Master gardener, agrologist enters Central Saanich council race

Published 9:00 am Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Central Saanich’s farmland is among the municipality’s defining features. Kathleen Zimmerman believes the people who work it deserve a strong voice around the council table.

The retired agrologist and master gardener is seeking election as a Central Saanich councillor this fall, drawing on a career spent advising farmers and municipalities across B.C.

“I don’t see anyone on council who has a strong agricultural background, and I feel like the farmers need a stronger voice at council,” she said.

Zimmerman’s connection to agriculture began north of Kamloops, where she was raised on a small family farm by Swiss immigrant parents.

She studied agriculture at the University of Guelph and UBC before building a career with B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture and provincial farm organizations. During her final decade in the workforce, she served as a regional agrologist advising Richmond, Delta, Surrey and Metro Vancouver on their agricultural committees.

That experience highlighted how closely municipal decisions affect local agriculture.

“Farmers are deeply impacted by the way bylaws are written, the way official community plans are written, the way ALR applications are reviewed,” she said. “It’s so important that the farmers have a voice and that council understand what the potential impacts of these types of documents are on the farming community.”

Retiring in Metchosin, and later Central Saanich, she began attending council meetings. Those experiences planted the seed for her first council run. She formally entered the race after taking a five-week campaigning course last fall with Equal Voice, a non-profit promoting women in politics.

Beyond agriculture, Zimmerman wants to strengthen transparency and public participation. Pointing to closed-door meetings, she suggested the district reevaluate what must be kept private.

“Do we really need it to be in camera? Can we talk about this so that the public knows what’s going on?” she said.

She would also push to revive local advisory committees, calling them an untapped resource.

“We have a community that has a lot of retirees. We have a lot of incredible knowledge that people are bringing from their work lives,” she said. “We could be drawing on that with these advisory committees.”

Locally, she volunteers with the Victoria Master Gardener Association, South Island Farmers’ Institute, Peninsula Country Market, and the CRD Water Advisory Committee. At public clinics, she answers gardening questions on the fly, a process she likens to a game show.

“It’s kind of like gardening Jeopardy,” she said. “You literally have no idea what the question’s going to be, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Endorsed by Sustain Our Central Saanich (SOCS), Zimmerman said their priorities align but rejected suggestions that backed candidates would vote as a unified bloc.

“All of us are going to be completely independent in how we vote,” she said. “There’s no party whip telling us what to support. We’re going to use our individual perspectives and analyze the applications ourselves.”

She sees the campaign as an opportunity to build a direct line of communication with residents.

“I want the electorate to hold me accountable every day for the next four years,” she said.