Reports are circulating that Victoria’s chief constable Fiona Wilson along with Elizabeth Cull, police board vice-chair, signed Mayor Marianne Alto’s nomination papers for the municipal election. Alto sits on the board for Victoria.
Redacted postings on the city website under the section ‘election candidates’ also show that five of the current councillors signed nomination documents supporting Alto.
Nominees for mayor or council need to be nominated by at least 25 nominators to be eligible.
As well, the so-called ‘Gang of Five’ of current councillors, also nominated each other to varying degrees as part of the nomination process.
To be very clear, there’s no wrongdoing or anything illegal in all these nominations.
It just seems the governance term ‘at arms-length’ takes on new meaning before the municipal election.
https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/alto-marianne-mayor-nomination-package-redacted