Duncan - In the oncoming civic elections the voter's choices are between maintaining local sovereignty or surrendering it to a provincial ideology negligent of local considerations, often contrary to the interests of local voters.
Take the North Cowichan/Duncan city amalgamation issue. If the voters of either approve an expenditure of a study, Victoria will likely try to rubber-stamp it as a done deal because it would prefer to tell one municipality a "no" to any reasonable request than to face a negotiation with two - as in provincial share of local police services. The B.C. government ideology offloads such costs to force local business to consider hiring security.In both Duncan and North Cowichan the incumbent mayors each face challenges. Replacing one or both will likely reduce the stability between both and the CVRD. Such would be due to the distraction of the replacement's particular issues over each incumbent's long range visions adopted from voter concerns.A similar case applies for the incumbents in Glenora and Cowichan Bay.Both being returned will assure that any attempts from Duncan city to absorb one or both will not be at a disadvantage to those district taxpayers.These incumbents have made an effort in protecting the interestsof their local voters. A value we need in our Valley in the face of federal and provincial efforts to offload on the backs of local taxpayers.Since the 20 per cent corporate giveaway our local needs have suffered. That fiscal hole was the excuse to neglect our local children's educational needs and to embezzle our local school district sovereignty.Dee Shoolingin Duncan