For Mayor · District of Highlands · 2026
A fourth-generation View Royal family, my partner Ann and I were enticed to the Highlands twenty-one years ago by the Highlands Stewardship Foundation — to build Eco-Sense here. I've spent the two decades since working to protect the natural systems that sustain this community. Now I'm asking for your trust as Mayor.
My life's work — designed, taught, and now governing it for 420,000 people across the region.
Twelve years on council; twelve chairing the region's water tables. The region already trusts the voice.
Not to remake the Highlands — to keep it what it is, through a decade of change.
Why I'm running
The region keeps handing its hardest files to the councillor from its smallest community. That's the kind of leadership Highlands deserves — now more than ever.
In polarized times, a mayor's job is to bring people together, not divide them. I've spent twelve years doing exactly that at the regional table — leadership that brings the region together, rather than politics that divides.
The pressures on a small rural community are growing — housing, climate, cost, a region expanding at our doorstep. Steering through them takes someone who already knows the files and already holds the region's trust. Not to remake the Highlands — to keep it what it is.
I'm a fourth-generation View Royal resident, drawn here twenty-one years ago when the Highlands Stewardship Foundation encouraged us to build Eco-Sense. In the two decades since, I've built things, run businesses, grown food, and learned how water moves through this place — and spent the last stretch of it at the regional tables where decisions about our water get made.
About Gord
At Eco-Sense, sustainability isn't a slogan. It's how my partner Ann and I have lived for two decades.
On our demonstration farm on Compton Road, we regenerate soil, restore habitat, harvest rainwater, treat greywater, and grow food — living within the ecology of a place. And when I talk about water governance, it isn't theory: I've helped write the rules other communities use.
I design and build, and I've put that to work here as a volunteer — the Eagles Lake washroom, the mechanical systems at the Twinflower bathroom, the broom-composting trials that made our community garden's soil, and the garden's fence and solar array.
A working life of self-employment — an automotive centre, consulting, building, farming, designing rainwater systems — teaches you budgets, accountability, and how to deliver when every outcome lands on your shoulders. You earn the result; no one hands it to you.
For twenty years I've taught and written publicly on water, permaculture, composting, food forestry, and building science — work covered in well over 200 articles across print, radio, and television. I've also been retained to write water policy for other governments: technical advisor to Metro Vancouver's non-potable water re-use work, technical editor on the Province's greywater and composting-toilet standards, and on water policy for the Regional District of Nanaimo and Islands Trust.
What two decades at Eco-Sense have taught us — water, soil, building science, growing food — we offer freely: tours, talks, workshops, and neighbours' questions we're always glad to take. Few things feel better than helping someone's curiosity about all things sustainable.
The region entrusted a Highlands councillor to chair its water supply — its budgets, its infrastructure, thirteen jurisdictions brought to agreement. That experience is the advantage Highlands takes into the mayor's chair.
My Record
Twelve years governing the drinking-water systems the Capital Region depends on — real authority over budgets, infrastructure, and long-range planning.
These aren't ceremonial seats. When a Highlands matter is on the table, CRD directors and staff come to me — standing you earn, then spend protecting Highlands and helping the whole region get its hardest decisions right.
Appointed by Highlands council to the Commission — then chosen by commissioners from thirteen jurisdictions to chair it: four years in the chair, after four as Vice-Chair.
The reinvestment program that keeps the regional system reliable, seismically resilient, and ready for the future — the 2022 Master Plan rollout, dam-safety work, and the future filtration plant. In 2026 alone, a $72M capital program.
The long-range blueprint — now moving from what to build into how and when.
Refreshing the commission's priorities for the next five to ten years.
When growth occurs, the cost of the added capacity it needs is carried by that new development — not existing ratepayers.
I've held the line on factual precision throughout — correcting the record when the numbers didn't support the narrative, so decisions affecting 420,000 people rest on evidence, not assumption.
I chair the commission delivering water to the western communities — and led the first CRD service to complete a full Asset Management Plan.
A 20-year roadmap mapping roughly $2 billion in infrastructure — what we own, its condition, its worth, and when it needs replacing — now a model for the region's other services.
Keeping cost-recovery fair and current, so new growth — not existing ratepayers — carries the cost of the capacity it requires.
Serving Langford, Colwood, View Royal, Metchosin, Sooke, parts of Highlands, several First Nations, and the JDF Electoral Area.
Delivered for the Highlands
Twelve years on council, measured in things that got built and decisions that stuck.
It didn't have majority support at first. I helped move it from a contested idea to the core of how the District plans and funds its infrastructure — so we repair and replace on evidence, not crisis.
I championed including natural assets — our groundwater in particular — in that framework. Recognizing groundwater as infrastructure changes how seriously we protect it.
I supported carrying our monitoring program through to fully mapping our aquifers, lineaments, and wells — and directing staff to develop a watershed management plan. Real local evidence, for the decisions ahead.
I developed the broom-composting program at the Broom Bash that created the soil for our community garden — an approach Metchosin and Sooke have since adopted.
Workshops and presentations for the community on integrated food systems and all things water — groundwater, greywater, composting toilets, rainwater harvesting, and conservation for agriculture.
I've supported strengthening the District's risk assessment, Emergency Program, and community emergency preparedness — run through the Highlands Fire Department and supported by our Neighbourhood HELP groups. In a forested, fire-prone place, readiness at the neighbourhood level is one of the most important things we build together.
Where I Stand
Values and a direction, not a wall of promises. Five commitments anchor how I'll serve.
An honest note on how councils work: a mayor doesn't set policy by decree — council chooses the direction together. My job is to make sure that direction comes from collaboration, not conflict.
Conservation and property rights. Climate action and private land use. Managing growth without red tape and overreach. These aren't sides to pick — they're a balance to strike. We can keep the Highlands' small footprint and rural character through growth that's smarter, not just bigger. Protecting our ecosystems, groundwater, and well-water doesn't mean giving up your autonomy; it means Highlanders working together to redefine the balance beyond the status quo.
Highlands chose to be what it is: large rural lots, no urban services, forest and rock and quiet. That wasn't an accident, and it isn't up for quiet erosion.
I'll defend the land-use framework that keeps us rural, and stay skeptical of pressures — from developers, from neighbouring growth, from convenience — that would chip away at it one exception at a time.
We live in the Coastal Douglas-fir zone — one of the most threatened ecosystems in British Columbia.
Our sensitive-ecosystem protections and OCP policies aren't red tape; they're the reason this place still works as habitat. I'll defend and, where the evidence supports it, strengthen those tools — grounded in real inventory and current science, not decades-old baselines.
Water is my life's work — designing it, teaching it, and now helping govern it for the whole region.
I bring it home to a community that lives almost entirely on groundwater: protecting our aquifers and watercourses from contamination and overuse, and planning honestly for water security in a drying climate that is already changing how water moves through this landscape.
Highlands sits within the territories of as many as seven First Nations. Reconciliation isn't a statement on a website — it's a relationship.
Built through consistent, respectful, good-faith engagement over time. As mayor, I'll begin that relationship-building in earnest from day one — advancing practical steps that fit our authority as a small municipality and that the Nations themselves help shape.
A small community runs on its volunteers. The groups that bring us together deserve steady support, not an afterthought.
I'll make sure our core community organizations — the Highlands District Community Association, the Heritage Parks Society, the Highlands Community Garden, and our newly emerging Horse Club — get priority attention when it comes to funding and support. Listening to and understanding our neighbours is as much a part of this job as protecting the land itself.
How I lead
I listen before deciding.
I explain the reasoning behind hard decisions — including the unpopular ones.
I believe science and community wisdom belong together.
I work respectfully, even when we disagree.
Housing, water & staying a community
Younger families, aging parents, longtime residents on fixed incomes — people need realistic ways to stay here.
Rural heritage and a place people can actually live aren't opposing goals. But every housing decision here runs through one question first: can the groundwater support it?
The Province now permits secondary suites on most Highlands properties. That's the law. Our job is to make it work responsibly — starting with keeping our water clean.
Conservation matters, but the most urgent job is keeping pollution out of our aquifers. When a home relies on a well, a failing septic system or the wrong development next door isn't a nuisance — it's a threat to a family's drinking water. Guarding recharge areas and getting on-site systems right has to come before anything else.
Many homes already have unpermitted dwellings. Rather than punish, I want a secure, non-punitive path to compliance with fire, electrical, septic, and building safety codes — because a suite that's legal is a suite that's safe: safe from fire for the people living in it, and safe for its neighbours' water.
Our aquifer mapping and watershed planning can show where demand is supportable, where it needs strong conservation, and where groundwater genuinely limits it. Reviewing how our bylaws — including business licensing — apply in groundwater-protected areas is part of keeping the wrong activity out of the wrong place.
More homes and more suites mean more people to keep safe in a forested, fire-prone landscape. Safety for residents, their neighbours, and the wider community has to be built in — supporting FireSmart practices, safe access and egress, and the water-conservation tools I've spent a career on (rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse, efficient fixtures) so we make room for people without overdrawing our water or raising our risk.
Raising kids who love this place
Kids who grow up loving where they live tend to stay — and tend to look after it.
Highlands children have something rare right out the back door — forest, water, rock, and room to roam. I want them to grow up knowing it.
We're close to the region's families and rich in the kind of natural space that's getting harder to find. That's a real advantage for our kids — a place where a child can learn why clean water matters by standing beside it, not just reading about it.
I've spent my life helping people of every age connect to this landscape through workshops, tours, and plain conversation. As mayor I'll welcome good ideas and partners that give our youngest residents that same head start — while keeping the bar simple: does it fit the Highlands, and is it right for our kids? Not every idea will be the right fit, but a good idea deserves a fair hearing before we decide.
A Vision for the Next Four Years
Not a grand new direction — the steady work of keeping a small rural community intact through a decade of change, and bringing people together to do it.
Long service is only worth something if it stays curious. The region, the climate, and the risks to a small municipality are all changing. The job isn't to coast on tenure — it's to stay responsive, and to finish what the community has started.
Re-engaging the public early — surveys, Committee of the Whole, standing advisory committees — so we listen before we decide, not after.
Actioning the South Highlands regenerative-development plan — showing what's possible, including the water security a drying climate demands.
Highlands as the community others look to on watershed and green-space protection — not a follower of urban service models.
Smart, affordable capacity — grants, partnerships, shared services — without bloating the budget or the bureaucracy.
Responsive, not settled. Good decisions need time and genuine public input, and I've repeatedly pushed for both. As mayor I'll re-engage the public directly — resident surveys, regular Committee of the Whole meetings re-established, and standing advisory committees that bring resident and expert voices in early, the way the Regional Water Supply Commission's Water Advisory Committee does. A well-run meeting is where every voice is heard and the best argument wins.
Finishing what the community started. The community asked for regenerative development in the South Highlands — something more imaginative than the industrial-commercial status quo. That vision has yet to be properly sold and shown. The pragmatic path isn't retreating to the familiar; it's actioning the plan for the benefit of the Highlands, showing residents and the region what's possible. I'll carry it across the line.
A voice the region listens to. For years, Highlands has been too quietly engaged in the region, and too easily overlooked. The difference I'm asking to make is to turn that quiet presence into a more influential and respected voice — one the region hears when decisions reach our water, our roads, and our rural character.
