Saanich's new mayor: ‘We have to break out of the siloed, island approach’
Times Colonist
November 17, 2014
Saanich mayor-elect Richard Atwell didn’t choose an easy route to entering municipal politics. He stepped into the fray by going head-to-head with 18-year incumbent Frank Leonard.
“All the bets were against me, I understand that,” Atwell said Monday. “It was a real upset.”
He pointed out that he is a relatively young mayor, but that’s hardly a first for Saanich.
“I’m 44, and Frank Leonard was 42 when he was elected mayor. He was a young mayor, as well, so we’re kind of starting a new cycle, which is good.”
Running for mayor was rewarding, he said, but it was also a tough grind.
“It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life.”
Atwell is married with no children, and prefers to keep further details about his personal life quiet. He is a software engineer by profession but has not worked in that field for two years. Instead, he was a key member of the Sewage Treatment Action Group, which fought against the Capital Regional District plan to build a sewage-treatment plant at Esquimalt’s McLoughlin Point.
“I’ve been solely focused on the sewage,” Atwell said. “My wife supported me. It was a full-time job fighting the CRD.
“The sewage was just all-consuming. It dominated my life for two years.”
He said he realizes some people see him as a single-issue candidate, but that’s OK. “That’s my reputation because I had a public profile only through sewage.”
But Atwell has been dedicating himself to all aspects of community involvement since returning to Saanich after a number of years working for Apple Inc. in California.
“That gave me the ability to converse on many other Saanich topics.”
His roots in the region go back to 1982, when he moved here with his family at age 12. He attended Margaret Jenkins Elementary, Oak Bay High and the University of Victoria.
“When I moved back to Saanich, I wanted to get more involved with my community,” Atwell said. “I was so focused on school and work before that I really didn’t have a good idea what was going on.”
The first step was joining his neighbourhood group, the Falaise Community Association.
“That got me coming to Saanich council in the early days. I was the guy that went to Saanich council to watch the meetings.”
Atwell got involved in the sewage issue through the Falaise group.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, re-elected to a third term, said she grew to admire Atwell for his well-researched criticism of the CRD’s sewage-treatment plan. She also opposed the plant and its location in her municipality, and Esquimalt council ended up refusing to give the needed rezoning for the facility.
“I have nothing but ultimate respect for Richard,” Desjardins said. “He has always been looking for appropriate process, being open and making sure the community is part of solutions.
“The other thing is that he does it by really understanding the material first. Those two things in combination are an absolute strength for anyone going forward and taking the leadership role that he is now in. … I look forward to working with him.”
For his part, Atwell calls himself “the atypical candidate.”
“No political ambition up until now, no civic background in politics as a councillor,” he said. “I had this civic background as a citizen. I’ve been deeply engaged at council and at CRD and in the community.”
Atwell said he will be a full-time mayor. “There’s no consulting business on the side, there’s no other partnerships or business aspirations.”
Atwell said the decision to run for mayor began to take shape when he and fellow sewage activist Beth Burton-Krahn — who was elected to Esquimalt council on Saturday — put their heads together. “We had no direction, we had no money, we had no party. We just sort of came out of nowhere and did this.”
Many sewage-issue supporters stayed with him, Atwell said. “I was able to carry a lot of that support through, and my campaign team was my sewage team.”
Burton-Krahn is enthusiastic about Atwell’s improbable run to the mayor’s office. “It’s just a great story. The media was totally caught up in Victoria and they didn’t make a race out of Frank and Richard. It looked like people kind of blew him off.”
She said Atwell didn’t launch his run for office until Aug. 28. “So we ran a classic ‘crash’ campaign, really, with a roll of duct tape.”
Atwell said he will approach his job as an advocate both for Saanich and the region, including working toward a regional solution for sewage. Having too much focus on individual municipalities alone needs to change, he said. “We have to break out of this siloed, island approach.”
Beyond his new job as Saanich mayor, Atwell enjoys tennis and cycling.
“Cycling is my real hobby,” he said. “I built a bicycle from the frame up a couple of years ago.”
He is also something of a Volkswagen aficionado, pointing out that his website at ratwell.com is “a repository of Volkswagen information.”
jwbell@timescolonist.com
Times Colonist
November 17, 2014
Saanich mayor-elect Richard Atwell didn’t choose an easy route to entering municipal politics. He stepped into the fray by going head-to-head with 18-year incumbent Frank Leonard.
“All the bets were against me, I understand that,” Atwell said Monday. “It was a real upset.”
He pointed out that he is a relatively young mayor, but that’s hardly a first for Saanich.
“I’m 44, and Frank Leonard was 42 when he was elected mayor. He was a young mayor, as well, so we’re kind of starting a new cycle, which is good.”
Running for mayor was rewarding, he said, but it was also a tough grind.
“It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life.”
Atwell is married with no children, and prefers to keep further details about his personal life quiet. He is a software engineer by profession but has not worked in that field for two years. Instead, he was a key member of the Sewage Treatment Action Group, which fought against the Capital Regional District plan to build a sewage-treatment plant at Esquimalt’s McLoughlin Point.
“I’ve been solely focused on the sewage,” Atwell said. “My wife supported me. It was a full-time job fighting the CRD.
“The sewage was just all-consuming. It dominated my life for two years.”
He said he realizes some people see him as a single-issue candidate, but that’s OK. “That’s my reputation because I had a public profile only through sewage.”
But Atwell has been dedicating himself to all aspects of community involvement since returning to Saanich after a number of years working for Apple Inc. in California.
“That gave me the ability to converse on many other Saanich topics.”
His roots in the region go back to 1982, when he moved here with his family at age 12. He attended Margaret Jenkins Elementary, Oak Bay High and the University of Victoria.
“When I moved back to Saanich, I wanted to get more involved with my community,” Atwell said. “I was so focused on school and work before that I really didn’t have a good idea what was going on.”
The first step was joining his neighbourhood group, the Falaise Community Association.
“That got me coming to Saanich council in the early days. I was the guy that went to Saanich council to watch the meetings.”
Atwell got involved in the sewage issue through the Falaise group.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, re-elected to a third term, said she grew to admire Atwell for his well-researched criticism of the CRD’s sewage-treatment plan. She also opposed the plant and its location in her municipality, and Esquimalt council ended up refusing to give the needed rezoning for the facility.
“I have nothing but ultimate respect for Richard,” Desjardins said. “He has always been looking for appropriate process, being open and making sure the community is part of solutions.
“The other thing is that he does it by really understanding the material first. Those two things in combination are an absolute strength for anyone going forward and taking the leadership role that he is now in. … I look forward to working with him.”
For his part, Atwell calls himself “the atypical candidate.”
“No political ambition up until now, no civic background in politics as a councillor,” he said. “I had this civic background as a citizen. I’ve been deeply engaged at council and at CRD and in the community.”
Atwell said he will be a full-time mayor. “There’s no consulting business on the side, there’s no other partnerships or business aspirations.”
Atwell said the decision to run for mayor began to take shape when he and fellow sewage activist Beth Burton-Krahn — who was elected to Esquimalt council on Saturday — put their heads together. “We had no direction, we had no money, we had no party. We just sort of came out of nowhere and did this.”
Many sewage-issue supporters stayed with him, Atwell said. “I was able to carry a lot of that support through, and my campaign team was my sewage team.”
Burton-Krahn is enthusiastic about Atwell’s improbable run to the mayor’s office. “It’s just a great story. The media was totally caught up in Victoria and they didn’t make a race out of Frank and Richard. It looked like people kind of blew him off.”
She said Atwell didn’t launch his run for office until Aug. 28. “So we ran a classic ‘crash’ campaign, really, with a roll of duct tape.”
Atwell said he will approach his job as an advocate both for Saanich and the region, including working toward a regional solution for sewage. Having too much focus on individual municipalities alone needs to change, he said. “We have to break out of this siloed, island approach.”
Beyond his new job as Saanich mayor, Atwell enjoys tennis and cycling.
“Cycling is my real hobby,” he said. “I built a bicycle from the frame up a couple of years ago.”
He is also something of a Volkswagen aficionado, pointing out that his website at ratwell.com is “a repository of Volkswagen information.”
jwbell@timescolonist.com
