday, Langford Now announced its first two endorsed candidates for city council: Mary Wagner and Colby Harder.

Langford Voters for Change, a Facebook group with 2,500 members, started in February 2021 for people to connect over changes in their neighbourhoods. Members started by sharing details about specific developments, encouraging people to phone in to city council meetings. Then, in April, a core group of them officially registered Langford Now as an elector organization. The Facebook group and Langford Now are not formally affiliated, though many Langford Now founders are active members of both.

Wagner is one of those founding members. Her decision to run for council began last November when she got a postcard from the city telling her about Langford Gateway: a full city block high-rise complex proposed for her neighbourhood. Her street of single-family, detached homes is near the highway but is surrounded by nothing higher than three storeys. So this 22-storey proposal was a shock. She wondered how a building of that height could be considered in Langford, a fast-growing but still relatively small city of 46,000 people.

The change happened, she found out, in August 2021 when council approved a new neighbourhood zone that prioritizes density and has no limit on how tall buildings can be. Before that, anything taller than six storeys was considered on a case-by-case basis as an exception to the rule.

“It was personal to me that [council] didn’t connect with any of us. And the way they did it in August when people were visiting family? It wasn’t even [covered] in the newspaper,” Wagner said. Langford Gateway hasn’t been approved, but a similar proposal called The Scene—with two towers at 24 and 18-storeys, plus a four-storey commercial building—was approved three months later and is now under construction.

Since that day in November, the UVic biology teacher with a PhD in biochemistry who grew up in Langford hasn’t missed a single council meeting. Listeners will often hear Wagner asking for more green spaces in the developments being considered.

“I have really seen firsthand how [council doesn’t] engage with the public. They don’t have anybody on staff doing surveys, they don’t run open houses; there’s a lot of things we can do, that council could do, to be more responsive to the community,” Wagner said. “They’re changing our community to what they think is best, but they’re not consulting and they’re not bringing on board the rest of the community.” One of her priorities would be to update the Official Community Plan, which has not had a fulsome review since it was created in 2008.

Council has hardly changed since the OCP was ratified—only Coun. Norma Stewart joined, filling Winnie Sifert’s seat—but the community has almost doubled in size, increasing by 24,000 people between 2006 and 2021. Amendments have been made to the OCP, such as the new community zone that passed in August 2021, but both Wagner and Harder say Langford residents haven’t been meaningfully consulted on the city’s vision.

“Mayor and council have been the same as long as I’ve been alive,” said 25-year-old Harder, the second candidate endorsed by Langford Now. “Langford needs fresh voices. And we need to have a mix of councillors who represent and reflect the demographics of our city.”

One of Harder’s campaign priorities is transportation equity, which looks at mobility throughout the city for people with disabilities and physical limitations. This one’s personal for her, since her sister lives with a disability caused by a car accident. She’s currently working on a master of geography focused on making communities walkable for aging populations and accessible for all.

Both candidates have seen Langford change exponentially over the last few years, and while they say the growth is good and needed, they feel it’s been thrust forward without community endorsement.

“It’s not a sprint to build the biggest city possible, as fast as possible. Let’s pace ourselves. It’s like a marathon—you want to have a plan. You want to have a strategy, you want to follow through on that plan, and then build a great city that works for everyone,” Wagner said.