Another candidate has stepped up to the plate in Oak Bay.
Cairine Green, a sitting second-term councillor in North Saanich, hopes to continue her community service as a councillor in Oak Bay.
“We left a lot of friends in Oak Bay, so we are glad to be back and lucky to be back,” she said of her return to live in the municipality in May 2010. “Coming back was a homecoming for us. We are thrilled.”
Green and her husband, Fred, spent six years in Oak Bay in the 1980s. She believes the jump from rural back to urban won’t be too much of a leap.
“They are very different communities, but they have a lot in common. People are passionate about where they live and value where they live,” she said. “Community and public engagement are vital and common issues in every community. The similarities outweigh the differences.”
While the rural-urban switch is significant, Green looks to move from council in the municipality with the highest average property value in Greater Victoria, to one with the second-highest average value.
Her professional life has included many professions. She has been a probation and parole officer, an educational councillor, a senior policy analyst for the Ministry of Advanced Education and a private counsellor for divorce mediation and child custody.
Politics also runs in her family. Her late father, Arthur Ash, was reeve (the former term for mayor) of Saanich for two terms and served one term as an MLA from 1949-52.
Green said she feels privileged to have served North Saanich residents and would be grateful if people in Oak Bay allowed her to continue that community service.
“I will work very hard on their behalf. I think I am courageous and speak up on behalf of residents, but I am very balanced and they will always know where I stand and why.”
The deadline for submitting nomination papers for next month’s civic election is Friday (Oct. 14).
Prospective candidates can pick up and drop them off their papers at municipal hall, 2167 Oak Bay Ave.
editor@oakbaynews.com
