Less than a month from now, Victorians will vote for mayor and council. There are 10 candidates for mayor and 29 for council.
Perhaps the best that can be said about this flood of candidates is that citizen interest in the political process is robust. Sadly, few of these candidates — except the incumbents — have name recognition or political experience. Worse, few if any are going to campaign on the issues that genuinely matter to the future of our city. Let me explain.
We are living at the edge of an inflection point in human history, a time of significant change. The smoke from forest fires that enveloped our city — and so many others — this summer was a visceral reminder that climate change is real, it is happening now, and we are not immune to its effects.
Radically advanced robotics and artificial intelligence are re-shaping the employment landscape worldwide, but they are doing more than that; they are changing the ways in which humans interact with each other and the world around us. As a bona fide technology hub (albeit not so much in robotics or AI), this could be an opportunity for Victoria, but there is no strategy to pursue it. And so the opportunity might well become a threat.
From now until election day, you can expect to hear much talk about parking, bike lanes and “million-dollar condos” versus affordable housing. These issues are real enough and yet they also seem parochial, too small to define the conversation about the path Victoria is travelling. Each of them is most properly cast as an objective that, if approached intelligently, would support the realization of something greater: A city that is resilient in the face of change, a city that excels at pattern recognition and the seizing of opportunity, a city that future-proofs itself and its citizens.
What exactly does future-proofing mean? It is the conscious decision to do certain things — and crucially, not to do others — that insulates the city against economic, environmental and social change that might otherwise be de-stabilizing. This is especially important for island communities.
We are vulnerable to many of the global forces that are playing out in distant places — though in our complacency we delude ourselves into thinking we are sustainable. Our energy and our food, for example, come to us from the Mainland, and are susceptible to supply-chain shocks. Imagine the chaos if either our energy or our food were interrupted for even a few days?
Beyond these obvious supply chains, there is another, less well-known attitudinal chain, that is equally important. What is the collective attitude about Victoria today? What do we think about when we think of the future? Do we even know what the future means to us anymore, or have we forgotten?
Without memory we have nothing.
The decisions local governments make about infrastructure — be it buildings, bridges, roads, or sewer and water mains — leave an indelible physical imprint on the city that endures for a century or more. Equally, those decisions shape the emotional experience of this place, the sense that each of us has as we walk around downtown. There is a good deal of development taking place here, but what is the narrative or story that it tells? What does it say about the atmosphere of Victoria at this moment in its history?
The big issues facing Victoria are actually not affordability, the future of the Crystal Pool, or, God help us, municipal amalgamation. These are symptoms of something else: a city that has forgotten who it is, and what makes it special. Not that any of the candidates will tell you that.
Regardless of who occupies the mayor’s office post-election, Victoria needs to incubate a conversation about the future, about what this city could mean to us (and others) a generation from now. What are the forces lying in the shadows that we need to confront?
What is our vision, distinct from any other city, that conveys a sense of uniqueness and palpable civic pride? Better still, how might Victoria recover the sense of community that is ultimately the most potent competitive advantage any city can have and use it to inspire each of us to reach for the stars rather than muddle through.
Rob Abbott advises cities and businesses across the globe on ways to increase their resilience in the face of rapid, non-linear change. He lives in Victoria.
