Nonpartisan Hacks

Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with John Jack, known in his own language as Sayaač̓atḥ, who runs two governments at once: he's Chief Councillor of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, a modern treaty nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and the elected Chair of the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District.

Jack walks through what it actually took to design Huu-ay-aht's constitution from the ground up: a legislative and executive branch fused into one council, a hereditary leadership body that functions like a "sober second thought" Senate, and a tribunal that acts as both administrative appeal body and Supreme Court. He and the hosts dig into why he'd rather build relationships at the table than rely on the courts, what BC's treaty landscape gets that the rest of Canada doesn't, and why he thinks consensus-based decision-making quietly fails on the hardest calls.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Find all our episodes at nonpartisanhacks.com and drop us a line.

🎵 Theme music: "Cruising" by Sky Gienger via Uppbeat | License: JNRTTK70QSW4XR8V

What does it actually take to bring 289 kilometres of century-old railway back to life?

In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood take the show on the road — or rather, the rails — recording aboard a high rail vehicle rolling from Parksville to Coombs with returning guest Thomas Bevan, CEO of the Island Corridor Foundation.

Bevan walks Joel and Sean through the history of the old rail corridor, from its origins as a resource-extraction line built on a 19th-century land grant, through decades of decline, to the Foundation’s current work managing wildfire risk, negotiating trail agreements, and finding revenue that keeps 289 kilometres of land productive without waiting on government to decide the corridor’s fate.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Find all our episodes at nonpartisanhacks.com and drop us a line.

🎵 Theme music: "Cruising" by Sky Gienger via Uppbeat | License: JNRTTK70QSW4XR8V

Shayla Day was homeless from age 11 to 21, addicted to narcotics by 16, and overdosed 44 times. Today she's helping to lead a regional response to homelessness.

In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with Shayla Day, founder and CEO of Day Homes Society, a nonprofit serving the Oceanside region with outreach, food support, housing navigation, and community coordination. Day also chairs the Oceanside Homeless Task Force and co-chairs the Oceanside Community Action Team.

Day walks Joel and Sean through how she went from the street to running frontline social services, what "Housing First" actually means (it's not what most people assume), and how a coordinated regional network of shelters operates across Vancouver Island.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood pull apart the property tax bill that lands in every homeowner's mailbox each spring, and explain why it's really six or seven different bills stapled into one. Recorded on Sean's deck in Parksville, BC, the two councillors walk through who actually sets each line, why your assessment doesn't move your taxes the way you'd think, and what, if anything, you can do about the total.

They also get into the mechanics that rarely make the news: how the regional hospital district and library board raise your taxes without a single headline, why the province's homeowner grant has quietly lost value for decades, and what changed this year in BC's property tax deferral program.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Find all our episodes at nonpartisanhacks.com and drop us a line.

🎵 Theme music: "Cruising" by Sky Gienger via Uppbeat | License: JNRTTK70QSW4XR8V

What happens when the province doesn't move fast enough and people in your city can't wait?

In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with Marianne Alto, Mayor of the City of Victoria, recorded live at the AVICC convention. Victoria isn't just BC's capital city, it's a mid-sized municipality shouldering an outsized share of the region's housing pressures, homelessness, and mental health and addiction challenges, all while the provincial legislature sits in its front yard.

Mayor Alto talks candidly about what it looks like when a city decides to stop waiting: building 97 new shelter and transitional housing spaces, creating a first-of-its-kind Community Safety, Wellbeing, and Partnerships department, and funding nonprofit service providers when senior governments can't or won't. She also shares what she's learned about courage, accountability, adaptability, and why standing in a room full of people yelling at you is sometimes just part of the job.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Find all our episodes at nonpartisanhacks.com and drop us a line.

🎵 Theme music: "Cruising" by Sky Gienger via Uppbeat | License: JNRTTK70QSW4XR8V

In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, recorded live at the AVICC convention in Victoria, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with Marianne Meed Ward — Mayor of Burlington, Ontario and co-founder of Elect Respect — to talk about the growing crisis of harassment, abuse, and outright threats facing elected officials at every level of government. Marianne has received death threats, been told by police not to attend her own public meetings, and watched a colleague leave elected life entirely because of the abuse. Rather than stepping back, she helped launch a national movement.

Elect Respect is now a cross-country campaign with hundreds of elected officials and over 60 municipalities signed on. The pledge is simple: commit to respectful democracy, lead by example, and ask the same of colleagues and constituents.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Find all our episodes at nonpartisanhacks.com and drop us a line.

Sign the pledge: electrespect.ca

🎵 Theme music: "Cruising" by Sky Gienger via Uppbeat | License: JNRTTK70QSW4XR8V

In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood welcome back BC political reporter Rob Shaw — host of Political Capital and co-author of the bestselling A Matter of Confidence — for the "Criterion Edition" of his rant on first reading at the BC Legislature. They unpack what first reading actually does, why the NDP government's growing habit of blocking opposition bills (including a recent Trevor Halford bill on DRIPA) chips away at the institution, and how the same procedural dynamics show up around the municipal council table.

From DRIPA to slates to the quiet collapse of caucus power, the conversation is part civics lesson, part warning shot, and very much in the Nonpartisan Hacks spirit of "the process matters as much as the outcome."

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Find all our episodes at nonpartisanhacks.com and drop us a line.

🎵 Theme music: "Cruising" by Sky Gienger via Uppbeat | License: JNRTTK70QSW4XR8V

You already know how to mark an X on a ballot. But do you know what you're actually voting for?

Joel Grenz and Sean Wood — two City of Parksville councillors — break down the overlooked civics of actually choosing who to vote for. From how party slates and vetting work, to why big campaign promises are often a red flag, to the real reason politicians get accused of lying (hint: voters play a role), this is the honest conversation about democratic participation that doesn't happen often enough.

Prompted in part by the current BC Conservative leadership race, and with a municipal election on the horizon, this episode is the flip side of a previous discussion, So You’re Thinking of Running for Local Government.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Find all our episodes at nonpartisanhacks.com and drop us a line.

In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with George Anderson, MLA for Nanaimo-Lantzville, former Nanaimo city councillor, commercial lawyer, and Parliamentary Secretary for Transit. Anderson shares what it was like being the youngest person at the council table by four decades, how he went from door-knocking to Treasury Board, and what he believes is the most expensive material in home construction today.

The conversation spans Anderson’s private member’s bill on building approvals, the mechanics of how private members’ bills actually work, the future of Vancouver Island rail, and why government is like a supertanker — it takes time and patience to change direction.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Find all our episodes at nonpartisanhacks.com and drop us a line.

In this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Joel Grenz and Sean Wood go behind the scenes on Sean’s multi-year advocacy journey to increase the Volunteer First Responder Tax Credit — first at the federal level, then provincially in British Columbia. From jogging past the fire hall in Parksville to sitting in the legislature on budget day, it’s a story about persistence, relationships, and pulling every lever you can find.

Plus: it's the show's first-ever video episode and there's a new way to pitch in. Joel's agency built GiverLever, a WordPress donation plugin for nonprofits, campaigns, and creators, and you can take it for a spin by supporting the podcast, or back a specific episode you think deserves more listeners by contributing directly on that episodes page on the website.

Listen in for:

👉 Subscribe, rate, and review on your favourite podcast platform.

Wanna watch?