After four years of growth, is Colwood working as well as it should?
Rob Martin — former Mayor of Colwood, seven years on Council, and a 30 year West Shore resident asking for your trust to lead again.
Home.
I served as Mayor of Colwood from 2018 to 2022, following seven years on Council. I know this community, I know the responsibilities that come with public office, and I know what can be accomplished when Council is honest with residents about the challenges we face and focused on getting the job done.
Colwood deserves leadership that keeps its word, communicates openly and plans for the future—not simply reacts to problems after they arise.
In recent years, I believe we have lost some of that focus. Important questions about transparency, accountability and long-term planning have too often been left unresolved, while commitments made to residents have not always translated into action.
That is why I'm running.
I'm not running to look backward. I'm running to bring experience, accountability and a clear sense of direction back to City Hall.
Colwood is changing, and the decisions we make now will shape our community for generations. I believe we need leadership that is prepared to make difficult decisions, bring people together and put the long-term interests of Colwood first.
I've had the privilege of leading this community before. I'm ready to serve again.
Average annual property tax increase, term over term. Residents can look at both records and decide which one they trust with the next four years.
Accountability and affordability go together. A mayor who can't account for spending behind closed doors is also the mayor whose average tax increase has run well ahead of the term before it. Residents can look at both records — what each council spent, and what it was willing to tell you about it.
On the average Colwood home, that difference means paying roughly $650 more in property tax over a single term — just from the gap between the two records.
Not promises made in a vacuum — each one responds to something residents can look up for themselves.
Right now, a resident asking how many council code of conduct investigations have occurred — and what they've cost — has been told it would take a minimum of 30 hours of staff time just to produce the count. That's not a technicality; it's a sign the City isn't tracking its own accountability spending in any usable way.
"If basic spending on council's own conduct isn't being tracked in a way anyone can quickly account for, that's a governance problem — not a staffing problem."
Veterans Memorial Parkway and Sooke Road are the only two corridors in or out of Colwood, and capacity hasn't kept pace with growth. A BC Ferries pre-feasibility study projected roughly 3,100 daily passengers for a Colwood-area route in its first year. I'll bring that study back to the table — not erase it.
"Our congestion isn't a Colwood problem you can solve from inside Colwood's borders. It's regional, and it needs a mayor who treats it that way."
Light rail only works with real density along the corridor it runs through, and between Royal Bay and Beachlands, Colwood has already taken on significant growth. My plan: build dedicated bus lanes now, both to improve service today and to preserve the road space rail would eventually need — while being upfront about the federal funding and treaty-settlement questions that stand between here and an actual rail line.
"You don't get to rail by wishing for it. You get there by building the capacity step by step, and being straight about what's actually in the way."
Mayor Kobayashi used a seat on an RCMP aircraft to travel to a training ceremony in Regina — a seat that came at the cost of an RCMP officer on the same trip being bumped to a commercial flight. When police departments are stretched thin, every seat and every dollar spent moving elected officials around is a seat or a dollar not available for the officers doing the work. I'll make that trade-off explicit in every decision about how the City uses shared regional resources.
"Residents deserve a mayor who thinks about that trade-off before making the choice — not after."
Fourteen years of civic involvement beyond the mayor's chair — the kind of experience that comes from doing the unglamorous work of regional governance.
Seven years as a Colwood City Councillor, including regional board roles with the CRD and Victoria Regional Transit Commission.
Elected Mayor of Colwood.
Average annual property tax increase held to 3.6% across the term.
Running again — for a council residents can hold accountable, and a transportation plan that doesn't wait twenty-five years to arrive.
Have a question, want to volunteer, or want a lawn sign for your yard? Email the campaign directly and we'll follow up.
Email the CampaignDonations help get this campaign to every doorstep in Colwood before October 17. Email us to arrange a contribution, and we'll follow up with the details. All donations are recorded and reported in accordance with BC's local election campaign financing rules.
Email to Donate