It's election day in Alberta, and the results are in. In Calgary, a new mayor was elected, and in Edmonton, a mayor was re-elected. What does that mean for the future of municipal politics in Alberta?
00:01:05.500Please travel safely and make it back home to tell us all about it.
00:01:08.980Well, folks, it's been quite the election week here in Alberta.
00:01:12.700And if you are a political junkie living and working in this space like yours truly, you've probably got more questions than answers coming out of this one.
00:01:19.940Because what we've just witnessed in Calgary and Edmonton is a tipping point for how politics at the local levels played and how the province regulates it.
00:01:35.960And worse yet, in Edmonton, 30% is that democracy in action or on life support.
00:01:41.160To make matters worse, the process itself threw up unnecessary obstacles.
00:01:45.680As reported at the Western Standard, Alberta held course on eliminating electronic vote tabulators in favor of paper-only system.
00:01:53.540And the results were exactly what you'd expect.
00:01:55.840Long lines, delays in counting, confusion.
00:01:58.680And in some political polling stations, the lineups were stretched so long that voters just left rather than wait.
00:02:04.040We heard reports that some areas were taking two to three hours for voters to cast their ballots.
00:02:09.940And all signs point to people just getting fed up and leaving.
00:02:13.700If you already think that local government has lost your interest, being confronted with a voting experience that looks like it was designed for the 1980s doesn't help.
00:02:21.760But for those who did vote, the results sent a message.
00:02:24.560In Calgary, Jeremy Pathfinder Farkas made history.
00:02:28.220He became the first person to unseat a sitting Calgary mayor since Ralph Klein did so back in 1980.
00:03:26.660In short, it's the provincial legislation that opened the door for formal political parties at the municipal level, increased oversight of municipalities, changed donation rules, all in the name of, quote, leveling the playing field.
00:03:38.260It was piloted this election cycle in Calgary and Edmonton.
00:03:41.700A conservative political government wanted to create a path for conservative candidates to keep up with more left-leaning candidates, many of whom were very well-funded by the unions.
00:03:50.960But the shake-out wasn't exactly a dream come true, and with a majority of newly elected officials being independents, some may call the entire experiment a total bust.
00:03:59.060Instead of clarity, we saw fragmentation.
00:04:02.180And where the centre-right should have coalesced, we got competing flags, vote-splitting, brand confusion, and outright mudslinging.
00:04:09.100There is a saying that conservatives simply can't and won't unite, and that they eat their own.
00:04:14.080Progressives didn't completely dominate, but they quietly benefited.
00:04:19.520On the provincial front, we now learn the government is preparing yet another bill.
00:04:23.440This time, to limit who can run in political elections.
00:04:27.140According to recent reporting, the bill would give new rules to ensure only those who truly care and are serious about representing the community get on the ballot.
00:04:35.540I'm not quite sure what that means, but the government says that it's about transparency and it's about clarity.
00:04:40.280But critics warn it can easily become a gatekeeping mechanism.
00:05:07.380Because if the idea was to build a stronger, more coherent, conservative presence in Alberta cities, that just didn't happen.
00:05:13.600Now, first time isn't always a charm, and it does take time for people to take on change.
00:05:17.340After all, there are municipal parties in cities like Vancouver and Montreal.
00:05:22.220But what we got this time around was instead voter fatigue, fractured campaigns, and a perception that local issues are being overshadowed by partisan maneuvering.
00:05:30.180The most important piece is that Calgarians didn't just reject incumbents.
00:05:33.520Many rejected being told which team to vote for.
00:05:36.380They're tired of ideology being measured and snow plowing schedules and pothole contracts and zoning decisions.
00:05:55.540After decades of continuity, a steady incumbent in Edmonton, and a frustrated electorate.
00:06:01.900A provincial legislation that's tinkering with both the local and provincial electoral machinery, and a conservative movement that must ask, have we strengthened ourselves or weakened ourselves?
00:06:11.760There is a lot to unpack out of this election, and we're going to do just that.
00:06:16.700I'm going to be joined by two guests today who know Alberta politics inside and out.
00:06:21.060Amber Ruddy, Vice President at Council Public Affairs, and Stephen Carter of Decide Campaigns.
00:06:27.660He is the man behind campaigns for Alison Redford, Naheed Nenshi, and Jody Gondek.
00:06:32.920We'll hash out what this election really means for the future of Bill 20, for the rise or fall of municipal parties, and what people should expect for the next municipal cycle.
00:06:42.640And for all of you fine folks watching today, we would like to remind you that the Western Standard needs your support.
00:06:49.480Please like, share, comment, follow Western Standard News on all our platforms.
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00:06:58.480It's just $10 a month or $100 for the year.
00:07:35.540He's always pushing the bounds of what is possible.
00:07:38.340Best known as one of Canada's leading political strategists, he played a leadership role in the rise of Mayor Nahid Nenshi, Premier Alison Redford, Mayor Jodi Gondek, National Post, CBC, and other political commentators have always described Stephen as a political mastermind.
00:07:53.960And this time around, Stephen was involved with the Calgary Party.
00:08:05.860So, I think we'll open it up and I think we'll just start with Amber, how was your involvement with this municipal cycle and maybe compared to other municipal cycles?
00:08:17.560And then we'll take the same question over to you, Stephen.
00:08:24.540Oh, I think we can't quite hear you, Amber, or is it just me, John?
00:08:40.800This election, I do admit I've been more of an observer, having followed quite closely the municipal scenes of Calgary and Edmonton for some time.
00:08:50.640It was a little bit refreshing to take a backseat on the municipal election coming fresh off of a federal campaign, which I was quite involved with.
00:08:58.800My observations, look, this is the first time this system has been in place in Alberta.
00:09:05.200So, of course, there's going to be growing pains.
00:09:07.920Of course, there's going to be some kinks to work out.
00:09:11.160But I think, frankly, the whole reason the system was put in place is to give voters a bit more transparency in terms of the candidates that they have to vote for.
00:09:21.160And having that branding, that bit of organization, you know, I think brings value to the municipal scene.
00:09:30.200And, of course, there's not a sweep of any one candidate or slate across Edmonton or Calgary.
00:09:41.940You see a lot of folks that have been in the role were either running as independent because they didn't attach themselves to any one particular party.
00:10:48.920I think it gives us an opportunity to know who it is that we're voting for, what it is that we're voting for.
00:10:53.980And all too often, I think people get elected.
00:10:57.640For example, Sonia Sharp ran as a progressive in 2021 and then turned into a very strong conservative.
00:11:04.640And ran as a conservative today in this municipal election.
00:11:09.680This gives people a better opportunity to know what it is that they're, you know, who it is they're voting for and what their principles are, what their values are, what their ideology is.
00:11:19.120So, I think that it worked out fairly well.
00:11:26.460They need to be rewritten immediately.
00:11:28.840The hand counting, disastrous, needs to be rewritten immediately.
00:11:34.600But, you know, I mean, I'm sure it worked really well in rural communities municipalities where they were only dealing with small portions of votes.
00:11:41.900But we have, you know, we have upwards of a million voters in Calgary and 700,000 in Edmonton.
00:11:50.920Hand counting is just, it was a gong show.
00:11:56.220And disappointing to see the new rules.
00:11:59.900But I'm hopeful that the new rules will be taken advantage of properly.
00:12:03.600But, you know, and I don't, I don't doubt that elections Alberta and elections Calgary is just flooded with complaints.
00:12:10.120I mean, you know, transparency, of course, I, most people watching this will know that I worked very closely on the Jeff Davison campaign.
00:12:16.260And Jeff ran for mayor-in-law, came in fourth.
00:12:18.560And we had an outpouring of supporters who were reaching out to the campaign.
00:12:25.480They were waiting two and three hours, particularly heard a lot of reports in around downtown polling stations, as well as in the deep south.
00:12:33.880I'm sure it was just luck of the draw wherever people were throughout the city.
00:12:37.780But some people said it was a good experience.
00:12:40.240But we definitely, I would say in my experience with elections, there was an outpouring of complaints and people just simply walking away from polling stations.
00:12:48.220Which I know for those of us who are really engaged in municipal politics, that's really frustrating.
00:12:52.940We're always trying to get people to buy into municipal politics.
00:12:57.580After all, it is the level of politics that affects you the most on the day-to-day.
00:13:01.500This is what affects, you know, the snow plowing and your garbage pickup and your property taxes, mostly.
00:13:16.220You were very involved with the federal election campaign in the spring.
00:13:20.280And, you know, I know over on our side, we felt very much that voter fatigue had a part to play in this.
00:13:29.660And it was a very slow uptick into people even being engaged or interested.
00:13:34.220I mean, I don't know, Stephen, you might agree with me.
00:13:36.220Like, I feel like nobody was really paying attention to who was running for mayor and didn't even have any idea who was running for council in Calgary.
00:13:42.940And you can probably chime in a little bit more about how that was in Edmonton.
00:13:47.420They didn't even pay attention until maybe the last seven to ten days.
00:13:51.880So, Amber, we'll just, how much do you think that voter fatigue played into it?
00:13:55.180And then Stephen, we'll go over to you on your thoughts on engagement.
00:13:58.780You know, I think it is important, going back to the conversation about the voting and the lines and the new system.
00:14:06.220It is important to do a process that instills confidence, because when you have systems that aren't working for folks and are driving a reluctance to vote because they feel like it might not count and the way it's processed is not fair, there's different iterations of how that has played out.
00:14:23.580I know some folks wanted to write it in pen or, you know, there's different considerations.
00:14:29.640I think we do need to take seriously people's concerns so that they have confidence in the system when they do spend an hour or whatever it is that they had to take and go in line and do that.
00:14:39.340So, first of all, I just want to say that, that there's got to be a pendulum.
00:14:42.600There's maybe some things they can do to improve it.
00:14:45.300But I think it is important to take those concerns of voters seriously.
00:14:49.780When you look at overall, there is a fatigue.
00:14:53.840And again, if you follow the news, you might be hearing rumors that a federal election could be imminent.
00:15:00.160I think, you know, it is a layering on of issues.
00:15:03.940The municipal level is, of course, closest to the people.
00:15:06.440You're most likely to, you know, drive down the street with potholes, need to book swimming lessons for your kids, you know, want to go to a public library and use those services.
00:15:17.520So, it is important and I'm glad we've had this kind of participation in Calgary, for example, the incumbency factor is strong, but our incumbent mayor, you know, she's moving on.
00:15:32.220And it is important to have choices in the system so that people can make those decisions.
00:15:38.400So, I think that overall, you know, there are probably a bit more reflecting and lessons we can learn as the sort of ink dries on the voting results and we see who are in these roles.
00:15:52.660But, yeah, I'm very confident that the system will be improved and continue to work for Albertans going forward.
00:16:00.480And then, Stephen, you know, voter fatigue from the federal election and then, like, let's throw in this teacher strike.
00:16:07.000I mean, this has been wild, right, the last couple of weeks.
00:16:11.060And how do you think that that impacted the election?
00:16:14.040I know some of the candidates, including Brian Thiessen, had a lot to say about the teacher strike, certainly.
00:16:19.620Yeah, I mean, I think that we had a significant number of headwinds, if you will.
00:16:25.800The federal election was certainly a headwind.
00:16:27.640It was hard to get people's attention during the campaign, I agree with you, pushing through and trying to get people to actually pay attention on this campaign.
00:16:38.540We certainly noticed an uptick in attention in the last week and a half, the last 10 days.
00:16:44.120But we had already done half of advanced polling before people had even started to pay attention.
00:16:50.180I mean, yes, it is the most difficult level of government to get people out to vote for.
00:16:55.440But let's take a look at the actual statistics.
00:16:58.420Voter turnout was down in Edmonton on advance polls, down in Calgary on advance polls, down in Edmonton on voting day, down in Calgary on voting day.
00:17:13.480In part, it was people not really caring about municipal government.
00:17:17.100But in part, it was rumors of long lineups, people not wanting to give up an hour and a half.
00:17:22.400We have a world standard elections organization in Elections Canada, and we can't seem to figure out how to run a municipal election in Alberta.
00:17:32.960The rules changing the way that they did was a significant impediment to people being able to actually vote in the election this time.
00:17:44.560And I think that the provincial government needs to take a look at that and say, what role did we play and how are we going to make it better?
00:17:53.140But so far, what they're indicating is that they're going to make it harder to run, which on some levels I support.
00:17:59.780I think that we do have a lot of candidates who are a little bit junky, if you will, if you're running for a stunt.
00:18:08.500I'd like the candidates that run to be legitimate candidates that have the resources, volunteer and otherwise, to actually run a campaign.
00:18:33.820Elections Canada does so much advertising to make sure that people know that the vote is occurring.
00:18:38.120And we had none of that, really, in Calgary, Edmonton or the balance of Alberta.
00:18:42.640Yeah, and certainly the province was really busy.
00:18:44.980There was a lot of announcements over the last month, from new license plates to a war with the ATA.
00:18:52.120And certainly that did overshadow things.
00:18:54.580What about the conservative predicament?
00:18:57.340And Stephen, I really am, as somebody who's a little bit more on the other side of things, I'm really interested in your perspective about this.
00:19:03.160There was a lot of mudslinging, and that was between, certainly, the Sharpen Communities First campaign, Jeff Davison campaign.
00:19:11.480There was some bad blood that was created there.
00:19:13.120And I'm sure everybody can, you know, sow these seeds of division, right, as we come to a close with this election.
00:19:19.580But are there changes that could happen structurally, do you guys think, where to prevent, say, two conservative parties or two more progressive parties from coming up that would prevent this, you know, quote, vote split?
00:19:33.340We've heard this term vote split over and over and over, right?
00:19:35.880Some people say, you know, we love democracy.
00:20:24.160I just wanted to touch upon briefly this issue about having legitimate candidates in elections.
00:20:29.320And I think the impetus of this, of course, if you've been following federal with the last by-election in Battle River Crowfoot with the longest ballot, there are some provisions I think you can do to tighten it up.
00:20:41.900I think over a hundred of those candidates, for example, had the same CFO or like the person that's signing off on the document was the same person for a hundred of those candidates.
00:20:52.560We could add a bit more heft to make it so that this is a serious exercise and that it's not becoming a way to make a statement.
00:21:12.880I don't think, you know, it would be great, in my opinion, to have a bit of a higher threshold.
00:21:18.980And if you could bring along with it, maybe if you are a serious party, that you would get access to a voters list, because that's something that happens provincially and federally.
00:21:28.640So that could perhaps weed out having too many parties that are all trying to act in an interest if the signature level of what you needed to create that party was higher.
00:21:40.140So maybe there could be a characteristic approach of, if the voters list was, you know, a certain higher threshold, being able to offer that to the serious parties, I think would be an improvement.
00:23:16.740Not having a voting list was just that in the postal strike.
00:23:20.660Amber, I'm glad you brought both of those up.
00:23:22.540They were devastating to these campaigns.
00:23:24.980I had 500,000 pieces of mail that were supposed to land the day that the postal strike started.
00:23:32.100We have to essentially send trucks to go and get them back so we could try and handle it here.
00:23:37.740500,000 pieces of mail, which is impossible.
00:23:40.460Amber's come up with two great ideas, but I think bottom line, all of this needs to be looked at in the future so that we wind up with the right type of civic government.
00:23:52.100If the provincial government thinks that the most of the voters are conservative, then bring in preferential ballot.
00:24:13.620If you're going to be messing around with the election anyways, mess around with the election in terms of fashion that it actually makes you a vote.
00:24:20.140Yeah, you know, and this was a pilot project, right?
00:24:44.380But I think certainly in Calgary, there seems to be, I think, I feel like things were dialed a little bit more to the middle.
00:24:50.020I mean, I'm very optimistic that, you know, a good group can be put together and people will bring a little bit more balance back to City Hall.
00:24:58.680And, you know, because it's not healthy for democracy when we have things like a recall Gondek petition and we have such an unhappy electorate, right?
00:25:07.700We just, it's not healthy for us as, you know, as a city to have people just pitted against one another and like this extreme division in politics.
00:25:17.000I mean, I've always been one for multi-partisanship and bringing things a little bit more to the center.
00:25:22.280And maybe this, maybe this path will help us get there.
00:25:26.100So, Stephen, you folks over at the Calgary party ran, I'd say you'd ran a very polite campaign.
00:25:34.240And I think there was a lot of people that were expecting a little bit more, you know, you've, you've definitely, you're one of the most creative people in, in politics.
00:25:42.160And you definitely sometimes can drop a few bombs, but you, I mean, your folks ran, ran a very polite campaign.
00:25:49.460So any thoughts on kind of your candidates and how it all kind of laid out for you and Brian Thiessen himself and what's next for Brian Thiessen?
00:25:57.400Because I think there's a lot of us that thought, huh, I think that Brian Thiessen is getting ready to do something maybe at a provincial level.
00:26:04.260And I know you can't probably say too much to that, but I just wanted your thoughts.
00:26:08.320Well, I think that the, the, the challenge for us was who to attack.
00:26:13.820You know, we knew that we were definitely coming for fifth place.
00:26:25.200That was the level that we made to go to.
00:26:27.200We didn't want to go to anything too, uh, too personal or too, or pushing too hard.
00:26:33.380Um, and we just felt like our best that was to run a positive campaign, especially with the Davison and sharp campaigns.
00:26:42.120He's such nasty smacks at one another.
00:26:45.140It just felt like it wasn't necessary for us and attacking Jeremy Farkas.
00:26:50.940We tried a couple of times, but it just didn't have the legs.
00:26:54.200So we wound up actually going after Danielle Smith, which did have legs.
00:26:58.520Um, we did very well with that, that part of the campaign, obviously not well enough to win.
00:27:03.540So, uh, the, the Western standard viewer may be, uh, turning over and, and, and getting a little bit more angry about that.
00:27:10.460But for our voters, it worked quite well.
00:27:12.680Um, and one of the, I think challenges that Tim Cartmell had in, in Edmonton was not running a more negative campaign against the, uh, uh, the conservative, uh, the UCP, uh, and the government there.
00:27:26.240Um, Tim was, uh, pegged as the UCP candidate.
00:27:30.380And I think that was an unfair, uh, positioning, but did nothing to un-push that narrative.
00:27:36.120So this is the, the challenge with campaigns is when do you go negative?
00:27:40.600Uh, people who were running against, uh, Bahadinechi remember that he was one of the most negative campaigners we'd ever seen in Canadian municipal politics.
00:28:12.060And before we go over to you, Amber, I just, John, do we have some, uh, do we have anybody that's up with any questions on the, on the live stream feed?
00:28:19.080And happy to read out a couple of these questions.
00:28:49.580We did hear a lot of people that were complaining about, uh, about that.
00:28:53.200Um, I think there's a little bit of, there's a little bit of lack of understanding around that.
00:28:56.760Like, because when you make the pencil mark, it can't be erased and, and Amber, maybe you can just kind of answer that question for somebody who's concerned about not using a pen and, uh, and using a pencil instead.
00:29:06.480I mean, I think what the election authorities often say is that the pens, like if they order in bulk dry out, so they have pencils on hand because then you can reuse them and they have, uh, they're standing by.
00:29:16.860But you know, like I have confidence in our voting system that the ballot boxes are sealed, that the appropriate scrutineers are available for each, um, candidate to observe.
00:29:27.240And so I have confidence in the system, but I, I know some folks have reluctance.
00:29:31.640Um, I, I just wanted to go back and comment a little bit about, um, I agree with Steven that nobody's voters belong to somebody else.
00:29:39.240So if you look at the Edmonton example, you can't just simply take the conservative leaning candidates, add them together and assume, uh, that the, the top vote getter would have got those votes naturally.
00:29:52.140Um, I, I think we're at a bit of a cross hairs in terms of what is the conservative position because a blanket rezoning happened to be a top, um, municipal topic.
00:30:05.820There's not like a conservative position on that.
00:30:08.580And, and frankly, you see different, um, people coming at it, uh, progressives and conservatives coming at it from similar angles.
00:30:15.900So I think it's not so, um, cut and dry in terms of what is a conservative position on X municipal issue.
00:30:25.220So the creativity that those candidates have to come up with to brand themselves and showcase what type of positions they would take, um, is, you know, a new kind of way to look at it.
00:30:38.280And I, I, there's no monolithic, I'm a conservative, I'm voting for this person, right?
00:30:43.380You, you have to be able to offer ideas that resonate.
00:30:47.080And if you can't do that, then sorry, your, your vote doesn't necessarily belong to somebody else.
00:30:51.660So I think that's something that we have to get past.
00:30:54.380And if you want to, um, enhance, perhaps there's ways we can enhance those parties that you think might be the best option going forward for a specific voter to park their vote.
00:31:13.040I really liked the voter list, Steven.
00:31:14.840It's, um, you know, that's, that's really important.
00:31:17.480And I think all of us really suffered from that certainly.
00:31:19.800So those are things that I, I, I really like, but yeah, I mean, I, I, I personally don't, don't like the term vote split because you know, if this is democracy and this is democracy in action, then may the best candidate win.
00:31:31.640And it was definitely driving for a force in the narrative.
00:31:34.940Um, and, and certainly I think that that, that one, the community's first party and their candidates, Sonia Sharp.
00:31:40.660Uh, now speaking of that, now that was a very close mayor's race.
00:31:45.040And I think some of us were very surprised.
00:31:46.840I know certainly on our camp, we were very surprised, uh, but that it happened.
00:31:50.700And it's a margin of almost 600 votes that separated a new mayor elect Jeremy Farkas from Sonia Sharp with the community's first, uh, team.
00:31:58.860And, and, and, and, you know, I think any good campaign manager would, would absolutely say, yeah, you know, call for a recount.
00:32:04.680I think it would be, it's fair to say it would be very surprising if, um, if the results were anything different than having a mayor elect become the mayor, Jeremy Farkas.
00:32:14.420But, uh, Jeremy Farkas, you know, that's, uh, I, um, I have a history with Jeremy.
00:32:18.880I, I worked for him in the ward 11 office when he was a counselor before I worked for him for almost two and a half years.
00:32:23.440And, you know, I felt that there was a change in his position.
00:32:26.180I think most of us did, but, you know, uh, he ran a very smart campaign and he catered to everybody.
00:32:32.860So he catered to the left, he catered to the right.
00:32:35.120It was confusing for some, uh, I, and I'm interested to see how that will play out, how that will play out in his office.
00:32:40.480If it will be a very centrist office or if it'll be, if it'll revert back to more conservative, uh, people behind him, or if it'll stay on the left side.
00:32:49.220So, uh, Stephen, I really want to hear your thoughts on, on the new mayor elect Jeremy Farkas, who certainly with, I think it was a 26%, correct me if I'm wrong.
00:33:15.640I mean, it's a real challenge to suggest he even has a mandate, right?
00:33:19.160Like he he's been elected by less than 100,000 people of a 1.6 million person, uh, city, uh, he has, um, a lot of work to do.
00:33:29.660Um, his vote total dropped significantly from 2021, 2021, he was a much more popular politician than he is in 2025, but he won.
00:33:38.900And, you know, this is where the, the challenge is, how does he create a, a, uh, cohesive council when frankly, he's got, you know, some really rabid progressives.
00:33:51.900I mean, uh, I know that conservatives sometimes dislike conservatives, but I'll tell you, there's no, there's no feud like the inter-progressive war.
00:33:58.780I'll tell you that, um, blood, blood tests all around just to make sure that you're the right level of progressive.
00:34:04.800Um, but this, you know, he's got some people who are just rabid, uh, rabid also on the right way, you know, Landon Johnson, not really a conciliatory type of fellow.
00:34:15.240I mean, he ran the, uh, recall again, Gondek campaign.
00:34:18.820He's going to be a big voice in, in, in municipal government.
00:34:25.900I think he would have worked really well with Jeremy 1.0 Jeremy 2.0.
00:34:31.000I'm not sure he works well with at all.
00:34:33.020So I'm, I'm just dying to see how Jeremy takes this extremely small mandate, both in terms of, uh, level of victory and overall number of votes and turns it into, um,
00:34:45.240something that Calgarians rally behind, uh, the way that we rallied behind Dave Brown, Kanye, the way that we rallied behind, uh, Denchy, uh, Ralph Klein.
00:35:49.840I mean, it's a first past the post system and he won.
00:35:52.780And I think, uh, that we have to get behind him as our mayor, you know, we're facing a lot of different, um, things that are going on in the, in the context.
00:36:02.680And we need a strong voice for Calgary and I think we need to give him the room to create that collaborative culture.
00:36:09.040He's been signaling I've, I've seen in his social media posts.
00:36:11.740He's already been meeting with some of the, um, folks that are coming forward and have been elected as we sort of, um, hear all the results coming in and things are finalized.
00:36:21.700Um, and I, I, you know, I have confidence that he's going to put his best foot forward.
00:36:27.460I think he might surround himself with some folks, uh, in his advisory capacity to the right of him and some to the left of him.
00:36:34.440And that's probably where you need a mayor to be.
00:36:37.560Um, this isn't partisan politics anymore.
00:36:39.740You know, there's some major projects that we need to get forward.
00:36:42.440We need to, um, have some discussions with the federal government on some very important, uh, projects.
00:36:48.080And, um, frankly, let's just give him the space to see what he's able to do.
00:36:53.320He's one vote on a council and the more that he can try to collaborate with his colleagues and set a better tone.
00:37:20.340I'm just going to be optimistic that he, uh, he puts his best foot forward and, um, let's give him the space to do that and, and see how he lands.
00:37:28.840No, and I think we have to do that, right?
00:37:30.020We have to be positive and we have to build bridges, not walls.
00:37:33.500So, uh, I, I too wish Jeremy Farkas all the best.
00:37:36.400And I hope he surrounds himself with some really excellent people and, uh, governs with, uh, with collaboration as he moves forward as the next mayor.
00:37:45.080So I guess we'll kind of wind down the show with going into it, just a little bit about what's happening in some of these, uh, in some of the councillor positions.
00:37:54.380He won, he won, he had very strong numbers.
00:37:57.200Um, so, you know, all the best to him with that, but certainly there are a lot of, there's a lot of buzz that he is Jeremy 1.0 and that he's going to be quote the new Jeremy.
00:38:06.820So I too am interested to see how that'll play out.
00:38:10.180Um, that it will be really interesting.
00:38:12.560I do feel there's a lot of people that kind of hover around the center, kind of both ways.
00:38:16.680Um, I'm trying to think if there's any other really, really big personalities in there.
00:38:21.020I know we've got a couple of recounts coming.
00:38:23.640So I think it's just the mayor, uh, recount coming, which I don't know that we'll see any really different results, but Ward 12.
00:38:31.660Now that, Stephen, uh, correct me if I'm wrong.
00:38:36.460So that would be, uh, the Alberta Calgary party or the ABC party that would be their, their one seat in, uh, in this election, which would be Mike Jameson and Ward 12.
00:38:47.320Um, and then that's the Calgary party candidate, Sarah Ferguson, who, who's, uh, up against him there.
00:38:52.860So tell me a little bit about that and what you think about some of these, some of where these councillors landed.
00:39:17.620Obviously when you do a recount, it can go either way, right?
00:39:20.740You don't know if there's mistakes, number one.
00:39:23.020And number two, you don't know the direction that the mistakes are made.
00:39:25.800Uh, when there was a recount in, in 2021 with DJ Kelly versus Sean Chu, Sean Chu wound up getting a larger number.
00:39:32.840Uh, so we'll see how things go in 2025 for Ward 12.
00:39:37.840Um, I think that the number is too big for the mayor's chair, 500 plus, um, strikes me as, as too big, uh, of an error, uh, error rate.
00:39:47.920Uh, but 29 in Ward 12, uh, like I say, it could go either way, but we are cautiously optimistic that we'll find, uh, Sarah Ferdison, uh, in council instead of, uh, Mike Jameson.
00:40:26.220Well, I mean, when you look at the federal and provincial system, we do go through redistribution, uh, after every census, because you do want to have some representatives, um, that can
00:40:35.620speak for you and that are accessible because they have a fair number of voters that they would deal with.
00:40:41.780And I think, uh, municipally you're sort of the closest to people.
00:40:46.060And in fact, there could probably be a case made, you know, fair representation would add a few councillors over time, but I'll leave that conversation for another, for another chat.
00:41:03.100Well, I think we're going to bring it to just some final closes.
00:41:05.380I mean, uh, Steven, like your overall, like what's your takeaway from this election and, and what do you want the, what do you want everybody who's watching this to know about what went down and what you want to see moving forward?
00:41:19.000Well, first, let me address the importance of municipal politics.
00:41:22.040Um, the, the ability to, uh, reach a representative and, and get at your pothole fills and your, and the ability for water to go uphill and poop to go downhill, uh, are super important.
00:41:34.420Uh, we can't be, uh, pretending that the provincial government is going to step in and do any better job.
00:41:40.580Um, that just frustrates the heck out of me.
00:41:42.920Uh, the, the overall election, um, you know, Edmonton said they want to change and they kept the same.
00:41:53.180Uh, we'll see how, uh, these two governments approach the provincial governments, uh, how they approach the federal government and how things change in the next four years.
00:42:02.820Uh, our cities are in, in, in the, in the midst of a huge change, uh, especially Calgary with our population growth.
00:42:11.940Um, but these changes are going to need to be met by really quality municipal governments.
00:42:19.260And I wish the best to all those who want.
00:42:24.220What are, what are your, some thoughts?
00:42:25.560And, you know, I said in my opening monologue today, uh, was this election with it, as far as Calgary is concerned, was this election like a giant middle finger to the party system?
00:42:34.840Because, you know, as of right now, as of today, we have one from ABC.
00:42:39.660We have one from the Calgary party, Carter.
00:42:44.680And then, yep, and then we have two from communities first, technically four, although I think most of us would argue that wards 10 with, uh, ward 10 with Andre Chabot and ward 13 with Dan McLean, they would have been elected regardless of the, the party system was, was really, uh, a complete wash for either one of them.
00:43:04.960So, you know, you technically have four with communities first, but really only two of those would have been viewed as, as, as, as part of the party system.
00:43:19.920And, um, I thought that it added a transparency.
00:43:23.480I thought that it added that level of, uh, branding and organization, and perhaps that helped, like you say, um, each party got at least one candidate through, right?
00:43:34.380So I think that shows that, you know, that's democracy.
00:43:38.680I don't think you necessarily would expect to have an entire sweep of, uh, one party taking over the whole system and there's differences in how the parties operated, right?
00:43:49.100Like some were more like slates while others were more like parties, right?
00:43:53.100So like, if you look at how, um, a better Calgary had members and tried to do votes and try to, you know, hold, hold their, a grassroots type of style.
00:44:03.900Well, the communities first was more like a slate.
00:44:07.320Like who is the, uh, candidate that they can field for a specific seat.
00:44:11.820So I think these things are going to evolve and I look forward to what the next iteration does.
00:44:18.320And I hope it brings us even higher quality, uh, folks that continue to want to step forward, given the context of how tough it is to be an elected official.
00:44:26.700I think we should commend everybody that did put their name forward and thank those that will be serving us for the next, uh, uh, term here as they face some challenging discussions with Ottawa, with the provincial government.
00:44:39.060And, um, with other municipalities in the region.
00:44:42.060So I'm hopeful that it will, you know, we'll see better things the next iteration.
00:44:47.160And I think, I think I just want to add that I think it's, it is interesting just very quickly.
00:44:50.820It is really interesting how the party versus slate, right?
00:44:54.160And, and so, and, um, you know, maybe it's fair to say Calgary party was a little bit of both, but Calgary party was very clear.
00:44:59.560We are a party we're running together and it was very clear on their branding and signage.
00:45:02.740ABC was very clear we're a party and that was very clear on their branding and their signage.
00:45:06.500And it wasn't as clear with communities first.
00:45:08.300So I'll be interested to see if there's going to be more rules that come around that, that people, hey, better or worse, they want to know, are you with the party or not?
00:45:14.960And not be able to not tell that from the signage.
00:45:17.900Um, yeah, Steven, I feel like you just want to jump in for like a really quick comment on that.
00:45:22.800Listen, I mean, they wanted the best of both worlds.
00:45:25.300They wanted to run his independence and Terry Wong was a member of communities first too.
00:45:29.400Um, people forget because he never ever acknowledged that he was part of it.
00:45:35.300So he wants the benefit of being part of a party and the benefit was fundraising.
00:45:39.860The benefit was the capacity, uh, on a lot of different things.
00:45:44.420And, uh, you know, he, they want the benefit, but he doesn't want to take the, the hit, if you will.
00:45:51.140Oh, I don't know what do you think about it.
00:45:52.580I mean, we, we went to the debates and it was like communities first.
00:45:56.960I don't know what that is, you know, I mean, first of all, very pleased that Terry Wong lost.