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Martin Girard

Victoria municipal election · 17 October 2026

CouncilNew candidateLeft · activist independent

Council candidate, active campaign verified 1 Sep 2026

GradeD16 of 55 answered

Four Opposed cells: sweeps, sheltering bylaws, drug-buffer enforcement, VicPD funding. Aligned on crisis response, washrooms, pedestrian zones. Housing unaddressed.mean 1.09 · 16/55 answered

Who they are

Martin Girard is a full-time community advocate and activist whose public work has focused on homelessness, civil liberties, drug policy, human rights, environmental issues and accountability at Victoria City Hall. He describes five years of personal homelessness, three years of frontline volunteering, current residence in supportive housing and experience responding to overdoses with naloxone. Campaign material also describes an honours science education. He has appeared before council and in local reporting on encampment enforcement, SOGI, civil rights and transparency. For voters, Girard offers the field’s strongest lived-experience challenge to enforcement-led homelessness policy; his most consequential proposals also require close scrutiny for municipal authority, legal risk and implementation capacity.

How this grade was made

  1. The same 55 topics for every candidate.
  2. Actions beat words beat silence.
  3. A mark needs a URL and a date. Without both, the cell is a dash — unknown, not a fail.
  4. If they sat on Council this term, a sourced 2022–26 vote or decision beats a 2026 promise.
  5. A letter appears only after five scored answers.

The letter next to the name is the overall grade. The number next to it is how many scored answers that grade rests on.

Tap a mark to read the sentence it rests on. Tap a label in the legend for the one-line rule.

The five doors

A sourced sentence or a fact. Never a second grade.

Tax cap
said

"This city needs to spend within its means. No more frivolous expenses like the Centennial Square Revitalization Project. No need to raise property taxes or fees then." No formula, no cap, no glide path.

votemate.org · 2026-09-02

Downtown order
said

"STOP THE SWEEPS! Specifically, I would replace bylaw officers with outreach workers to help the homeless get back on their feet." No Public Order Team and no bylaw-hours position. The sentence is opposition to current enforcement, not a unified-command plan.

votemate.org · 2026-09-02

Housing
—

No sourced sentence on this door. Silence, not a fail.

Household bill
—

No sourced sentence on this door. Silence, not a fail.

Written program
yes

An authorized campaign site with a long-form platform covering homelessness, drug policy, law and order, Indigenous relations and the environment, plus dated posts through August 2026 and a candidate-submitted VoteMate profile. Written and current. No costed budget, no tax formula, no unit target, no implementation calendar.

martingirardforvictoriacouncil.ca · 2026-09-02

The 12 topics

Fifty-five cells. A dash is unknown, not a fail. Record lines are shown and do not add to the scored-answer count.

1. Housing that gets builtsilence
  1. M6 housing supply + composition
  2. M6b land bank + co-ops
  3. M7 permits + AI pre-screening
  4. M7b pattern-book housing
  5. M8/M8b 5% vacancy, DCC cuts, suite amnesty
2. Downtown order4 scored
  1. M26 Public Order Team
  2. M26b civilian crisis response
  3. M27 bylaw hours 6am–10pm
  4. M28 data-targeted enforcement
  5. M33 daytime sheltering bylaws
  6. M33b drug-use buffer (City: list + bylaw/DPOT + VicPD/CDSA; not City seizure)
  7. M34–M37 encampments, reclaiming spaces, night lighting flag
3. Household bill1 scored
  1. M66 tax glide path (capped on the residential rate)
  2. M66b/c over-collection refund + debt rule
  3. M66d the Household Bill
  4. M70/M70b provincial downloading ledger
  5. M70c CRD cost and the Goldstream plant
  6. M71–M73d business, downtown, one mandate not a new office
  7. M74/M75/M76 capital threshold, short-stay parking (15-min grace; first-hour gated Year 2), permit fees
4. Host Nations1 scored
  1. M1–M5 Host Nations Foundation. Topic never drops out of the 12. A dash is still allowed on M1–M5.
5. Homelessness and waitlists2 scored
  1. M9/M9b/M64 tenant protections, STR, indoor heat (M9c struck; 26°C gated)
  2. M10 transparent algorithmic waitlists
  3. M11 Housing First + STEP throughput
6. Familiessilence
  1. M12/M13b/M13c childcare, doctors, youth (M13 school food is $0 → M13d)
  2. M13d standing School District 61 agreement
7. Streets and mobility2 scored
  1. M14/M16/M17/M18 cleanliness and the public realm
  2. M19/M22/M38/M40–M42b mobility + Vision Zero (M39 30 km/h struck; calming is M38)
  3. M20b/M23b walking and transit the City controls
  4. M24b/M25b accessibility and public washrooms
  5. M25 fix roads first
8. Policing and published safety1 scored
  1. M28b business security cost-spreading
  2. M28d community paramedicine
  3. M29/M29b VicPD funding + regional review (convene-and-publish; no binding other force)
  4. M30 smart LED lights, no surveillance
  5. M31/M31b/M31c/M32 safety dashboard, published enforcement record, crime target
9. Beauty as a public good1 scored
  1. M43–M46b heritage and cultural venues
  2. M45b/c pedestrianisation and the signature project
  3. M47–M49 heritage incentives, lighting, parks
  4. M50/M50b/M51/M52 culture, sport, and the arts funding floor
10. A smaller scored Hallsilence
  1. M15 managed competition
  2. M65 rotating zero-based reviews
  3. M67 quarterly performance dashboard
  4. M68 overhead reduction by attrition
  5. M69 real-estate rationalisation
  6. M53/M53b/M53c GIS, AI consultation imagery, LIDAR
  7. M53d published municipal AI standard
  8. M54–M57 local-tech procurement, open data, Wi-Fi, EV charging
11. Climate and trees as operations2 scored
  1. M58/M58b/M64b climate, district energy, seismic
  2. M59–M63 trees, mode share, ecosystems, emergency preparedness
12. Neighbourhoods and integrity2 scored
  1. M77/M78/M78b $25M referendum threshold, 5-step process, material-change rule
  2. M79/M79b Integrity Commissioner + 60-day consultation response
  3. M79c–f lobbyist registry, FOI fee, remuneration
  4. M80/M80b/M80c neighbourhoods, language access, Local Area Plans
  5. M82/M82b community surveys, turnout and ballot access
  6. M81 Saanich amalgamation (one line, not the whole topic)
Background

Evidence vintage (summary). Verified 1 Sep 2026 against the full authorized campaign site, detailed platform, posts through late August, VoteMate profile, current Facebook and Instagram accounts and public advocacy coverage. The former stub and “full read pending” note are obsolete.

Web, campaign & socials (checked 1 Sep 2026). Campaign site · Current posts · Facebook · Instagram · VoteMate · no campaign X, Bluesky, Threads, TikTok or YouTube account was linked

Profile. Martin Girard is a full-time community advocate and activist whose public work has focused on homelessness, civil liberties, drug policy, human rights, environmental issues and accountability at Victoria City Hall. He describes five years of personal homelessness, three years of frontline volunteering, current residence in supportive housing and experience responding to overdoses with naloxone. Campaign material also describes an honours science education. He has appeared before council and in local reporting on encampment enforcement, SOGI, civil rights and transparency. For voters, Girard offers the field’s strongest lived-experience challenge to enforcement-led homelessness policy; his most consequential proposals also require close scrutiny for municipal authority, legal risk and implementation capacity.

2026 campaign and social verification. martingirardforvictoriacouncil.ca is a current, authorized campaign site with an extensive platform and a frequently updated post archive, including material dated through August. The platform covers homelessness, drug policy, law and order, Indigenous relations and the environment. Girard opposes encampment sweeps and criminalization of poverty, argues for housing and early intervention, supports harm reduction and proposes directing police away from simple-possession enforcement while licensing regulated compassion clubs or storefronts. He also campaigns on disclosure of City bylaw-department investigations and has filed a judicial-review petition concerning an OIPC access decision. Facebook, Instagram and VoteMate are linked directly from the campaign. No other official social channel was identified.

Sources. Campaign site and platform, post archive, 10 Jul judicial-review announcement, VoteMate, campaign-linked social accounts and local coverage collected on the site. Personal history and education are self-reported and should be labelled accordingly.

Current evidence requiring first full score. Direct evidence now exists for M9/M11, M26/M26b, M31b/M33, M58, M67, M70b, M79/M79b and M80, with clear divergence from enforcement-oriented measures. Legal feasibility is a major unresolved issue: federal drug offences, provincial policing rules and Police Board authority limit what a councillor can promise unilaterally. The campaign does not publish a full budget, tax path, housing-unit target, permit benchmark, public-safety cost model, regional funding formula, implementation calendar or city-wide KPI dashboard.

Updates / notes.

  • 2026-09-01 — Full platform, lived-experience background, active posts and campaign social channels verified.

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