Western Standard - Edmonton councillor Mike Nickel on potential foreign influence on local elections.

00:00:00.000 Okay, so I'm sitting today with Councillor Mike Nichol from Edmonton.

00:00:12.280 Councillor Nichol's been really making some news now and then as the Maverick

00:00:16.280 Councillor up there, similar for Calgary Watchers.

00:00:19.580 He's like the Edmonton Jeremy Farkas in some ways.

00:00:22.320 He stands out from the crowd and these municipal politics that seem to kind of

00:00:25.200 all move in a pack, and they sure get upset when somebody dares to break

00:00:29.720 from the pack.

00:00:31.380 Something that has recently come out, though, is Councillor Nichol has sent a

00:00:36.020 letter to the Municipal Affairs Minister, Tracy Allard, the new one,

00:00:40.500 as well as Casey Maddew, our former one, asking for an investigation into what

00:00:47.560 appears to be some outside funding, perhaps influencing the last election.

00:00:51.480 So thanks for coming on.

00:00:52.560 Mike, can you expand a bit on that?

00:00:54.840 Well, today, you know, that's exactly it.

00:00:58.200 This has to deal with Mayor Don Iveson and his relationship to a

00:01:02.540 political consulting firm called Stratcom.

00:01:07.700 And back in 2013, when the Mayor Don Iveson was running for election,

00:01:13.300 he garnered some services.

00:01:14.580 It's right on the Stratcom website.

00:01:16.040 It says Stratcom did various voter contact, polling, and so on for him.

00:01:21.620 And there's nothing wrong with that.

00:01:23.080 That is perfectly legit, and that's okay.

00:01:25.660 And so, but what's interesting is Stratcom is also a company that works for other

00:01:29.960 organizations like David Suzuki, Greenpeace, I believe Paths for People on there.

00:01:35.760 Certainly, I would say organizations and nonprofits are not on my Christmas card list,

00:01:40.900 and they wouldn't be, I wouldn't get, you know, it's, that's just not my kind of crew.

00:01:47.780 But what's all, but the important thing here is to delineate is that they also do charitable

00:01:53.320 fundraising for various groups.

00:01:55.760 And that's also commendable, but it says very clear in the Income Tax Act,

00:02:00.240 no charitable resources or funding can go to partisan politics whatsoever.

00:02:05.560 So my question was very simple to the mayor and to Stratcom, how are you ensuring that

00:02:13.180 these things stay separate and above board?

00:02:15.780 And I don't think that's a difficult question.

00:02:18.360 I just need a yes or no, and we have this saying, trust but verify, the old Ronald Reagan

00:02:24.000 pitch.

00:02:25.220 And that's all what Stratcom is really about, but it is very serious because if you look

00:02:29.600 on their website, Stratcom is also the company that organized some of our anti-pipeline or

00:02:35.800 campaigns in other provinces.

00:02:38.940 So it kind of concerns me.

00:02:41.340 And so I'm back to the trust but verify, and I'd like some straight up answers.

00:02:46.140 Yeah, I believe you mentioned Lead Now as well, and that group is very politicized.

00:02:52.280 And they've taken part in some very, well, to be blunt, hard left-wing campaigns,

00:02:57.100 which is a democratic right, but you don't want to do that under the radar.

00:03:00.520 I mean, voters want to know who's coming from where.

00:03:03.740 And it's something they participated to.

00:03:04.960 Yeah, and it's also, some of your viewers might be aware, Vivian Krause did some work

00:03:09.420 with American-funded sources, or American sources of bringing money into Canada.

00:03:16.800 And I believe Lead Now, Lead Now did take some money from Washington, D.C. group a while

00:03:23.360 ago.

00:03:24.340 And so it's like, you know what?

00:03:26.780 And when it gets to this level and these sorts of issues, they're not all federal.

00:03:32.440 They're not all provincial.

00:03:33.900 So this is coming right down to the meat and potatoes at the municipal level as well.

00:03:38.340 So the same sort of scrutiny that we had on the We Charity scandal that we have here in

00:03:43.220 Alberta on other issues, I think it's just commensurate that we should be, you know,

00:03:49.320 have our due diligence.

00:03:50.140 Well, absolutely.

00:03:52.220 I mean, transparency, I think, is everything.

00:03:53.720 As long as people know where things are coming from, the voters can make up their own minds.

00:03:56.840 But it's when they kind of sneak under the radar, it seems almost a consequence.

00:04:00.560 We've really seemed to have cracked down in the last decade on open contributions by businesses

00:04:04.180 or large contributions to candidates provincially and municipally.

00:04:08.080 But then what happens is like a game of whack-a-mole, PACs pop up and special interest groups

00:04:12.320 and so on and just sort of do and funnel that money that the candidates used to.

00:04:15.700 And I think some of the transparency actually got lost.

00:04:17.560 Yeah, I agree.

00:04:19.980 And it's really important for people to understand that some of these campaigns that seem to be

00:04:26.400 grassroots, seem to be organic, are certainly not.

00:04:30.580 Now, I'm not suggesting Stratcom or any other organization does that.

00:04:34.080 But I will tell you, it is kind of odd that I receive emails on certain civic issues from

00:04:39.260 British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.

00:04:42.040 And so something else is going on here that I really do believe, like you said, for transparency's

00:04:47.720 sake.

00:04:47.980 So everybody knows what's what.

00:04:50.980 And I think politics has changed dramatically in the last 10, 15 years.

00:04:54.980 And so now it's just trust but verify.

00:04:59.400 Yeah, well, and I'm glad you're speaking up.

00:05:01.360 So I'll just talk quickly on some of the issues you've dealt with for daring to speak up.

00:05:05.780 As I said, municipal councils seem to kind of move in packs and they really don't like

00:05:10.960 it when somebody deviates from the pack.

00:05:12.880 And you had to deal with a code of conduct issue and you were taken on the carpet there.

00:05:18.860 Maybe if you could let our Calgarian listeners and then maybe expand for the Edmonton ones is

00:05:22.600 what you recently endured.

00:05:24.980 Well, it's very, very, very similar to Jeremy Farkas, your councillor down in Calgary.

00:05:31.140 The funny part is we're both from Ward 11.

00:05:34.060 I don't know if that's a coincidence or whatever.

00:05:37.880 And we talked, I had a podcast.

00:05:40.320 I have a show called Mic Check that I get people to tune into.

00:05:44.340 And we talked about his code of conduct and my code of conduct.

00:05:47.960 Basically, it was me calling out emergency bike lanes in the city of Edmonton.

00:05:53.900 I thought they were absurd.

00:05:56.080 I don't mind bike lanes as long as they're being used.

00:05:58.720 But putting pylons in the road in the middle of a pandemic, is that really well?

00:06:03.260 It's not really well.

00:06:04.380 We're doing it here too.

00:06:05.560 And the pylons are turning into a hazard because the homeless people are throwing them in the 1.00

00:06:08.520 streets and nobody's using them.

00:06:09.880 It's just ridiculous.

00:06:10.320 And, yeah, so I called it out.

00:06:12.320 I put a couple of memes out.

00:06:14.240 And then some people decided to file some code of conduct charges against me.

00:06:19.560 What I found most frustrating, though, is that our integrity commissioner said this was off

00:06:27.460 board.

00:06:28.160 And I felt she overreached.

00:06:29.880 And she's tried.

00:06:30.620 Basically, she said she could come onto my social media, my personal social media, and edit

00:06:35.480 what I get to say.

00:06:36.360 And, of course, I was not going to apologize for calling out emergency bike lanes.

00:06:41.240 I was not going to stick back from what I have done, especially on my own pages that

00:06:46.020 I pay for.

00:06:48.060 And, nope, but she felt different.

00:06:50.780 And eight of my fellow councillors agreed, and four did not.

00:06:55.880 But much to their chagrin, or my chagrin, however you want to use it, they didn't get

00:07:00.980 their supermajority, so I beat the rap.

00:07:03.360 Unlike Jeremy, who got escorted out of council.

00:07:05.800 I don't think I'll be able to top that one.

00:07:08.360 Well, give it time.

00:07:09.580 It doesn't sound like you plan on stopping speaking up.

00:07:12.000 But it's just ridiculous, the lengths that these little clusters are going to shut out

00:07:18.020 other voices.

00:07:18.880 I mean, we don't have a formal opposition party in these municipal governments models.

00:07:22.820 So we really do need somebody to speak from outside of the pack critically, whether they're

00:07:26.080 right or wrong.

00:07:26.780 And, again, it's up for the voters to determine.

00:07:28.220 But it's a scary trend when they're really forcefully trying to quell differing voices

00:07:34.300 from the majority there.

00:07:36.400 Stan, I could agree with you more.

00:07:38.060 There's a kind of a political bigotry that's kind of entered into our politics, where if

00:07:42.820 you dare have a different point of view, their only idea is to either bully you or shout

00:07:48.340 or chew down and not talk about the substantive facts around the issues.

00:07:52.480 And I've always said this is the feelings, not facts, you know, politician that permeates

00:07:58.300 our city councils.

00:07:59.960 When you try to present the facts to them, well, I feel it should be different, even though

00:08:03.680 the world works completely the opposite.

00:08:05.460 But, you know, we can go back to emergency bike lanes, you know, we're talking about putting

00:08:11.920 in a gondola here in Edmonton.

00:08:13.620 I mean, oh, it's like, what?

00:08:17.300 It's like no concept of, you know, fiscal responsibility.

00:08:21.460 It seems to be just an epidemic among municipal government, well, every form of government.

00:08:26.220 But that's a larger, broader issue.

00:08:29.220 Now, I understand you guys are putting in a 7% tax increase in Calgary?

00:08:34.380 Yep.

00:08:35.460 Yeah.

00:08:35.980 And are they absolutely mad?

00:08:39.740 Wow.

00:08:40.480 This happens, you know, they'll back off a little bit in the election year, but they

00:08:44.020 keep hiking all the way through and everybody gets upset.

00:08:46.380 But you know what?

00:08:47.440 Mayor Ninchy and the rest of them all get reelected every time.

00:08:49.740 So it's at a point where I think it's kind of up to the voters to say they've had enough.

00:08:52.880 But in times like this, it's insane that they're increasing taxes like that.

00:08:57.700 And again, Jeremy Farkas and a couple others are the only voices daring to speak up, which

00:09:01.200 is shocking.

00:09:02.140 You know, this might be surprising to a lot of you people in Calgary.

00:09:07.580 I have a very good relationship with our civic unions here in town.

00:09:13.940 And I basically sat them down and I said, it's not how much I pay you, it's how much

00:09:18.660 productivity I get out of you for the money I pay you.

00:09:21.160 And my unions are frustrated as well.

00:09:24.860 Our frontline workers can't get anything done. 0.68

00:09:27.080 We have too much middle management.

00:09:29.000 Our overhead and red tape is at absurd levels.

00:09:32.060 I'm sure these sound very familiar to what's going on in Calgary with a council that doesn't

00:09:36.820 seem to want to fix anything or get to the mechanics of it.

00:09:42.140 You tell me, does this sound familiar?

00:09:44.480 They bring forward a motion and they throw it to administration.

00:09:47.400 You go fix it.

00:09:48.980 Does that sound familiar?

00:09:50.380 Yeah.

00:09:50.700 And it sounds like the priorities are backwards.

00:09:52.940 I mean, I know in Calgary City Council, they'll sit and spend a whole day fighting over the

00:09:57.020 most small of myopic micromanaging things.

00:10:00.200 And then when it comes to broad oversight, they'll shut down councillors who dare to question

00:10:05.180 administration.

00:10:05.940 In my view, it seems that a municipal government should be the high level overlooking and watching

00:10:11.240 of things and directly questioning administration, but not messing around with the little stuff.

00:10:15.960 It seems almost backwards.

00:10:18.100 Yeah.

00:10:19.320 But I think both in Emmett and Calgary, the voters have finally realized value for your taxes

00:10:24.180 and return on investment, social return on investment must be measured.

00:10:28.060 We can't keep throwing money at our problem at the wall and hoping it's going to stick.

00:10:33.560 And so those days are gone.

00:10:36.600 Our economies are decimated, both in Emmett and Calgary.

00:10:40.360 We're talking a complete mechanical, if not philosophical, overhaul of what we need to do.

00:10:45.980 And so the voters here at Emmett, you know, it almost is like there's the downtown point

00:10:52.300 of view and then there's life in the suburbs.

00:10:54.280 And the people in the suburbs are getting very, very frustrated at that.

00:10:58.020 And certainly from the business point of view, the exodus has been not just alarming, but

00:11:04.560 catastrophic.

00:11:06.040 Yeah.

00:11:06.380 Calgary's got a 30% downtown vacancy and growing right now as well.

00:11:10.000 Well, we're coming into an election year, so let's hope it's a watershed one.

00:11:14.960 We've got a lot to cover.

00:11:16.380 It's going to be a lively year, I think.

00:11:17.940 So I really appreciate you sitting down with me.

00:11:19.400 I'm sure we'll be seeing and hearing more from you as you keep holding their feet to the 1.00

00:11:22.940 fire up there.

00:11:23.620 So I really appreciate that.

00:11:26.080 We have a couple more for you, too, that we think are going to be pretty shocking for

00:11:31.700 the citizens to see as we lift the lid on administration and what the city's been doing

00:11:37.120 and where the money's been going.

00:11:39.860 Enough's enough.

00:11:40.880 That's our kind of our saying here.

00:11:42.300 Enough is enough.

00:11:43.040 It's got to stop.

00:11:44.320 Well, I'm looking forward to it.

00:11:45.500 I hope we can talk about it when you lift that lid off.

00:11:47.820 We'll see what scurries out from underneath.

00:11:49.900 Anytime.

00:11:50.660 Thank you very much for the opportunity.

00:11:52.540 Thanks, Mike.

00:11:53.620 Thank you.

00:11:55.260 Thank you.

00:11:56.160 Thank you.

00:11:56.480 Thank you.

00:11:57.480 Thank you.

00:11:59.100 Thank you.

00:11:59.720 Thank you.

00:12:06.240 Thank you.

Western Standard - October 10, 2020

Edmonton councillor Mike Nickel on potential foreign influence on local elections.

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