Ben Isitt – Elected to City Council and the CRD Board

Thank you for helping elect me to Victoria City Council and the CRD Board. We captured more than 8,400 votes for council and nearly topped the poll for CRD. Our “ground team” of dedicated door-to-door volunteers was the heart of the campaign, covering the city nearly two times over. We were backed by generous financial contributors and everyone who took lawn signs or helped in other ways.

Now, the work begins to implement my platform, finding a progressive majority around specific issues at the Council and CRD tables so we can start to build a fair, safe and green city and region.

I urge you to continue to share your ideas with me. Many politicians have started out with the best of intentions, only to have their enthusiasm and vision dampened by bureaucratic inertia and the weight of past practices. I need you to tell me what you think about issues, about the job I’m doing, about where you think our city and region should go. Encourage me when you think I’m right. Offer constructive criticism when you think I’ve been misguided. But please, keep in touch.

You made this victory happen. Now, by working with you, hearing from you, and learning from you, we can build on this breakthrough. We can create a city, region and world to be proud of. A place where no one is left behind; where people receive the support they need; where government is fair, open and inclusive; where social justice and environmental sustainability are integrated into every decision.

Yours in solidarity,

Link to CBC Interview on Election Night

 
 
Listen to the CBC interview I gave with fellow councillor-elect Lisa Helps on election night, Saturday, November 19.

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School District 61 Headquarters. Ben has endorsed candidates for their strong commitment to fully-funded public education

As a parent, I am endorsing the following eight progressive candidates for Trustee for the School District 61 Board of Education. Each of these candidates brings distinct skills to the table and diverse points of view. However, they share a common concern for protecting and enhancing our system of public education, which provides an essential stepping stone for each child’s development while contributing to our collective future as a humane and fair society:

Alpha, Catherine
Bratzer, David
Horsman, Bev
Loring-Kuhanga, Edith
McNally, Dianne
Nohr, Deborah
Orcherton, Peg
Paynter, Rob

 
I would urge you to join me in supporting these progressive candidates on November 19.

A thousand people gathered in downtown Victoria on October 15 as part of the "Occupy Together" movement , advocating for a fairer, more sustainable economic system. Photo: Times Colonist

Victoria, like cities across Canada, North America and the globe, has become a site of contestation, where young and old people have drawn a line in the sand against a system they believe is built upon inequality and exploitation. These visionaries offer the brightest beacon in a generation of the possibility for a better world.

The people camped in Victoria’s Centennial Square belong to a global movement, inspired by the “Occupy Wall Street” protest that emerged in mid-September as a spear in the heart of the global financial system. They also look beyond North America to millions of people in North Africa and the Middle East who collectively made the “Arab Spring.”

My sympathies are with the visionaries occupying the world’s squares and the 99% they believe are on the losing end of our so-called “free” market economy. Read more »

By Katie Derosa, Victoria Times Colonist, October 7, 2011

Ben Isitt outside his new home on Prior Street. Photograph by: Darren Stone

A Victoria-based historian and council hopeful has bought what was once a house known for drugs and prostitution on Prior Street and is turning it into a home for him and his five-year-old daughter.

As Ben Isitt, 33, stands in the two-and-a-half storey 100-year-old home at 2547 Prior St., the bathroom is being gutted, the rooftop deck is being rebuilt and holes in the walls are patched and awaiting a fresh coat of paint.

“It’s a diamond in the rough,” Isitt said, as one of his campaign volunteers put a fresh coat of paint on a wooden railing in the yard. One room is already outfitted with a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, fitting for the author and University of Victoria history fellow.

Read more »

I will be meeting with local residents at neighbourhood coffee shops to hear ideas for making Victoria a fair, safe and green place for everyone. Please drop by to share your ideas for improving our city and region:

OAKLANDS
Monday, September 12 @ 5pm
Koffi, 1441 Haultain St at Belmont

FAIRFIELD
Tuesday, September 13 @ 5pm
Moka House, 345 Cook St at Pendergast

JUBILEE
Wednesday, September 14 @ 5pm
Discovery Coffee, 1964 Oak Bay Ave at Amphion

VIC WEST
Thursday, September 15 @ 5pm
Spiral Cafe, 418 Craigflower Rd across from Bamfield Park

I was interviewed by CKNW Radio the day after Federal New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Jack Layton passed away. In this audio clip, I comment on the political significance of Layton’s career and death, after he led his party to a historic 103 seats in Canada’s House of Commons — its best showing ever, which supplanted the Liberals as Canada’s Official Opposition and mobilized Quebec voters behind a federalist, social-democratic party.

Link to Interview on CKNW Radio Vancouver on Jack Layton’s passing

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The man knew how to eat pizza. With the same seriousness of purpose and concentration that drove his political life, Jack Layton devoured two loaded slices of pizza pie at a hole-in-the-wall place on Rue St-Denis in bohemian Montreal. Jack stacked the slices one on top of the other, face in. I was captivated by the technique. Perhaps he sought to maximize his calorie intake to sustain a frenetic schedule. Perhaps he had devised a time-tested technique to keep tomato sauce and toppings out of his neatly-groomed, signature moustache.

Read more »

I attended the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival on August 14, 2011, supporting an event that combines sport and culture, while raising funds for cancer research. As I say in the video, “I support festivals and the arts, because I believe we need to bring people closer together, as part of our project of building a better Victoria.”

Watch Ben’s message to Victoria residents on Youtube

I have decided to enter the race for Victoria City Council!

After consulting with family, friends and political allies, I realize that I have a lot of contribute to making Victoria a fair, safe and green city. I have worked “in the trenches” for more than a decade, volunteering on a number of community causes, and also achieved many personal and career goals, including raising my five-year-old daughter Aviva, publishing two books and teaching history at UBC and UVic. Now seems to be a good time to stand for public office and contribute in an official capacity to the improvement of our city and region.

I look forward to working with you and learning from you in the months and years ahead. Don’t hesitate to contact me: Ben@Isitt.ca. And please — help spread the word to everyone you know: Vote on November 19th. Vote Ben Isitt for City Council. Join me in building a fair, safe and green Victoria.