Anonymous letter blocks new Calgary councillor from key board
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Summary
In this episode, Councillor for Ward 14, Landon Johnston, joins me to talk about his campaign to recall the former mayor of Calgary, Jodie Gondek, and the controversy surrounding the city's decision to fly the Palestinian flag.
Transcript
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good evening western standard viewers and welcome to hanaford a weekly politics show it is thursday
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november the 20th sometimes what seems obvious to people who work hard pay their taxes and play
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by the rules doesn't seem obvious to the people who get elected.
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In many cities across Canada, councils were raising the Palestinian flag
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as though there was something worth celebrating in the terrorist gang
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that seeks the destruction of Jews, not just in Israel, but everywhere.
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If you haven't seen the film Nuremberg, go take a look.
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but that's what the Jews have experienced within the last hundred years.
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now they have a homeland and then they get attacked by their neighbors so anyway calgary hoisted the
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palestinian flag last saturday with me today is landon johnston newly elected counselor for ward
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14. landon welcome to the show thank you for having me well first congratulations on your win
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i appreciate that the word on the ground was that you worked pretty hard for that you were very
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visible but i guess nothing would have been more visible in your campaign to recall the former
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mayor uh jody gondek um do you think that might have had something to do with uh name recognition
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i would think it probably did have a little bit to do with it but that's not why you did the recall
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no definitely not no no tell us why you i mean i know you've spoken before on this but
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what was what most people don't bother they just don't vote you know you bothered why did you go
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after the mayor i think like a lot of people i was just frustrated um and it's just the way i
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grew up was you know there's one thing to be frustrated but then there's one thing to do
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something about it and so like uh my sisters and my mom you know we see a problem we try and fix it
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So when I saw a problem, I saw a mayor that was not a great leader, to be honest.
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I just felt we could have done better than that.
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I felt she had a good chance to be the first female mayor in the city.
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And I mean, it was just one thing after another with her, just very divisive.
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and i mean i saw a piece of legislation that was questionable but still accessible to everybody to
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use and i thought why not why not right so that you know obviously weren't successful a good try
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but no cigar at some point you said you know i need to get on council why did you want to be on
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council i guess again it's just you you want to fix something and then okay what do you want to
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fix on council everything right okay yeah you have my vote now yeah uh let's be specific let's start
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talking about the flag thing first first of all i mean all right um i guess they took a vote and
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decided not to make it a priority they'll get to it in due course meanwhile you know everybody's
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wanting to fly their home country flag is this even a good thing not for me i i don't i don't
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necessarily i mean i agree with having any foreign flag being flown um not any specific ones and then
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it's up to the discretion of the mayor for the past since uh 2016 i think it was the discretion
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of the mayor on which flags to fly right and so we ended up actually doing a little deep dive and
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to see how many flags actually have been denied so I can share with you that
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later is interesting you know the the the decline they they use the word
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decline application right and so some of them were like Star Trek flag some of
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them would have been pride flags and transgender flags that were actually
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denied because you can only have it up once a year on that flight pole so it
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was interesting to see the there's a list about 10-15 flags that actually have been not denied in
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the past one of them was like church of christ so religious reasons or whatever but it really
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ultimately comes down to discretion of the mayor and so for me it was the process in which led to
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the palestinian flag going up that was frustrating for a lot of the council members as well being fed
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a date that the applicant actually filed was the 29th or 30th or whatever and then
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you know the confusion was is well then who decided to change it to the 15th or whatever
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brought it before when the mayor was going to bring forward a motion to this is all
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getting a little inside uh inside the council chamber but i mean what's the real issue here
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is that they uh that that they wanted to fly the palestinian flag um well the mayor would went
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around and talked to all the counselors asking i don't really know if he asked us what our thoughts
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were if if we were for it or against it um what did he ask you i can't remember i'll be honest
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like it was a bit of a rush but he did come to the office and say hey we're gonna um fly the
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flag. And I said, Well, why? Right? First off, like, you know,
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you have the discretion. And now to be fair, I didn't actually
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say this to him. I just he said, let's let's we're gonna fly the
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flag. Carney recognized Palestine. And so he's gonna
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follow with what Carney did. And again, I said, Okay, like, we
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can deal with this through the proper channels, he ran out and
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it whatever um but the real process kind of started after he left where we started talking
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with other counselors and they were kind of being fed similar stories but a little again it was just
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confusion right what why are we flying this flag right should we not maybe think about it should
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we not have more time to um debate it right and that was why it actually was denied is just that
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the other counselors felt um you know we should we should talk about it put it to the public to
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the side um i don't it's the process is what bugged me right either fly all the flags or don't
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fly any flags right and for me as a calgarian canadian there should only be one flag up there
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maybe two maybe three but outside of that um okay so your people three flags well canada alberta
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the city i mean and then treaty seven wants to get a flag up there the metis want to get a flag
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up there right it's just there's a lot of stakeholders in our country that could have a
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flag up there um and flags are important to us like i the canadian flag is actually an interesting
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flag is that three or four years ago or five years ago it was used as a symbol for let's say
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more right-wing people to rally around during the covid truck trucker protests right and then that
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kind of swapped around when Kearney got in you know Canada first and now that flag is more on
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the left side of of the aisle right and so but I like the idea that the flag is a rallying point
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right people like or don't like as a rallying point why would you want to fly the ballast
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exactly well that's the problem right why would we fly a flag that was divisive right and the
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mayor did have the opportunity to not fly it and so that was a frustrating point is like well
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So why don't we just not fly it and then still have the process?
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So welcome to the rude world of local politics.
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Well, talking of the rude world of local politics,
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I gather that you were blocked from sitting on the board of, what,
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um can't remember what it was called before but uh but basically last year i was uh i went through
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the procurement process for the for my first time um and i won a contract through calgary housing
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and that was a few years you're uh what is it that what is your business right so i'm a hvac
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owner so we do plumbing heating air conditioning uh duct cleaning so for past 13 15 years i've
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been doing hvac in calgary right so you know the ins and outs of what goes on and when you go to
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house you have to fix things up and how the billing and everything else works yeah i've got
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um two tickets and i've got my plumbing apprenticeship so i've got refrigeration hvac
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i've got my gas ticket and working on my plumbing ticket maybe not so much right now but um yeah and
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so i got a procurement uh through the city of calgary and then i started the contract and it
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just from day one it went it went sideways right the very first interview i had with the the team
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lead um i can't remember his name but he basically said oh you're that guy right the recall guy but
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he's right and so and in my experience that could either go one of two ways right you have uh the
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mayor's fans and then the mayor's non-fans right in my opinion this guy was a mayor fan and so he
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made it very clear that he's upset with me and all this and i was like i don't know how to deal
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with this and it was frustrating so he ended up getting taken off of the project right and so
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obviously there was a conflict with him with me and then again the next guy that came in it was
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just one thing after another just the mismanagement of the entire process it was very frustrating
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to be giving such a large contract but then have to deal with such mismanagement
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right and so i it was stressful right so but in the end the job got done in the end they i believe
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um they lost the contract to the province so the province actually came in and and took the
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contract away from city of calgary or calgary housing and then i finished the contract through
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the province and it was actually the province who ended up who had always owned the houses
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and it was their contract it was just being facilitated through calgary housing yes right
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and so i i did finish the contract um back in the spring i mean it took about four months longer
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than it should have um but i mean just it was it was torture but you got paid the job got done and
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you got paid should have been the end of the story yeah permanent everything was done you get elected
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to council on the rebound from this uh actually i was i would call it a successful recall campaign
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in as much as you even got it to happen. But leaving that aside, now you're on council,
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and did you ask to be on the board of this particular Calgary Housing Authority?
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It was a big reason why I got hired as a councillor, right? People were very well aware
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of my issues with Calgary Housing. I talked to people in the ward.
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Yeah, I talked to them about doors. They'd always ask me where there's mismanagement and
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waste and that. And I said, well, I have first-hand experience of this, right? And the whole idea of
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I'm sure that wasn't the only reason that you ran for counsel.
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No, but it was a big part of it because there's waste all over
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and people are wondering why their taxes are going up.
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And then me seeing firsthand where their taxes are going.
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And I could be like, well, if I can get in there, expose the mismanagement,
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And so, yeah, I put my name on the list for committees.
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And again, it's the process that we're dealing with as council members.
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So on Friday, I handed my list for which committees I want to be on.
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At some point during the weekend, a letter was sent to the mayor, right?
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just in dark of night he got a letter um and then the date of the the organizational meeting
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he brings me behind closed doors and says hey i received the letter from calgary housing and i said
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oh well i kind of think i know what that letter is going to say right and so um and i was very
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vocal with calgary housing of my disdain for their operation right i was very clear about that
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um they they called me a bully right they said i would bully them um i all i ever said to them was
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that if i ever become counselor i'm gonna audit you guys right well i was like right and they
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didn't like that the average snivel service would take that as as bullying i guess that's fine they
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call bullying whatever i'm never gonna sugarcoat it let's just be very specific about what's
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happened here you are you run for council right uh part of your engagement with the public says
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you know i actually have some insight into how things you've done in city hall and the things
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that i don't like and you wouldn't like it either because whenever there's waste up go your taxes
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people said you the man we need somebody like that who knows stuff to ask the right questions
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and maybe bring about effective change you then go get elected you get elected quite handsomely
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as a matter of fact you're then put down to go on the committee where you can
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And the administration, somebody within the administration,
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Is it the ones that the city administration likes?
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that administration can pick and choose who they want to be on a council.
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right as long as they put confidential on any memo they send to the mayor the mayor can now
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again at his discretion he could have waited on that letter because he read it he's the only one
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that actually had read this letter um and i do have to be careful because a lot of what was said
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was said in camera and again that was something he promised not to do as much as the last mayor did
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it was one of the first things he did was go in camera right and again it was it was a um i can
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use the word prejudice because that's a behavioral word right and so there was prejudice in camera
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right and so again i felt that that kept me off of a board um now if you look i did take my name
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off of the committee but i can't talk about why i did that because of the reasons we're in camera
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right but and the whole purpose of me bringing this notice of motion forward was to release
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uh the confidentiality of in camera right so as long as it's in the public we can talk about it
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And so the idea was to get that memo read to everybody, which I'm still trying to figure out if I can release it, because I had to ask the mayor to allow the rest of council to see what that letter said after we had already picked.
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Right. So the waters have been muddied. Right. The council now thinks, well, maybe there was a conflict of interest or whatever.
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So I'm all about finding the truth. I have nothing to hide. I didn't do anything wrong with Calgary housing.
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But if people and I've been asking for a third party mediator for over a year to look into the allegations that I've made and the allegations that Calgary Housing has made.
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People understand that there is some frustrations and some misdoings at Calgary Housing.
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And if it's basically based off of what I saw personally, I think people would.
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So what what committees do they put you on in the end?
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um there's the intergovernmental committee the federation of canadian municipalities
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um the pension committee i'm excited about that one committee yeah
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i could do some good in there too yeah i believe you might yeah no but it's just it's just uh i
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can sense your frustration and i tend to sympathize it with the one thing that you
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actually know something about you can make a serious input into but they don't want to hear
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from you i should i should be on that and you know i just want to have the fair chance of being on
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that committee i don't know if the rest of the council would vote did you know that the front
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that administration might be a problem before you always okay i i have more how did you know what
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did you know well i filed almost a thousand freedom of information act requests right across canada
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and a big portion of that was in the city of calgary right so i have
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on every single department i've got thousands and thousands and thousands of emails whatever
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it's just as a hvac owner who works hard i've got time to play and this is how i i play is i
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like to investigate things i like to find the truth um in london i mean whether you're forthcoming
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if you have these uh information requests and they actually get back and give you meaningful
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information only if you flood them with enough that they can't redact everything right and so
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if you ask for 10 pieces of paper they'll redact everything properly right but if you ask for a
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thousand pieces of paper they might miss something so um yeah it was very interesting to to see what
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i found out during these little investigations um which again i'm not here to burn the system down
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But if nobody's in there who understands the problems, then nobody's going to fix it, right?
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Well, I mean, it sounds like you have some experience of dealing with council that goes way back before you were elected.
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So do you think the council actually runs the city?
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like does the administration take direction from the council
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well, here's what you can do and gives council safe choices?
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Oh, this is where they tell you what questions you can't ask?
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Yeah, and so I was shut down twice in orientation
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by administration for questions I wanted to ask them.
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oh yeah it was very disturbing right um so they just say no you can't ask about that yeah so they
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they hired an air back you up on these things no and that's the frustrating part right he he allowed
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administration to take control of what council and council can't do right and uh you know he he
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He made promises that he has her back and he's going to fight for us and stuff.
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But, I mean, it just seems council is a very ceremonial position right now.
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I wonder how many voters actually understood this when they went to the ballots
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and whether more people in Calgary would have gone to the ballots
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I mean, we have been saying, there's been lots of people saying
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that the administration is in control over there in City Hall
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and that the city council tends to be a rubber stamp
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for just choosing between pre-approved options.
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Now you're saying that based on what you've seen so far
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that frankly should be available to the public,
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and now you're elected and you get told by administration
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that you're supposed to be controlling what you can
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and then you get uh and then the one part where you might actually have some specialized knowledge
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that would be helpful they shut you off yep well landon it's going to be a long four years
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i'm not going to waste a second of it right i'm i'm okay with uh doing what i have to do um
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and honestly besides my little frustrations with government in general i'm not i'm not a
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small government person i'm just a smaller government person right um but our ward 14
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has been a piggy bank for the rest of the city for a very long time we have no major capital projects
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that people can actually use or can enjoy right and so my goal was to to bring engagement back
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right it was ward 14 i mean for people who don't know the city as well right maybe
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what part of the city we talked about that has no capital projects yeah so we're in the south
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we're uh basically south of anderson okay and uh yeah it goes all the way down to legacy uh we've
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got mackenzie town so it's awesome we surround fish creek it's a great place uh that i've lived
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almost yes my entire time and okay so you're saying that the tax base down there is making
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possible a lot of things in other parts of the city and you know i should cost them a lot that's
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right and so my goal is to bring that engagement back um i'm telling everybody to think big right
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uh the city owes us a lot right and i want to make sure we get what we're owed right um i get
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we're not going to get rid of taxes but there is funds available for fun right recreational center
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like we don't have a pool we don't have a nice drink we don't have um any library we don't have
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any city-ran facility the only one in the entire city that ward 14 does not have any sort of
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facility then that that's frustrating for a lot of new families down there where we have to go
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somewhere else to go to a library go to a pool go to a skating rink go wherever right so i want to
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bring that back i want to bring some value back to word 14 and that's what i'm going to fight for
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i'm going to bring that same level of fight that i would bring you know to that recall i did to
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any frustration i want to bring that fight for word 14 right it's just we've been misrepresented
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for a very long time um the leadership is just wasn't there for in my opinion a long time and
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that's why there was such a a small voter turnout just frustration a lot of fatigue a lot of
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frustration and i think that is why i won i think people did appreciate the fight in me and they
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want that fight to to fight for them so that's what i'm gonna do so good luck landon yeah well
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then you got elected now you're finding out what it's like in there stay the course appreciate it
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four years yep welcome yeah the western standard thank you sir
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and for the western standard i'm nigel hatterford thank you for being with us