Sharma, a public servant and continuing studies instructor, will be facing off against current councillors Zac de Vries and Karen Harper for mayor
Photo courtesy of Rishi Sharma.
This is the third article in a series covering all of Saanich’s mayoral candidates. Read the Martlet’s article on Zac de Vries and Karen Harper.
Rishi Sharma is an experienced public servant, Saanich resident of 46 years, as well as a continuing studies instructor at UVic. Sharma is running as the candidate for “Save our Saanich,” a legally registered elector organization who “advocate[s] and act[s] to enhance and protect Saanich’s treasured environments, agricultural lands, and welcoming, human-scaled neighbourhoods for generations to come.”
Sharma’s platform includes, amongst others, “balanced development,” prioritizing “family-oriented housing — including 3, 4, and 5-bedroom homes — not just small condos and investor-oriented units,” protecting “Saanich’s parks, forests, farmland, coastlines, and natural areas,” and opposing the discussed amalgamation of the City of Victoria and the District of Saanich.
Sharma ran for council in 2022, partially due to frustration with the district’s administrative processes for building, but ultimately did not win a seat. At the time, Sharma’s frustrations were over how difficult it was to build in the district, though he currently believes the district now has the opposite issue, pushing too many “inappropriate” developments forward.
After his campaign in 2022, Sharma completed his Master of Arts in Leadership at Royal Roads University, where he wrote his thesis on building relationships through “uncomfortable conversations.”
Sharma said he hopes to bring these learnings to the mayor role in Saanich. He said that, while working on his thesis, he learned how to build relationships, and that he hopes to bridge discourse on contentious issues.
“I’ve been to a couple council meetings where two councillors were butting heads publicly. I think having proactive, safe conversations ahead of time to make sure that doesn’t happen on council,” he said. “It will happen, but I want to really build our relationships so we can move items forward.”
On policies for students, Sharma said he wants to hold open office hours as mayor so residents, both younger and older, can come and speak to him on issues important to them. Sharma also told the Martlet that he would like to see a permanent youth council in Saanich. This year, Saanich had a youth council pilot project, which ended in July. The youth council recommended the creation of a permanent youth advisory committee.
Sharma also said he would like to “quickly get back to the table” with the provincial government to discuss a path forward for the 510-bed student housing development, which faces a five-year delay following the B.C. government’s 2026 budget.
He said he would like to “see how we can get that moving for UVic, because there is a need.”
Sharma said he has created a youth committee inside the Save Our Saanich elector organization, featuring a couple students from UVic. He also said that, as a director in the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, he and his team fought for opportunities for students, as well as inclusion, equity, and diversity.
Sharma also works for the Construction Foundation of BC, where he says he’s working on a health and wellness centre for trades people who may have substance abuse issues and other issues. The centre, according to Sharma, will be in Langford and will service all of southern Vancouver Island, and he says the foundation is looking at building parallel structures in Prince George and Ontario.
Sharma said he is also working on programming to help aspiring tradespeople to get their Red Seal Certification. The initiative uses funding from the federal government, as well as in partnership with Coast Capital, and helps tradespeople who have had difficulties getting their certification achieve it by offering counselling and one-on-one help.
According to Sharma, the initiative has an 82 per cent pass rate.
Voting for the 2026 local general elections will be held on Oct. 17. The elections will include voting for new mayors and councillors, regional district directors, school board trustees, parks boards, and the Islands Trust. More information on this year’s local general elections can be found at elections.bc.ca.
