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Calgary Municipal Politics

Which mayoral candidate do you intend to vote for in 2021?

  • Jeremy Farkas

    Votes: 3 4.9%

  • Jyoti Gondek

    Votes: 43 70.5%

  • Brad Field

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Jan Damery

    Votes: 11 18.0%

  • Jeff Davison

    Votes: 3 4.9%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 1.6%
  • Total voters
    61
calgary.ctvnews.ca

Rise in protests led to increased enforcement at Calgary city hall, mayor says

On Tuesday morning, inside Calgary city hall, more than 20 security guards, peace officers and police – including members of the mountain bike team – filled the lobby in a show of force while, outside on the street, a handful of protesters voiced their displeasure with the city's mayor.
calgary.ctvnews.ca calgary.ctvnews.ca

I've been noticing the rise in right wing protests lately. Thankfully there have been counter-protesters with larger groups, but it does seem concerning.
 
potatopizzafan said:
Not that i agree with the bag thing, but is this the best place for these kind of discussions? Im starting to get Facebook vibes from this forum with all the bitching and moaning. I like this forum because its a place to talk about buildings and development without the BS, lets keep it that way.
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The forum is geared toward development, but I’m glad there’s a thread for municipal politics, otherwise it would pop up in the other threads. With this thread you know what to expect.
 
Maybe related to politics (not sure the reason) but this thread seems as good as any to put the news in, the City's brand new GM of Planning and Development, Tim Keane, resigned over the weekend, effective immediately. He only started about a month ago I think.
 
DougB said:
Who won't be gone? I'd guess most likely to survive the purge would be McLean and Sharp
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With the current mood it feels like most would be gone, but over the years I've watched ridings vote in their incumbents time after time. Usually it take a high profile controversy to get them voted out. If the election was held today, maybe there would be big change, but by the time the election comes, people will have mostly forgotten about the citywide zoning change and the plastic bag controversy.
I don't think Chu is running again, but his controversy would have killed him anyway. I'm not even sure about Wong. He got in because there were two other candidates who were almost identical and split the vote, but now that he's in, he could get reelected again. When it comes to councilors, voters are a lot more apathetic, at least that's what I've seen.
 
Surrealplaces said:
With the current mood it feels like most would be gone, but over the years I've watched ridings vote in their incumbents time after time. Usually it take a high profile controversy to get them voted out. If the election was held today, maybe there would be big change, but by the time the election comes, people will have mostly forgotten about the citywide zoning change and the plastic bag controversy.
I don't think Chu is running again, but his controversy would have killed him anyway. I'm not even sure about Wong. He got in because there were two other candidates who were almost identical and split the vote, but now that he's in, he could get reelected again. When it comes to councilors, voters are a lot more apathetic, at least that's what I've seen.
Click to expand...
Incumbency has been incredibly powerful for something like a council seat; there are a lot of voters who dislike "city council" but who are fine with their councillor in particular. Part of this is that the incumbent gets to do all of the basic fill-my-pothole, speak-at-my-school stuff of constituent service that never makes it out of the community. Part of it is that they have a high profile, name recognition, write in the community newsletter, etc. Part of it is that they can reflect their constituents more even if council as a whole doesn't; Greg McLean and Courtney Walcott reflect the priorities and leanings of their specific wards more than the council as a whole can. Part of it is that there's always multiple challengers and it's hard for one to collect all of the momentum as the opponent.

It's not like Sean Chu was a whip-smart, highly effective councillor before it was revealed he was a sex pest. Gian-Carlo Carra has held on despite big, organized campaigns against him. I suggest the late Ray Jones was probably more effective in his first four terms than in his last five, but he kept winning. Incumbency is really powerful.

But all of this is moot, with the proposed Bill 20 introducing municipal parties and unlimited developer money into the process; the next election is going to be so different from all of the previous ones, it's like arguing about whether the Flames would beat the Canucks at cricket.

And it'll be to the detriment of governance; ironically, one main argument the UCP is using to force the change is the plastic bag bylaw. But because councillors are independent, when the bylaw proved to be unworkable and unpopular, a few councillors switched their vote and it was gone as soon as possible. With parties will come party discipline. As he was introducing the bill, McIver admitted that the majority of Albertans opposed municipal parties; does anybody think that UCP MLAs will vote against this bill simply because it's unpopular? If we had parties today, the plastic bag bylaw would be on the books for the next year and a half.
 
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