Nanaimo is not looking good today.

First, this morning, I heard a weird report related to the upcoming Municipal Elections this Saturday. Media outlets received a press release on Wednesday stating that Dawn Tyndall was withdrawing from the race -- among the reasons given being a "sexual relationship" which posed a potential conflict of interest -- except that the release was not sent by Tyndall or anyone from her camp. RCMP is now investigating.


[from A-Channel News:

Dirty Politics in Nanaimo

NANAIMO -- Voters will head to the polls on Saturday to cast ballots in civic elections.
The races are heating up right across Vancouver Island. And at least one of them has turned ugly.

On Wednesday morning, a press release was sent out to the Nanaimo media, including A-Channel News, stating mayoral candidate Dawn Tyndall is withdrawing from the race.

The letter says she plans to deal with a number of personal issues and claims she's having sexual relations with a condominium developer.

It also encourages all voters to support any candidate who's in favour of the Nanaimo Convention Centre. Tyndall says she never wrote or approved the press release. And says she's still in the race.

Tyndall says she has contacted the RCMP. If someone is convicted of issuing the faulty document, they could face a $5,000 fine or one-year in prison]

Next, this afternoon, I heard that two men had been rather unceremoniously turfed from their favourite pub (I can't find ANY news story about this so I am not going to give the name that I think I remember from the noon news) when one sat on his partner's knee and they shared a quick kiss. Can you spell d-i-s-c-r-i-m-i-n-a-t-i-o-n? Their lawyers can.

Combine this with the problems surrounding their proposed new conference centre* and the apparent "plague" of pedestrian vs. vehicle accidents in the city and this is one of the weeks I don't want to pack up and move to Nanaimo. Of course, the pendulum will likely swing back (and forth) a few times over the next few months... as usual.




*The demolition went ahead only after police forcibly removed the final tennant from the buildings being demolished and now, construction hasn't started yet and some of the candidates in the aforementioned election don't want it to! Sounds like Victoria's Arena fiasco, deja vu!