There's a civic election in 72 days, and a coalition is grading every candidate A to F

There's a municipal election in the 13-municipality CRD in 72 days, and a coalition of advocacy groups wants to hand you a scorecard before you vote.

Livable CRD is drafting about 100 questions to send to every candidate ahead of the Oct. 17 vote, covering transit, housing, climate, walking, cycling, healthcare, arts and governance. Twelve groups are contributing questions in their own areas, from Climate Justice Victoria to Family Doctors for Saanich. The answers get published as candidate profiles with a letter grade, A to F.

Spokesperson Michael Bassili says the point isn't to tell you who to pick. "We're hoping that people will gather general information—enough information that they'll feel confident about casting their vote for that particular candidate instead of having to rely on just the promotional material that they put out or maybe flyers they got in the mail," he told Capital Daily.

Not everyone's on board. Save Our Saanich, which is backing a slate of six candidates in that district, says none of them will respond, calling the effort biased. Bassili insists the group is nonpartisan and endorses no one, and says candidates skipping the questionnaire is "completely fine, up to them."