Shucking Oysters: So, You’re Thinking of Running for Island Trustee?

By Alex Allen

First question, why? Why are you running? If someone randomly pushed you to run for trustee, beware. It often has nothing to do with you being an amazing, capable person (even if you are). Usually, it means that this well-meaning individual wants you be their puppet. They want you to drive their agenda. They may have good intentions, but be careful. 

If you want to run because YOU think that you can make a difference and care deeply about your community, these would be good starting points. And let’s be clear, being a trustee has nothing to do with being a rock star or adored or money. No, you need thick skin, because no matter what you do or say, there will always be some individual that just wants to poke you with a very pointed stick – constantly. I had someone years ago, yell at me over and over at the Gravelly Bay terminal: “Economy killer!!” I had another email me after a recent LTC meeting: “I thought you had more backbone than you showed today. A pathetic performance on your part!!” There are many more examples, as I have a few folders of nastier emails. I admire their passion, but not their approach. As I said, you will need a very thick skin or you will not last.                            

As a trustee, you will debate issues, review long staff reports, and vote on recommendations and bylaws. Islands Trust governance is based on collaboration and consensus, one of the most important lessons for a potential trustee. You need to read a lot. In fact, if you don’t like reading, I would rethink your intentions. Trust Council packages can be 600 pages or more, and written in not the most user-friendly narrative. As Donna MacDonald wrote in Surviving City Hall, when asked whether she was enjoying being a councillor, she wrote: “Oh sure, there are occasional fun perks, but mostly it’s work, often fractious and unrelenting.” 

Decisions on islands are different from most municipalities, and directly affect daily living, making local engagement deeply personal and intense. It requires a delicate balancing act of neighbourly solutions and political massaging. Controversy and crisis go hand in hand with accomplishment and success. 

And if you have been doing your research, every term new and old trustees continue to tackle the same issues, as they try to meet the Trust’s unique mandate to preserve and protect. As Tim O’Riordan wrote, “environmental politics is suffused with ethical dilemmas.” 

Friends of Gulf Islands Society ask with concern: “Will the Trust continue down the path of weakening environmental protections and hoping growth will solve our problems? Or, will the Trust stay true to its mandate, and take the path that recognizes growth limits are necessary to protect the natural environment and rural character of the Trust islands?”

Gambier-Keats trustee, Kate Louise Stamford, who is not running after four terms, said in an interview recently: “Grasping what exactly the provincially created federation of islands is and means is no easy task. Islands Trust has always been challenged by its definition. What does ‘preserve and protect’ mean? And how do you embed that in the reality of living on islands?”

Friends of the Gulf Islands warn: “If we fail to act, future generations will not experience these islands as we have been privileged to do. People do not miss what they never knew, and we have already lost so much. The natural environment cannot speak for itself.” The Gulf Islands group further emphasize that, “the legal imperative to prioritize the mandate is the most controversial aspect of the Trust and the most difficult for trustees to administer when dealing with zoning and development proposals.” 

Public outcry is hard to ignore, but much of the frustration and complaints from property owners is a direct result of trustees or residents not understanding the unique conservation mandate and its implications for land use planning on the islands. 

Stamford cautions: “I hope that whoever comes after as a trustee, recognizes that the communities are complex and you just work individually with neighbours. It’s not black and white.” 

Some questions you may ask yourself before you enter the fray: Why should the community vote for you? What’s your vision? What is the most pressing issue on your island? What are your priorities? What do you feel strongest about? Who’s interests are you representing? What do you feel sets you apart from the other candidates? 

As MacDonald wrote: “We are all one species, one world community of communities trying to figure out how to live together, with all other living creatures and non-living creations. That is what politics is all about.”

Finally, as a trustee you will have to make sure you budget an extra half hour wherever you go, as most islanders have strong opinions they want to share in the moment. Many can be curve balls, but most of these conversational exchanges can be valuable. And one last warning, when you are sworn in, be prepared to be sworn at.

Disclosure: I will be running again as Hornby Island trustee.

[Still interested in running? I recommend you attend the Islands Trust Q&A webinar: August 20. 6:00 to 8:00 pm. To register go to the Islands Trust website main page. Key Dates: September 1 to 11: Nomination period to register with Elections BC to be a candidate. September 16: Official campaign period. October 17: General Voting Day. Detailed information is available on the Comox Valley Regional District website.]