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Douglas Magazine Primes the Public for Amalgamation prior to the October 2026 Local Government Election.

The article from the business oriented/government funded magazine reveals that surprise business and development interests have been pushing for amalgamation.

The article also primes the public with the idea that Saanich is a City. Saanich is not a City.


By Sasha Izard
July 15, 2026


The latest edition of Douglas Magazine primes the public for amalgamation prior to the October 2026 Local Government Election. A non-binding question will be on the ballot asking voters whether or not Victoria and Saanich should be one municipality.

Is Douglas Magazine attempting to manufacture consent for amalgamation prior to the election?

The Victoria Saanich Amalgamation Vote | Douglas Magazine

Is the article and its graphics neutral, lacking any subliminality in its front and centre message this month? I’ll let the reader decide.

The article from the business oriented/government funded magazine reveals that surprise business and development interests have been pushing for amalgamation.

Excerpt from the article:

“The Victoria chamber advocates for more than 1,400 Saanich and Victoria businesses and has been a longtime amalgamation booster. Wilson supports familiar pro-amalgamation arguments that say joining adjacent municipalities allows for streamlining of zoning, regulations, permitting and bylaws, is better for business and enables co-ordination of region-wide challenges like transportation planning, law enforcement and densification.

“We constantly hear from business and developers about their concerns about doing business in Victoria and Saanich,” Wilson says. “Business likes certainty and right now we don’t have that.””

All of this simply confirms something I have been pointing out for some time, that the development industry wants one stop shopping, and for that amalgamation is a way to bypass localized governance.

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One of the things it is clearly pushing is priming the public with idea that Saanich is a City. Saanich is not a City. Saanich is a District, and much of Saanich is rural or semi-rural unlike the City of Victoria.

There are business interests, particularly in the development sector that clearly want Saanich to be a City, much like Vancouver. That would be devastating to the ecology of Saanich, but this is not the perspective discussed in business oriented/government funded magazine Douglas this month.

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See also:

Priming (psychology) – Wikipedia

Index of Articles and Other Resources on Amalgamation. – CRD Watch Homepage