{"id":28411,"date":"2026-09-08T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=28411"},"modified":"2026-09-01T13:57:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T20:57:45","slug":"camosun-alum-rishi-sharma-announces-candidacy-for-saanich-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2026\/09\/08\/camosun-alum-rishi-sharma-announces-candidacy-for-saanich-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun alum Rishi Sharma announces candidacy for Saanich mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun College alumnus Rishi Sharma has announced that he will be running in the District of Saanich fall election as a mayoral candidate. As a father of three, Sharma\u2014who graduated from Camosun\u2019s Major Appliance and Vending Machine Repair Technician program in 1998\u2014says he has a strong desire to keep Saanich safe, affordable, and healthy for all residents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a previous chief of staff for the minister of post-secondary education, Rishi, a life-long Saanich resident, championed the first free online textbooks initiative. During his time in office, Sharma and his team were worried about the increasing financial pressure that was being put on post-secondary students, so they elected to turn their attention toward textbooks. This eventually culminated in a free online textbook database that\u2019s currently accessible for all students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember hearing about struggles years ago when I was the chief of staff,\u201d says Rishi. \u201cThen we implemented the first free textbooks online initiative; I really championed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Camosun alumnus Rishi Sharma is running for mayor of Saanich this October (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He says that it was relatively cheap on the government\u2019s end to get the database up and running.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that expensive on the government\u2019s part,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was pretty cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rishi\u2019s background in academia also comes from personal experience as a former trades student at Camosun and a recent graduate from a master\u2019s program at Royal Roads. His master\u2019s thesis encroaches into his political background, as it\u2019s about having uncomfortable conversations in leadership roles. Rishi says that his master\u2019s research has influenced a remarkable amount of his campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single day since I\u2019ve written it, I\u2019ve used the tools on how to have uncomfortable conversations,\u201d he says. \u201cThe tools that I\u2019ve used\u2014no bias, understanding that I may think differently but everyone is allowed to have their time to speak, everyone\u2019s opinion should be valid, and listening\u2014was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rishi says that by using these tools and actively listening to his community, he has become more flexible with updating his policies throughout the campaign, saying that his work is a constant revision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have all my policies, and I have what I\u2019d like to do, but I\u2019ve already made six or seven amendments on my website to different areas because I\u2019m out door-knocking now,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As an example of this, Rishi recently made a change on his climate protection and environmental resiliency policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just posted a new policy on environmental protection and climate resiliency because I went through the parks, because I spoke to environmental leaders, I did more research,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Rishi feels strongly about bringing Indigenous leadership into the conversation of environmental protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually quite important to me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s something I think is very important in getting representation and knowledge from all our various communities, nations and individuals.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An endorsement from Save Our Saanich (SOS) Neighbourhoods Society as their mayoral candidate has drawn attention to Sharma\u2019s campaign. SOS is a local advocacy group aimed at enhancing and protecting \u201cSaanich\u2019s treasured environments, agricultural lands, and welcoming, human-scaled neighbourhoods for generations to come,\u201d according to its website. Since their political values aligned well and he admired their previous work ethic, Rishi was open to discussing an endorsement and working alongside their team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so impressed with their ability to get out to folks, to have these open conversations, and to do that all in five weeks,\u201d says Rishi. \u201cThey came to me and we had a conversation on what our priorities are, and our priorities were kind of in sync from what I ran last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rishi says that working on a team has also been quite valuable to his campaign, as they\u2019ve been able to share workload and capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve ran independently, which was okay, but I\u2019ve also worked on teams in politics, and being on a team at this point is something I really needed to do and really wanted to do,\u201d says Rishi. \u201cThey have their priorities like responsible spending, protecting greenspace, smart development, transparent decision-making, and efficient roads\u2014and that\u2019s all the priorities that I hold as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The general municipal voting day for Saanich will be held on Saturday, October 17. Eligible voters will be able to elect one mayor and eight councillors. Find more info at saanich.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun College alumnus Rishi Sharma has announced that he will be running in the District of Saanich fall election as a mayoral candidate. As a father of three, Sharma\u2014who graduated from Camosun\u2019s Major Appliance and Vending Machine Repair Technician program in 1998\u2014says he has a strong desire to keep Saanich safe, affordable, and healthy for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[358,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-september-8-2026","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t