Strong Winds, Dual Elections & Terror Plea — Vancouver Saturday

🚑 Breaking & Incidents

1. Strong winds topple trees and cut power to thousands in the Lower Mainland. Multiple outages affected “thousands” of customers across B.C.'s Lower Mainland after high winds toppled trees and brought down lines on Friday; crews were dispatched region-wide to restore service and clear blocked roads.
2. Officials change border crossing hours as B.C. ends seasonal time change. Provincial officials announced adjusted hours at Canada–U.S. border crossings to align with B.C.’s decision to drop the seasonal clock change starting this year, creating new crossing-hour schedules for affected border points.

🏛️ Government & Politics

1. Dual municipal and provincial elections are confusing voters across B.C. this October. Local elections on Oct. 17 will elect mayors, councillors and trustees while the provincial vote on Oct. 24 will choose 93 MLAs; candidates including Cori Ramsay and UBCM president Jenna Stoner report widespread voter confusion and overlap with provincial advance voting.
2. Peace River North voters face constrained provincial choices ahead of the Oct. 24 election. Reporting shows Peace River North’s provincial ballot offers a limited field of candidates, narrowing options for voters in that northeastern B.C. riding as the province heads to a snap election called by NDP Leader David Eby.
3. Richmond council candidates debate local affordability at a public forum. Candidates for Richmond council discussed housing affordability and municipal measures at a debate attended by local voters, with speakers outlining their approaches to local housing pressures ahead of Oct. 17 municipal voting.

🎨 Community & Culture

1. Two authors with B.C. ties are finalists for the 2026 Giller Prize. The national Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist narrowed to finalists that include two writers connected to B.C., placing the province’s literary scene in the running for Canada’s $100,000 fiction prize.
2. Steven Galloway testifies that faculty–student relationships were common in UBC’s arts program. In testimony, former UBC professor Steven Galloway said such relationships occurred in the arts program, addressing allegations at the centre of long-running institutional inquiries at the university.
3. B.C. advocates warn that the universal child-care promise has been sidelined. Child-care advocates told reporters that the provincial universal child-care commitment appears to have been deprioritised, urging renewed attention to implementation timelines and funding amid the provincial campaign.

🚨 Crime & Public Safety

1. Ticketing for seatbelt and distracted-driving offences has doubled under a new crackdown. Police data show the number of tickets for seatbelt and distracted-driving violations in B.C. rose twofold after authorities launched an enforcement campaign targeting those offences.
2. Woman who married an ISIS fighter pleads guilty to a terror-related charge. A defendant pleaded guilty to a terrorism-related offence after marrying an ISIS fighter, entering a plea in a Canadian court as part of proceedings connected to overseas terrorism investigations.

📰 Also Today

• B.C. Green Emily Lowan outlines affordability and climate plan, linking housing and emissions policies.