Meet the five Islands Trust North Pender Trustee candidates running in this month’s municipal election. In their own words.
North Pender residents will select two of these to sit on the Islands Trust Council. Election to be held on October 17, 2026.
Aaron Campbell
My name is Aaron Campbell, I’m a dad to one amazing daughter, a farmer, a construction worker, and a passionate resident of this beautiful island we live on. I’m your incumbent trustee from last term, 2022 till 2026.
My history on Pender has been fairly involved. Along with being a trustee, I’ve been the general manager of Port Browning Pub and Marina, a volunteer first responder with Pender Fire, and responsible for events and activities on our farm over the past 11 years. I care a lot for our island, the environment, the unique amenities, and the future of the same.
I have struggled with the Trust as an organization, both as a trustee and a resident. I believe in the “preserve and protect” mandate of the Trust. I also struggle with its implementation and the jurisdictional creep that seems to be prevalent and most affecting our island. I don’t believe that the Trust is on the right track toward accomplishing its mandate. I do believe that it can change.
There are a lot of challenges to the job, many of which you don’t realize on day one. Bureaucracy is a real thing. It’s slow. Painstakingly slow. You can have amazing local committee meetings and then turn around to the group of 26 trustees at the larger Trust Council and go three days of meetings being on the wrong side of the vote. You have to be in it for the long haul.
That’s why I decided to run again. To bring the same representation to the Trust that Penderites ask for. The hope that with a new term comes new perspectives and the possibility of positive balanced change for Pender Island.
Michael Cowan
I put my name forward to become a North Pender Island Trustee because I care deeply about Pender and the surrounding island communities, and because I strongly believe in the purpose of the Islands Trust: preserving and protecting these extraordinary islands, their unique character and, fundamentally, the natural environment and fragile ecosystems that make them so special.
My husband and I came to the Southern Gulf Islands six years ago. Since then, I have had the privilege of working alongside many remarkable people to help build the Southern Gulf Islands Neighbourhood House. I have obtained multiple grants to expand programs and infrastructure for seniors and youth, strengthen community justice initiatives, and help establish a much-needed daycare when it became clear there was a gap.
Today, I serve as Executive Director of the Southern Gulf Islands Neighbourhood House and work closely with the Southern Gulf Islands Community Resource Centre. Through these roles, I have collaborated with organizations and communities not only on Pender, but across all five Southern Gulf Islands, including projects in partnership with the Capital Regional District. I hold a master’s degree in global leadership.
I absolutely believe in protecting our natural environment, biodiversity, water, and fragile ecosystems. Without the Islands Trust and the protections established over the past five decades, Pender could be a very different place today. I want those protections to remain strong for generations to come.
I am a systems thinker. Put simply, this means looking beyond the immediate issue in front of us. A policy intended to address one issue can have consequences that create an entirely new set of issues. Residents’ needs for employment, transportation, housing and aging, environmental protection, local businesses and agriculture, and water supply and quality are all interconnected. Good decisions require forethought and an understanding of how a policy might inadvertently create seemingly unrelated issues with immediate or long-term effects.
I also believe strongly in evidence-based decision-making. When policies are proposed, I want trustees and staff to examine the best available evidence, consider different perspectives, ask difficult questions, and understand broader consequences before making decisions. Passion and advocacy are important, but they should be accompanied by thoughtful analysis and a willingness to challenge our own assumptions.
I believe we should continually ask whether the government can work better. I want to explore opportunities to reduce redundancy and unnecessary complexity where Islands Trust regulations and processes overlap with federal, provincial, CRD, and other local authorities. Regulatory requirements for reliable and sustainable infrastructure should not preclude strong and effective environmental protections.
These are the perspectives I would bring to the Islands Trust.
To me, “preserve and protect” does not mean freezing Pender in time. It means managing change thoughtfully and responsibly, protecting the environment and character of the islands while ensuring Pender remains a resilient, diverse, and sustainable community.
If elected, I will listen, ask questions, follow the evidence, and approach decisions with an open mind.
Morgan Hayward
I am a third-generation Pender Islander. My mother and grandfather first moved to the island in 1967, when Pender’s population was only around 350 people. I have been coming to Pender my entire life. I have lived here on and off since I was eight years old.
For me, Pender is not simply a place where I live. It is where I grew up, where I have worked, where I am raising my family, and where I hope future generations will continue to build their lives.
I come from a family deeply connected to Pender’s community and local economy. My grandfather built many homes on the island, my stepfather was one of the original owners of Tru Value grocery store, and throughout my life I have worked for and supported numerous local businesses.
I am running as a candidate for North Pender Islands Trust because the decisions being made today will help shape what Pender looks like for generations to come.
My approach is straightforward: protect what makes Pender special while making sure it remains a community where people can live, work, raise families, and grow old with dignity. I believe environmental protection and a healthy, sustainable community must work together.
I am a lifelong nature enthusiast who deeply values Pender’s forests, freshwater, shorelines, wildlife, and rural character. Protecting these will remain critically important.
At the same time, Pender must continue addressing the challenges facing residents, including housing, affordability, support for local businesses, opportunities for young families, services for seniors, and responsible development.
I do not believe protecting Pender means saying “no” to every change. I believe it means making thoughtful decisions, respecting environmental limits, listening carefully to residents, and ensuring that development is appropriate for the island.
I want residents to feel heard before major decisions are made, and I believe local government should be transparent, practical, respectful, and accessible.
My priorities include:
- Protecting Pender’s environment and freshwater aquifers.
- Supporting locally owned businesses.
- Improving housing opportunities for people who live and work on the island.
- Preserving Pender’s rural character while considering responsible development.
- Strengthening communication between residents and their elected representatives.
My goal is not to change what Pender is. It is to protect what generations have built while making thoughtful decisions that allow our community to remain strong and livable.
I want my children – and all the children growing up on Pender today – to inherit an island that is environmentally healthy, economically sustainable, welcoming, and still unmistakably Pender.
Brenna Mongeon
I never sought to be an elected official. Although friends and family have suggested that I stand in past elections, I always dismissed the idea reflexively. But this time I have been moved to action thanks to the passion and encouragement of my friends and neighbours.
While we are on an island, we are not isolated from the significant challenges facing our planet. Macroeconomic and environmental conditions are threatening our community’s well-being. Addressing this will require an informed electorate, active public engagement, and the collective courage to act.
While I have a technical background in sustainable infrastructure which will support this role, my overarching goal is to contribute objectivity and transparency to decisions made by the Islands Trust Council and North Pender’s Local Trust Committee. In turn, I hope this will encourage more positive and proactive engagement with the Trust here on Pender.
We all have a part to play in creating a more sustainable and equitable community. Working together, I know we can find solutions for water security, environmental protection, affordable housing, food systems, and alternative transportation. We can build a future which protects our unique environment without leaving anyone behind. I invite everyone to participate in this future.
About Brenna Mongeon
I’m an environmental professional living full-time in Magic Lake since 2022. I work as a solutions consultant designing water and energy management systems for residential, commercial, and mixed-use buildings.
Over the past six years, I have been involved in about 250 projects, including dozens on Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island. Across about 21,000 units of housing, these systems will together save 1.1 billion litres of water annually. This is roughly equivalent to the volume of both Buck Lake and Magic Lake combined, every year!
Outside of my professional practice, I serve on the CRD Southern Gulf Islands Community Economic Sustainability Commission, and I chair the Magic Lake Estates Water and Sewer Committee. Some recent drinking water successes include an initial screening for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and completion of our first system-wide energy audit. We are truly blessed to have these community utilities and it is important that we care for them accordingly.
I am a twice distinguished graduate of the British Columbia Institute of Technology, where I studied sustainable energy and electronics engineering while working full-time. During my time at BCIT, I was selected as a Behavior, Energy & Climate Change Student Fellow, and I was awarded the Linda Latham Scholarship by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
I’ve been politically active since the age of 14. My early activism was sparked by then Education Minister Christy Clark’s elimination of French Immersion from several high schools in District 43. As a young adult, I played a small role in achieving the permanent protection of Coquitlam’s Walton Park, and I was later involved in efforts to enact electoral reform in BC municipalities. I plan on putting this activist spirit to work representing our community within the Islands Trust.
Visit http://www.brenna.works for more.
Niall Parker
I’ve been a Penderite for 25 years, raising our family and being involved in the community from the beginning, volunteering with various organizations including the Emergency Program, Moving Around Pender (trails/bus/etc), RCMSAR Station 20 (search and rescue) and others.
I am an engineer by occupation, fortunate to be able to work remotely from the earliest days of telecommuting, leaving me lots of time to enjoy our island and community. I have worked with many of our IT trustees over the years but this is the first time running as a candidate.
The Gulf Islands were recognized as an area requiring special protection and management of development leading to the formation of the Islands Trust. While IT has its flaws, it is what we have to work with for the foreseeable future.
- “Preserve and Protect” applies primarily to our environment, with our human community necessarily built on top of it. Humans have been here a long time, modifying the environment as we need to live but planning decisions by the LTC need to minimize our impact.
- Rational and transparent decision making: we all have our feelings but decisions are best made on whatever objective data is available. Every decision will be a tradeoff, clearly identifying all sides of the issues before deciding.
- Efficient use of our resources: water, energy, space, waste disposal … in all these areas, island communities must manage with tighter constraints than other places.
- Focus: The Local Trust Committee is primarily about land use decisions, guided by our Official Community Plan. We need to avoid distractions into areas where other levels of government have responsibility.
If elected as a North Pender Trustee, I will do my best to serve our community in our planning decisions and work with any other agencies toward common goals. Contact me by email (np4ltc@balsk.ca) if you have questions, thanks!