College in Saanich, which later awarded him the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award. While at Camosun, Fleming served as communications coordinator for the student society. He then enrolled in the University of Victoria (UVic), where he majored in history. As president of the UVic Students' Society, he was active in acquiring universal access to BC Transit for students through a U-Pass system. After graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in 2002, he started work with a communication consulting business. He met his wife Maura Parte while attending UVic; they have two children together. Municipal politics While still at university, he stood as a candidate for Victoria City Council in the 1999 municipal elections as a member of the Victoria Civic Electors, which ran a joint slate of seven candidates with the Green Party. Fleming finished third in voting, securing him a seat on the eight-member council. He was re-elected councillor in 2002, this time receiving the second highest vote count. He traveled to El Salvador in 2004, as part of a 13-member delegation of election observers to monitor the presidential election. While on Victoria City Council, Fleming gained a reputation for being a "fiscally prudent democratic socialist". He supported the legalization of secondary suites, the construction of the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre (but voted against the option to have it privately operated), and amendments to bylaws to target aggressive panhandling. As a director on the board of the Capital Regional District (CRD), Fleming was vice-chair of the CRD Housing Corporation where he advocated for an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. He sat on the Victoria Regional Transit Commission and has advocated for transit service expansion and light rail in Greater Victoria. He was a member of the Provincial Capital Commission and was the only member to vote against, due to concerns with the long-term lease agreement and risks involved, replacing the plant and animal conservatory Crystal Gardens with the multi-media tourist attraction, The B.C. Experience, which filed for bankruptcy protection three months after opening. Provincial politics With the 2005 BC general election still a year away, Fleming declared his interest in seeking the NDP nomination in the Victoria-Hillside riding. Within a few months, former Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Steve Orcherton, who had won the riding in 1996 but lost in 2001, declared his candidacy for the NDP nomination. The primary was billed as a contest between the hard line "old-school