Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins is seeking the B.C. Liberal Party nomination in the Esquimalt-Metchosin riding, and is a cinch to get it.
Desjardins confirmed Monday she expects to appear at a Liberal rally Wednesday as the B.C. Liberals’ candidate for the May 9 provincial election. “I really think Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals have the right approach in terms of how we’re going to succeed and move forward as a province,” she said in an interview.
She will consult with Esquimalt staff and council but plans to remain active for as long as she can in local politics after getting the nomination.
Desjardins said she may have to step aside as mayor during the campaign, through April and early May. But one councillor is already on leave and she said: “ We are a community on the move, we have a lot of things on our plate and I don’t want to see any of that drop off.
“I don’t want to leave my community without a strong voice to go forward on critical initiatives.”
After eight years as mayor, most of them also involved in regional government, she is the highest-profile candidate the B.C. Liberals have found in years for the traditional NDP seat. But the years of involvement with civic and regional governments mean she brings baggage to the contest.
Desjardins is closely associated with the lengthy, circuitous process used in the sewage treatment project. Authorities finally decided on McLaughlin Point in Esquimalt as the preferred site. But Desjardins led a council that unanimously voted against the required rezoning in 2014. She pitched it as a David-versus-Goliath fight against a regional board that “has trouble understanding ‘no.’ ”
That cost millions of dollars and forced two more years of study before the same site was selected last year as the obvious choice again.
This time around, Desjardins is chair of the CRD and a proponent of the project, saying the second version of the sewage-treatment project is different and better for Esquimalt. The design has been tweaked and the amenities being offered the township are different. Another attempt at rezoning was deemed necessary and the public hearing and council vote are coming up.
Desjardins is also immersed in the controversy over the suspension of Victoria Police Chief Frank Elsner. Desjardins and Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps are co-chairs of the police board and have been criticized for misleading the public over the circumstances. Desjardins originally denied there was an investigation into Elsner’s personal conduct. She later said a review found he was not in an inappropriate relationship, when the review concluded there was inappropriate conduct.
She filed an affidavit about a procedural point at a court hearing last year into the ongoing situation that a justice said was “dead wrong.”
Through her local career, she’s been an ardent advocate for Esquimalt, home to about a third of the riding’s population. She said Monday the township has been looked at as an underdog and has been underestimated, “but our community has really come forward. ... It’s really an up-and-coming community.”
The fight over sewage treatment showed the strength of the people, she said.
“We were able to stand out and say: ‘This plan isn’t good enough.’”
Desjardins is returning to work this week after taking time off to grieve the loss of her daughter, Genevieve, who was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago and died Jan. 9, at age 32.
Desjardins said her daughter always urged her to not hold back and “do what your passion directs you to do. ... Although the timing of everything is very compressed, I know she would support me in this.”
B.C. Liberals have won the seat once, in 2001, when Arnie Hamilton was part of the 77-2 rout. NDP MLA Maurine Karagianis has held it since 2005, but announced last year she is stepping down. Mitzi Dean, executive director of Pacific Centre Family Services, was acclaimed for the NDP in November. B.C. Greens have three people interested in running but they haven’t declared and no nomination meeting is set yet.
The open seat heightened interest in the redistributed riding (Vic West was subtracted and Metchosin added). Now a mayor has stepped up to make it even more of a focal point.
