‘We’re 363 days from election day. Calgarians, get ready to sharpen your pencils,’ says Coun. Sonya Sharp, likely running for mayor in the next election
Just shy of a year from voting day.
Already we see the first sign of fireworks nobody will be able to cancel.
City political parties can be set up and Mayor Jyoti Gondek is fuming.
The mayor says the way the parties can operate is “a kiss of death to local representation and local democracy.”
“The days of independent candidates who actually represent you look like they’re going to be over.”
Gondek fails to mention the door was opened wide last election when city unions bankrolled a $1.7-million campaign backing candidates for mayor and council and now we have this mayor and council.
Yes, there are many who could end up in the race for the mayor’s chair when the time to mark a ballot arrives.
That’s just for starters.
There is another group casting themselves as concerned Calgarians who have a website and have sent out their take on city hall politicians to some citizens already.
It’s Time Calgary is their handle and they seek to remind voters of what city council members have said and how city council members have voted.
They look to be really targeting three councillors — Kourtney Penner is one. If she is reelected in south Calgary they should erect a shrine to mark the miracle.
Then there is Evan Spencer in the conservative heartland of southeast Calgary, a strange place where they insist on not voting for conservatives in city elections.
A third councillor under their microscope is Courtney Walcott, from your scribbler’s neck of the woods in the city core.
The group also throw in Gian-Carlo Carra, Jasmine Mian, Richard Pootmans, Raj Dhaliwal and Peter Demong as the others on Gondek’s team.
Those who think Demong shouldn’t be on the list haven’t been following the bouncing ball at city hall’s Big Blue Playpen.
It’s Time Calgary recently sent out a card to some Calgarians featuring from left to right — Penner, Walcott and Spencer.
In Penner’s ward there was criticism of her on the card.
Penner took aim at the group on YouTube.
“I could have offered them a better photo,” says the councillor.
She thought Spencer’s photo looked lovely.
“He has the kindest heart.”
As for Walcott, Penner says he’s “the angry black man in the middle. What a trope. What a trope.”
She calls it “smear campaign material.”
“Whoop! Whoop! The chickadee,” she says.
I always thought the city council bird should be the ostrich because they are always burying their heads in the sand.
She believes the bag bylaw had “really strong foundations.”
The councillor says “citizen sentiment is only one data point. When you look at all the data points around rezoning it made sense.”
Penner says a plebiscite would be “lazy democracy.”
As for tax hikes, Penner, who has no regrets, says there were “years of austerity” at city hall.
Maybe the councillor should look up “austerity” in the dictionary.
Penner also insists she just doesn’t follow the mayor.
“She’s a very smart lady. I’m also a very smart lady,” she insists.
Marc Henry, nosecounter at the well-known ThinkHQ firm, says “no sitting mayor has ever come close to the depths Jyoti Gondek is in today.”
Same for city council as a group.
These are history-making times.
In the next year will Calgarians calm down as they have done in the past?
“I don’t think they’re calming down this time,” he says.
Dan McLean is a councillor who thinks the source of citizen discontent is easy to see.
City hall isn’t listening. People are feeling ignored.
“You could go through their greatest hits,” says McLean, of the many boneheaded moves by the council majority.
They are great hits only to those people who are tone-deaf.
The councillor says many in this city do not like how Gondek and her think-alike council pals, a political party in all but name, rule the roost.
“Calgarians see an organized eight votes-plus on any issue to jam stuff down their throats and they’re not very happy about that.”
Sharp is a councillor literally counting the days. She can’t wait.
“We’re 363 days from election day. Calgarians, get ready to sharpen your pencils.”