Calgary Municipal Politics

[CalgaryTiger]

FYI on where the Western Standard thinks council is ideologically. I decided not to provide a link to avoid such a rag getting clicks. (My comments are in non-italics)

Ward 1, Kim Tyers. Her first term on council, replacing Sonya Sharp. Definitely to the right.

Ward 2, Jennifer Wyness. Reelected. Wyness stays in the centre on most issues, but can lean left at times

Ward 3, Andrew Yule. A newbie on council, with leftist politics.

Ward 4, DJ Kelly. Another first-timer; also left.

Ward 5, Raj Dhaliwal. Reelected. Occasional centrist. but mostly left.

Ward 6, John Pantazopoulos. First timer, more a centrist.

Ward 7, Myke Atkinson. Interesting spelling of his first name, Atkinson is new and left.. (My comment, nice comment to make about someone's name they were very likely given)

Ward 8, Nathaniel Schmidt. Another of the 10 new faces who is left.

Ward 9, Harrison Clark. Also new and left.

Ward 10, Andre Chabot. Longest serving member of council, on the right.

Ward 11, Rob Ward. Former Western Standard bearer; everything’s all right. (My comment, lol this writer is a loser)

Ward 12, Mike Jamieson. Interesting spelling of his first name. Plays right wing. (My comment, he has a sense of humour)

Ward 13, Dan Mclean. Reelected. Right wing, through and through. (My comment, hopefully takes him out for dinner before... nevermind)

Ward 14, Landon Johnston. First-timer and the man who started the Jyoti Gondek recall campaign. definitely on the right.

For those not counting...

It adds up to six on the right side, two in the middle and six on the left, with Farkas, by our measure, in the centre, for a total of 15 councillors.

It gives Farkas, and the councillors identified as being in the centre, a lot of power that needs to be used with common sense, not ideology. The first big test will be a motion to repeal the banket upzoning bylaw, which Farkas has promised to put to council.

Maybe this isn't as a conservative council as I thought. This writer definitely has a red hat that says, "If you ain't right, you ain't right". Might be more of a Progressive Conservative council, isn't that brand coming back Provincially?

 

[lemongrab]

I think it is probably true that Dhaliwal, Wyness, Pantazopolous, and Farkas are the ones most likely to vote either way. I'll be pleasantly surprised if JP turns out to be a centrist, but I suspect he is more of a traditional conservative. FWIW he did use Wildrose/Reform colours, which raises a bit of a navy/green flag for me, but who knows.

Wyness seems to have a better voting record than I'd expect from hearing her talk, but maybe she's just bad at talking? I really respect her for writing her rationale on that page, though.

- Pro re-zoning but wants to keep parking minimums (pretty moderate I guess)
- She voted against the 'safe and inclusive access bylaw' (library protest stuff). She had a few valid concerns but I'm not sure I buy her arguments overall
- No to a bunch of housing task force recommendations. Again some valid concerns, others I don't buy. I'm not sure why this council seemed to struggle to break items out for separate votes in a few of the meetings I've seen to at least ensure the easy stuff gets passed.

So definitely a mixed bag. Still seems right side of centre to me, but I think she might also just be a bit of a contrarian.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Blanket re-zoning may be gone, unless the fiscally conservative amongst the council members votes with the progressives, assuming there is some sort of forfeiture of funding from the Feds.

I could see Main Streets being on the chopping block, or at least I could see a reduction in funding for the next budget cycle, meaning a slower roll-out.

I don't know if a field house will remain a priority either.

I expect one of the first orders of business will be blanket zoning, as it seemed to be the hottest issue of the election. Apparently 8 of the 15 have stated they'll repeal it, so it's possible it might be gone. The positive side I'm hearing from some of the opponents of blanket zoning is that they want more discussion about it, maybe council can come together as a group to make changes to it rather than repeal it altogether.