There are two new candidates in the upcoming Victoria city council election, Jack Sandor and Bella Lee.
Both Lee and Sandor are 27 years old and grew up in Victoria. They both graduated from Oak Bay Secondary in 2016 and have joined forces to knock on doors leading up to the fall election where they will be on the ballot.
Sandor works as an Electrician by day, whereas Lee works as a senior advisor to the Minister of Children and Family Development.
The reason these two friends have joined one another in this race comes down to matters of housing and how they believe many issues in Victoria stem from lack of affordable housing.
“I think the reality is for a lot of people in our city is that life in our city is just becoming really unaffordable,” Lee told Victoria Buzz.
She and her partner just got married last year and they want to start a family here. However, she feels like every time they run the numbers, it feels out of reach.
“We’re talking about things like housing, affordability and just wanting a livable city—that’s what draws me to want to run for council because I think all of these things can be really addressed by a city councillor,” Lee continued.
“People in our age group just feel really left behind and we want a seat that the table to address the problems that we’re facing.”
Lee added that she believes Victoria needs more housing, and specifically more affordable housing.
She also noted that while volunteering alongside Councillor Matt Dell ahead of the Crystal Pool Replacement referendum, she really saw how much of a change city councillors could make.
“That really guided me to decide to put my name forward,” she said.
Sandor said that he feels the exact same way as Lee on matters of housing and affordability.
“My [fiancée] and I both have good paying jobs, we’re pretty frugal, but homeownership feels basically impossible for us,” he said. “I thought, ‘if we can’t make it work, how is anyone else supposed to make it work,’” said Sandor.
“Basically, all we want is a fair shot like other previous generations had—working hard and getting a modest, sustainable life here in Victoria.”
Their priorities
Sandor believes that housing by itself is a huge problem because it affects so many in the city, but also because it connects so intrinsically to every other problem Victoria is currently facing.
“Homelessness is an obvious one, but then there are some less obvious ones like traffic,” Sandor explained.
“If we can’t be housing people close to where they work and play, they have to move out to the West Shore and drive in. The struggles of our local businesses where their employees’ rents keep going up, their customers’ rents keep going up, and that makes it way harder to justify shopping locally.”
“The housing crisis is the everything crisis,” he added.
Another shared priority includes bringing more accessible healthcare and family doctors to Victoria by embracing a similar model to Colwood, who recently brought doctors into a city-run primary care clinic.
“Colwood has shown us that just because there is a family doctor shortage, it’s not just [a provincial matter], municipal governments can have a place to play in that as well,” said Lee.
“Before I started my career, I worked in parks and recreation, so it’s really important to me to bring community spaces and make sure arts and culture are thriving in our community.”
“Of course we want to build an affordable city for people, but we also want a place where they can have fun, stay here and enjoy everything that Victoria has to offer,” she added.
In addition to these beliefs and priorities, Sandor and Lee say they both have many ideas to help the city in matters relating to community safety, the environment and climate change, helping the unhoused community in a more sustainable and humane way and addressing affordability throughout Victoria.
On their youth
Both Sandor and Lee agree that their youth—as compared to current city councillors—will be a strength in the upcoming election.
Lee said that their perspective as younger candidates will allow them to look out for those in their age range.
“We understand the crises very differently—we’re both renters, we understand the precarity of being a renter in this city—so bringing that to the table is super helpful,” she explained.
“Jack being an electrician, I work for the Ministry of Children and Family Development; I think those are just two very unique subsets that will help us address the problems we see today.”
“The only thing I would add is that specifically, what our youth brings is an understanding of the urgency of the situation,” Sandor added.
“It’s one thing to understand that the housing crisis is this big problem and that we have to fix it, but it’s entirely another thing to live that reality day-to-day and understand just how bad things are for so many people—to really feel that internally instead of just being told that.”
The next BC municipal election is October 17th.
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