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Last week, I was privileged to be able to attend the dedication of a tree in Departure Bay to the memory of Lisa Marie Young, who went missing in 2002, and speak with family and friends about what it means to them to have a place they can go to mourn. You can find a link to my story and photos from that event below. 

Meanwhile, in election news, the NDP managed to hold on to its seats in Nanaimo, including picking up the new electoral districts of Nanaimo-Lantzville and Ladysmith-Oceanside. The picture across the province was a blue wave of discontented voters backing the Conservatives, including in the North Island and Courtenay-Comox. 

The BC NDP and Conservative Party of BC are in a dead heat with 40 elected seats for each. The BC Green Party has two elected seats. A party needs 47 seats to form a majority government, and there are 11 ridings that could go either way — including the Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding where the BC NDP are up by only 23 votes. Currently, the BC NDP is leading in six ridings and the Conservative Party of BC is leading in five.

That means that if the current results hold, the NDP will have 46 seats, the Conservatives 45 and with the Greens holding the balance of power with two seats. That is just enough MLAs for a NDP-Green alliance — such as the one in 2017 — to elect a Speaker and govern. But if a single riding flips to the Conservatives, that is no longer possible and the Conservatives would have to make an even more unlikely alliance with the Greens, or a new election could be called and we would go back to the polls.

Elections BC has confirmed an automatic recount will take place in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre ridings. Automatic recounts take place in ridings where the difference between the top two candidates is less than 100 votes.

There are approximately 65,000 ballots that will be counted during the final count on Oct. 26 to 28 according to Elections BC. These include mail-in ballots returned after the close of advance voting and out-of-district ballots cast by voters at non-technology voting places, as well as voting packages received by mail or in person close to the deadline of 8 p.m. on voting day.

Whether these remaining ballots will be enough to make the difference in close ridings remains to be seen, but an analysis by former Vancouver Sun data journalist and Kwantlen Polytechnic University professor Chad Skelton suggests that historically, mail-in ballots have favoured the NDP. 

Preliminary election results for Nanaimo ridings

Nanaimo-Gabriola Island

Elected: Sheila Malcolmson, BC NDP – 14,090 votes or 52.5 per cent.

Dale Parker, Conservative Party – 9,391 votes, or 35 per cent
Shirley Lambrecht BC Green Party  – 3,382 votes, or 12.6 per cent

Nanaimo-Lantzville

Elected: George Anderson, BC NDP – 14,614 votes, or 51.4 per cent.

Gwen O'Mahony, Conservative Party – 11,342 votes, or 39.9 per cent

Lia Versaevel, BC Green Party – 2,473 votes, or 8.7 per cent

Ladysmith-Oceanside

Elected: Stephanie Higginson, BC NDP – 13,426 votes, or 41.2 per cent.
Brett Fee, Conservative Party – 11,680 votes, or 35.8 per cent

Adam Walker, Independent – 5,336 votes, or 16.4 per cent

Laura Ferreira, BC Green Party – 2,163 votes, or 6.6 per cent

Moses Martin has been carrying a photo of his granddaughter Lisa Marie Young, who was last seen in 2002, in his wallet for 27 years. On Friday the City of Nanaimo dedicated a tree to her in Departure Bay. Photo by Mick Sweetman / The Discourse

Lisa Marie Young remembered with tree planting

“All of Lisa’s loved ones finally have somewhere to come and mourn her,” says friend Cindy Hall.

Public Works Yard AAP explained

It’s the final week to submit a form opposing a proposal by the city to take out a $90 million loan to update the Public Works Yard using an Alternative Approval Process, or AAP. Find out what the proposal entails and why the city sees this project as a priority.

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On the Island

🌊 Why are these Courtenay apartments being demolished? The land that the Anderton Arms apartment building is on is unstable — here’s why, and who is most affected.

🌊 Cow–op, the co-operative online market for Cowichan farmers and food producers, is trying to work its way out of debt. David Minkow has the story.

In other news

👉 The B.C. Coroners Service is investigating a fatal fire at a supportive housing building on Prideaux Street on Wednesday that claimed the life of one man. This follows a fire in June at Samaritan Place where there were no injuries but 51 people were temporarily displaced.

👉  Nanaimo city council is considering increasing funding for restorative justice programing in its upcoming budget. CHLY’s Joe Pugh spoke with Kluane Buser-Rivet, Connective Nanaimo’s restorative justice program manager, about what restorative justice in the city looks like on Midcoast Morning. 

👉 Nanaimo is still an “NDP stronghold” according to Michael MacKenzie, Vancouver Island University's Jarislowsky Chair in trust and political leadership. The Nanaimo News Bulletin got his thoughts on what the recent wins in the Nanaimo area mean 

👉 The Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation has surpassed its $10 million fundraising goal for a new critical care unit at Nanaimo General Hospital. Five million of that has already gone to building the new Intensive Care Unit and the second half is going to equip a new 12-bed High Acuity Unit which is scheduled to open in the spring. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story.

👉 Hullo ferries can now accommodate passengers who use wheelchairs after receiving an exemption from Transport Canada on regulations that people who use wheelchairs must move to a seat on high-speed craft. Each ferry will now have one location where wheelchairs can be strapped in during a sailing and three accessible seats. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the details. 

👉 The Regional District of Nanaimo is adding 78 acres to the 707 Community Park on Gabriola Island. CHEK News has the story.

👉 A man who police shot in the head during a pursuit of him driving a skid steer is now suing the police officers, alleging that the officer who shot him was intoxicated at the time of the shooting and that officers should have known the plaintiff was in a medical crisis. CHEK News reports that the defendant’s response denies many of the allegations in the suit, or that they were outside the knowledge of the defendants, and the plaintiff failed to obey police orders, resisted arrest, and failed to cooperate.  

👉 A group of families on Vancouver Island are calling for a national public inquiry into the deaths of nine Indigenous people in interactions with police during August and September. The Canadian Press has the story.

Community photo

This photo of the steel frog totem in Stiil’nep (Departure Bay) by the late Snuneymuxw artist Joel Good was taken on August 29, 2024, a day after his sudden death. Photo courtesy of Trish Hanna / Harbour City Photography Club.

Have a photo you'd like to share? Send it to nanaimo@thediscourse.ca. We'd love to see the community through your lens.

See you around town,

— Mick, Shalu and The Discourse team

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