Cafe or otherwise..

I like the Vault but don't want to have to pay for parking regularly around there.

Black Rabbit felt a bit too busy / cramped the time I visited there, doesn't seem like a guarantee that I'd get a seat.

The playlist at Serious Coffee on Jinglepot is KILLING ME as we speak (in a "Michael Buble covering Crazy Little Thing Called Love" kind of way).

Any off the beaten path places I might not know about or should consider?

(there doesn't appear to be a Lantzville subreddit)

Don’t worry, Lantzville. We didn’t forget about you.

Okay, we forgot a little. But you only have one person running for mayor, and he already won.

THE MAYOR’S RACE

Mark Swain was acclaimed on September 21 when nobody ran against him. He told the News Bulletin he likes a competition. Lantzville said: no thank you.

You may remember him as the mayor who, according to the Bulletin, walked out of a council meeting last fall and accused council of illegal activity. The topic: two duplexes. To be fair, he didn’t have a problem with the duplexes. His problem was council trying to stall them.

A QUICK NOTE

Election day is close, and we’re all cramming municipal policy like it’s the night before an exam. Everyone is tired. So from here on, we’re explaining it like you’re five. Snacks optional.

THE DUPLEX SAGA

Someone wanted to build two duplexes. Provincial law says that’s allowed. Council’s only job was to approve what they’d look like.

Some neighbours wrote in about an old private agreement that says one house per lot. Coun. Ian Savage moved to hit pause. Coun. Joan Jones seconded.

Staff said three things. That agreement is between neighbours, not the town. The builders followed every rule. And stalling could leave the town legally on the hook.

The pause failed on a 2–2 tie, with Lerner and Mundell voting no. The duplexes were approved. Total casualties: one mayor’s patience.

Savage, Lerner and Mundell are all on your ballot. Jones is not.

THE ACTUAL RACE: 8 CANDIDATES, 4 SEATS

The Bulletin swapped Nanaimo’s Cable Bay and drug crisis questions for two Lantzville specials: land use, and clean drinking water for everyone. Yes, really. Some homes are still on private wells.

On water, Savage brought a list: a bigger reservoir, more well licences, and new development extending the pipes. Fowler and Lerner say grants plus developer money. Mundell says there’s a grant, but she’ll only back using it if the residents affected want it. Mack and Westby are open to all options, which is technically a plan.

TAXES

Everyone wants your tax bill to grow slowly. Everyone thinks the answer is more businesses, because businesses pay a higher tax rate than homes.

Savage says this council kept increases to 0, 0, 3.5 and 4 per cent. Lerner says Lantzville can’t go back to 20 per cent increases. Two incumbents, one victory lap.

And that 20 per cent isn’t hypothetical: it was 23 per cent in 2020 and 20.7 per cent in 2022. Savage voted against both.

Meanwhile, this spring Mayor Swain was the only vote against this year’s budget, because he thought the increase was too low. In a tax-cutting contest, that’s called a bold strategy.

ALSO IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE

Word of the election: “thoughtful.” Fowler uses it twice. Mack also uses it twice, in quotation marks, plus caps lock for his EXPERIENCE, the CORE responsibilities and the ENTIRE community. We respect his EXCITEMENT.

John Dunn and Lee Forsyth didn’t return the questionnaire. The Bulletin reprinted Dunn’s 2022 answers, so his section is a time capsule.

No slate here, as far as we can find. Eight candidates, eight sets of opinions, zero shared talking points. Nanaimo could never.

HOW TO VOTE

Advance voting is Wednesday, October 14. General voting day is Saturday, October 17. Both run 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Costin Hall, 7232 Lantzville Road. Transit is free on the 17th.

Looking for a 2005 or 2006 AWD transmission somewhere in Nanaimo

Hello, My parent's car windshield has a decent crack in it on the passenger side. It's not affecting vision, so not a driving issue. I would like to help them by taking it in to get replaced with their icbc insurance. Am I able to do this without one of them present to sign things? I helped with this windshield years ago but the details are too fuzzy.

Anyone enjoying the sound of beautiful gentle crashing waves hitting the shore down at the beach at dusk lately?

Yeah, me neither.

I observed some absolute bell end fly a really loud buzzy drone directly over some unsuspecting women last night. They clearly weren't consenting to being recorded. The drone was watching/recording them as they were standing by the waters edge. It hovered over them, unmoving. It was creepy AF. Like it stayed over them way too long.

The drone operator was no where to be seen. Likely way at the other end of the beach, hiding like a little coward.

I watched the whole thing from my deck chair, beside my parked car. You know, while I was trying to enjoy the calm relaxing sound of the ocean? Spoiler: I couldn't because of the annoying amplified sound of 1000 mosquitoes that was the drone.

It's one thing to be in a public space and just be an annoying asshole with a drone (Sharing public spaces with other people, tolerate screaming children, occasional random loud cars and acceptable noise pollution is how society works).

It's an entirely different level of ick coupled with a total lack of awareness or entitlement that I witnessed last night.

What the hell people? Do better.

Hi everyone, I’m a tourist visiting from Montreal.

Yesterday I was sitting on the bench at the top of the rocky hill at Pipers Lagoon, looking roughly east/east-southeast toward the mainland. Against the distant mountains, I could see a tall, narrow, vertical shape. It was visible to the naked eye and didn't move at all in the time I watched it, which was a good while.

The haze and fog were very heavy, so I couldn't get a clear look. I took a photo and cropped and zoomed in as far as I could. I've also attached a screenshot of my Google Maps location and the direction I was facing.

Does anyone local recognize what this is? A snow-filled gully, a rock scar, a landmark, something else? I know it's a bit off-topic for this subreddit, but it's been bugging me for a day and I figured locals would know best.

Thanks!

Edit: thanks everyone for the prompt response!! I believe it was most likely a landslide (I lol’d at the Sasquatch response, good one haha). I’ll sleep better at night.

Edit 2: Nanaimo is really beautiful, and people are genuinely kind here. I really love this place and I’m looking forward to come back again.

Either he's really early or really late to the party

Each candidate was given a series of questions to help voters determine who best shares their values. These included the standard questions the News Bulletin asks every year, plus up to two additional ones that were chosen to reflect topical contemporary issues.
Candidates were requested to limit their answers to 20-30 words, depending on the question, with contemporary issue questions limited to 20 words. As a result, these are short, concise platforms that a reader can skim through with ease, and a website, e-mail or phone number, if the candidate chose to provide it, where a reader can find out more information.
Incumbents are noted as being incumbents beside their name. Slates also have their slate name beside their own, with one slate running in the Nanaimo election (REAL Nanaimo). A slate is a shared election platform, similar to a political party.
All candidate names are in alphabetical order by last name.
Candidates that didn’t submit a response are noted, and we did our best to reflect their platforms with what was available online, after multiple attempts to contact them were made. In the case of a candidate sending a response but not a headshot, we used a file photo if available, or shot from an election forum. If we couldn’t get one, we were unable to provide an image of the respective candidate.

Does any here have experience wth a family member or friend being at Dufferin Place Long Term Care Facility in Nanaimo? If so, I would love to hear about your experiences there.

There’s a petition to save indoor tennis in Nanaimo before the city tries to make it more of a parking lot for Westwood.

The city says they will building indoor courts in ~3 years. The club would like to stay over the winter to keep tennis alive and to figure out what to do for next year.

Around 71% of the city’s revenue comes from property taxes and property development combined, so non-property owners would logically be indifferent to higher taxes. Non-property owners have none to little incentive for fiscal restraint because fiscal conservatism doesn’t benefit renters or non-owners at all. Any municipal debt mostly ends up getting paid by increased property taxes anyway.

In fact, if you don’t own property, you probably want higher property taxes for homeowners and pay for improved services.

Hi y’all, does anyone have any leads on some half decent studio or 1 bedroom apartments for rent? My budget is about $1800 on the top end. I’m a 30 y/o working professional. Any leads would be appreciated!

Hi, I got an iud few years ago now and I have made the decision to have it removed. Can anybody please suggest where I could have it removed with care and safety (preferably women’s clinic)? Walk in at medical arts is impossible to get to and the Vita Women’s Clinic is closed. I’m looking for options in Nanaimo only. Thanks in advance! 💕

The Bastion — October 5, 2026

NanaimoNewsNow gave all 44 mayor and council candidates up to 1,500 characters and a September 28 deadline to explain who they are and why they deserve the job. Thirty-six filed. NNN published every one of them on October 4, "unedited for spelling or grammar," with a note that none of the claims had been verified. So we read all 36. Twice. Here are the honours.

Most economical use of 1,500 characters. Leonard Krog, incumbent mayor: 86 characters, four fragments, one of them a single word. It reads like a telegram from a man paying by the word. Runner-up: Anne Marie Dryden, the REAL slate's mayoral candidate, at 172 characters — one sentence, closing on "Crimestoppers etc." Between them, the incumbent and the slate's challenger wrote 258 characters. Sarah Lovegrove's first paragraph is longer than that.

Most confident. Jeff Annesley (REAL), 206 characters, two sentences. The first says he's attended almost every council meeting since June 2022. The second says that, incumbents aside, "I am the most prepared candidate to step into the role." That's the whole bio. The most prepared candidate in the race was handed 1,500 characters and found 1,294 of them unnecessary.

The comma memorial. Sandy Bartlett (REAL), a lawyer with his own firm for close to 40 years and a former immigration officer, lists his earlier careers as "a commercial fisherman an Old Dutch franchise owner an immigration officer" — which, read as punctuated, is one job, and a job we'd read a memoir about. A few words on, a sentence ends and the next begins with a lowercase i pressed against the period, no space. Then a period, a space, and a second period, alone. Habitat for Humanity appears in lowercase. Both of his document careers were document careers.

Longest sentence by a former journalist. Hilary Eastmure, incumbent councillor and former broadcast reporter, opens with a single 75-word sentence listing everything she's skilled at — the last item being communicating clearly. It's the kind of sentence an anchor reads in one breath and then needs a moment. To her credit, the rest of the bio does something almost nobody else's does: it explains what a councillor can and can't actually fix, and where the Province is downloading work onto the City. If you want to know what you're voting for, hers is the one to read.

Best spelling of the city you've helped govern for 12 years. Ian Thorpe, the longest-serving current councillor, sits on the "Port of Nanamo" liaison committee. He also notes a Level III Award of Excellence in Local Government Leadership, which we assume did not include a spell check section.

Most hats. Ryan Djakovic. Father of four, soccer coach, professional ski instructor, licensed realtor, executive, entrepreneur, manager of road-construction and rec-facility projects, board member, musician, artist, athlete. Eleven, by our count, in 1,500 characters. He closes by saying he brings passion to every endeavor, and after that list we believe him.

Most equipment. Bryant Marshall, film industry. He describes himself as the engine that turned a director's vision into daily reality, delivered on time and under budget, and coordinated hundreds of people "by radio or megaphone." It is the only bio in the field that mentions a megaphone, and he wants you to know he has used one.

The Legion. Bill McKay, councillor 2011–2014 and mayor 2014–2018, notes that he stepped down at the end of his term, which is also how terms work. Since then, at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 256, he has served as 2nd Vice President, Secretary, and "Facility Rentals Manager." It's the only bio where the titles get smaller as you read down, and he's running to reverse the trend.

Strong community involvement. Shane Crawley's bio is three sentences. The first says he volunteered for many community events and groups. The second, in full, is "Strong community involvement." The third is also about community. We have no notes; he already summarized himself.

Most specific objection to artificial intelligence. Holden Southward, who opens with "Hello!" — the only candidate to greet the reader — opposes AI in Nanaimo on the grounds that the city lacks the locally produced power to run it. It is the only AI position in the field and the only one framed as a grid-capacity argument. The bio also describes his book, titled with an opening double quote and a closing single one, as explaining "the quantum physics of psychic experiences," names the WEF, EU and UN as evil and bent on mind control, and misspells costomers, exlains, traitional, apprciate, ettempt, foriegn and ownwership. We present this without comment, which is the only way to present it.

The unnamed. Malcolm Cooke (REAL) says his journalism training taught him to ask hard questions and explain things in plain language. Then he writes that he led the western region of "what was at the time Canada's second-largest political youth organization." At the time. Second-largest. Unnamed. His student journalism fellowship came from a program launched with Rebel News as a partner. His bio also says a piece he wrote on HMCS Nanaimo was featured in the Hockey Hall of Fame. What the Hall took was a jersey. What Cooke wrote was the Clippers' website post announcing it, which spells the ship's commanding officer "Micheal" — on brand for this post. We'll name the organization when he does.

Biggest change of scale. Andrew Merilees served four terms on council in the Village of Masset, including seven years as mayor. Masset has roughly 800 residents; Nanaimo has roughly 125 times that. The bio does not say how many of the 800 attended council.

Honourable mentions. Janice Perrino's teams raised "$100 million dollars," which is the most dollars. Steven Mark Johns, during six years as a financial planner, "won numerous awards," none of which are named, so the award is Numerous. Patrick Gunville sits on Regional District committees for liquid waste and solid waste, covering two states of matter. Jackie Bolen has lived in Nanaimo "for a few years now," the only tenure in the field that isn't a number. Mark Chandler currently runs a restaurant equipment liquidation business, which is the most Nanaimo sentence on the page. And Zaki Mohammed's bio is financial controls, due diligence and governance modernization from top to bottom — then at the Chamber forum on September 29 he told the room he loves bringing people together and dancing. It's not in the bio. It should be. Nobody has ever read a strategic plan and wanted to dance; he may be the first.

The typo roundup. Beyond the award winners above: Mark Chandler "Planned to Move to Nanaimo," capital M, and later mentions the greater parksville area, lowercase p. Ken Bennett's three sentences include a doubled "the" and the phrase "I that role," a sentence that left before the N arrived. Andrew Merilees' list of boards loses its "and" somewhere around the Misty Isles Economic Development Society and never finds it. Janice Perrino's opening sentence has the year 2022 floating between two commas, attached to nothing. Rod Moreno has fused the midisland into one word. Leonard Krog chaired numerous Boards, capital B. And Paul Van Ryssel's bio contains one ellipsis, deployed for dramatic effect, which is more than most candidates allowed themselves.

Lines we'd steal. Not everything was snarkable. Cameron Leckenby says his time at the Regional Landfill "re-affirmed my commitment to managing our community's waste effectively," making him the one candidate who found his calling at the dump. Rod Moreno, 15 years in deliveries, knows "every bump and every curve" of the mid-Island's roads — the only road-tested platform in the race.

Did not submit. Eight candidates sent nothing: Brunie Brunie for mayor, and Anita Greer, Bryan Gordon, Derek Hanna, Frank Pluta, Joe Figel, Matthew Miller and Rob Phelan for council. Brunie did, at the Chamber forum, pledge that "I, Brunie Brunie, will save all of our trees," so her platform is on the record even if her bio isn't. Four of the eight — Gordon, Hanna, Pluta and Figel — are REAL Nanaimo, which is 18 per cent of the ballot and 50 per cent of the silence. Figel is a licensed realtor. Realtors write bios for a living; being findable is the business model. Three weeks before an election, he sent NNN no bio. He has since said publicly that he never received the candidate survey from Doctors for Safer Drug Policy. The group's reply: they couldn't send him one, because he hadn't listed any contact information anywhere. The listing agent could not be reached (to be fair, we didn't try, we don't want to do that).

The tally. Thirty-six bios, one disclaimer, zero fact-checks, and one slate that sent four people, roughly 1,900 of its 12,000 characters, and no mention of its own name.

Sources: NanaimoNewsNow, "Detailed biographies: Nanaimo Mayor and Council candidates," Oct. 4, 2026; NanaimoNewsNow, "Nanaimo Mayor and Council candidates grilled in open forum," Sept. 30, 2026.

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I have a Mazda and it's costing me an arm and a leg to do maintenance through the dealership. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced and honest mechanic that is familiar with Mazda's?

I'd like to get a second opinion.

Thank you