Western Standard - HANNAFORD： Anonymous letter blocks new Calgary councillor from key board

00:00:00.000 good evening western standard viewers and welcome to hanaford a weekly politics show it is thursday

00:00:22.720 november the 20th sometimes what seems obvious to people who work hard pay their taxes and play by

00:00:29.120 the rules doesn't seem obvious to the people who get elected in many cities across canada councils

00:00:35.920 were raising the palestinian flag as though there was something worth celebrating in the terrorist

00:00:41.520 gang that seeks the destruction of jews not just in israel but everywhere if you haven't seen the

00:00:46.720 film nuremberg go take a look there's a nasty pit in there in the middle but that's what the that's

00:00:52.480 what the jews have experienced within the last hundred years now they have a homeland and

00:00:56.480 uh then they get attacked by their neighbors so anyway calvary hoisted the palestinian flag last

00:01:03.040 saturday with me today is landon johnston newly elected counselor for ward 14. landon welcome to

00:01:09.760 the show thank you for having me well first congratulations on your win i appreciate that

00:01:16.640 the word on the ground was that you worked pretty hard for that you were very visible

00:01:20.720 but i guess nothing would have been more visible in your campaign to recall the former mayor

00:01:26.320 uh jody gondek um do you think that might have had something to do with uh name recognition

00:01:33.760 i would think it probably did have a little bit to do with it but that's not why you did the recall

00:01:39.600 no definitely not no no tell us why i mean i know you've spoken before on this but

00:01:46.240 what was what most people don't bother they just don't vote you know you bothered why did you go after

00:01:52.880 the mayor i think like a lot of people i was just frustrated um and it's just the way i grew up was

00:01:59.280 you know there's one thing to be frustrated but then there's one thing to do something about it and so

00:02:05.520 like uh my sisters and my mom you know we see a problem we we try and fix it so

00:02:10.640 when i saw a problem i saw a mayor that was

00:02:15.200 not a great leader to be honest i just felt we could have done better than that

00:02:19.440 um i felt she had a good chance to be the first female mayor in the city um and she just let that

00:02:25.520 slip past and i mean it was just one thing after another with her just very divisive and i just had

00:02:31.680 enough of it and i mean i saw a piece of legislation that was questionable but still accessible to

00:02:39.280 everybody to use and i thought why not why not right so that you know obviously weren't successful

00:02:45.840 a good try but no cigar at some point you said you know i need to get on council why did you want to

00:02:54.320 be on council i guess again it's just you you want to fix something and then okay what do you want to

00:03:03.040 fix on council everything right okay yeah you have my vote now yeah uh let's be specific let's start

00:03:11.280 talking about the flag thing first first of all i mean all right um i guess they took a vote and

00:03:16.720 decided not to make it a priority they'll get to it in due course meanwhile you know everybody's

00:03:22.080 wanting to fly their home country flag this is even a good thing not for me i i don't i don't

00:03:30.240 necessarily i mean i agree with having any foreign flag being flown um not any specific ones and then

00:03:37.840 it's up to the discretion of the mayor for the past since uh 2016 i think it was the discretion of the

00:03:45.120 mayor on which flags to fly right and so we ended up actually doing a little deep dive and to see how

00:03:51.840 many flags actually have been denied um so i can share with you that later um it is interesting um you know

00:03:59.040 the the the decline they they use the word decline uh application right and so some of them were like

00:04:08.880 star trek flag some of them would have been uh pride flags and transgender flags that were actually

00:04:14.160 denied uh because you can only have it up once a year on that flight pole so it was interesting to

00:04:18.960 see the there's a list about 10 15 flags that actually have been not denied in the past one of

00:04:24.480 them was like church of christ so religious reasons or whatever but it really ultimately comes down to

00:04:29.040 the discretion of the mayor and so for me it was the process in which led to the palestinian play going

00:04:35.920 up that was frustrating for a lot of the council members as well being fed a date that the applicant

00:04:43.920 actually filed was the 29th or 30th or whatever and then you know the confusion was is well then who

00:04:51.840 decided to change it to the 15th or whatever right um and so that would have

00:05:00.160 brought it before when the mayor was going to bring forward a motion she was all getting a little

00:05:07.120 inside uh inside the council chamber but i mean what's the real issue here there's that they uh that

00:05:12.880 that they wanted to fly the palestinian flag um well the mayor would went around and talk to all the

00:05:19.600 counselors asking i don't really know if he asked us what our thoughts were if if we were for it or

00:05:25.200 against that um what did he ask you i can't remember i'll be honest like it was a bit of a rush but he

00:05:31.360 did come to the office and say hey we're gonna um fly the flag and i said well why right first off like

00:05:40.400 you know you have the discretion and now to be fair i didn't actually say this to him i just

00:05:44.320 he said let's let's we're gonna fly the flag um carney um recognize palestine and so he's gonna

00:05:53.760 follow with what carney did and again i said okay like we can deal with this uh through the proper

00:06:00.640 channels he ran out and i whatever um but the real process kind of started after he left where we

00:06:07.200 started talking with other counselors and they were kind of being fed similar stories but a little again it

00:06:12.560 was just confusion right what why are we flying this flag right should we not maybe think about

00:06:18.240 it should we not have more time to um debate it right and that was why it actually was denied is

00:06:25.680 just that the other counselors felt um you know we should we should talk about it put it to the public

00:06:30.880 to the side um i don't it's the process is what bugged me right either fly all the flags or don't fly

00:06:37.760 any flags right and for me as a calgarian canadian there should only be one flag up there maybe two

00:06:44.640 maybe three but outside of that um okay so your people three flags well canada alberta the city

00:06:55.760 i mean and then treaty seven wants to get a flag up there the metis want to get a flag up there

00:07:00.320 right it's just there's a lot of stakeholders in our country that could have a flag up there

00:07:05.760 um and and flags are important to us like i the canadian flag is actually an interesting flag is

00:07:13.520 that three or four years ago or five years ago it was used as a symbol for let's say more right-wing

00:07:20.880 people to rally around during the covert truck trucker protests right and then that kind of swapped

00:07:26.560 around when carney got in you know canada first and now that flag is more on the left side of of the

00:07:33.280 aisle right and so but i like the idea that the flag is a rallying point right people like or don't

00:07:40.560 like as a rallying point why would you want to fly the ballast exactly well that's the problem right

00:07:45.040 why would we fly a flag that was divisive right and the mayor did have the opportunity to not fly it

00:07:51.600 and so that was a frustrating point is like well why why don't we just not fly it and then still have

00:07:57.520 the process so welcome to the rude world of local politics yeah yes okay well talking of the rude

00:08:03.840 world world of uh local politics i gather that you have you were blocked from sitting on a the board

00:08:12.240 of what the calgary housing is it an authority or so it's a wholly owned business so the the city of

00:08:19.200 calgary owns calgary housing it's had its name changed uh recently um can't remember what it was called

00:08:25.520 before but uh but basically last year i was uh i went through the procurement process for the for

00:08:30.240 my first time um and i won a contract through calgary housing and that was for the few of yours

00:08:36.320 you're uh what is it that what is your business right so i'm a hvac owner so we do plumbing heating

00:08:42.400 air conditioning uh duct cleaning so for past 13 15 years i've been doing hvac in calgary right so you

00:08:50.960 know the ins and outs of what goes on and when you go to a house you have to fix things up and

00:08:55.760 how the billing and everything else works yeah i've got um two tickets and i've got my plumbing

00:09:00.800 apprenticeship so i've got refrigeration hvac i've got my gas ticket and working on my plumbing ticket

00:09:07.040 maybe not so much right now but um yeah and so i got a procurement uh through the city of calgary

00:09:13.760 and then i started the contract and it just from day one it went it went sideways right uh the very

00:09:20.160 first interview i had with the the team lead um i can't remember his name but he basically said oh

00:09:27.920 you're that guy right the recall guy but he's right and so and in my experience that could either go

00:09:35.360 one of two ways right you have uh the mayor's fans and then the mayor's non-fans right in my opinion this

00:09:42.400 guy was a mayor fan and so he made it very clear that he's upset with me and all this and i was like i

00:09:48.560 don't know how to deal with this and it was frustrating so he ended up getting taken off of

00:09:54.880 the project right and so obviously there was a conflict with him with me

00:09:58.880 um and then again the next guy that came in it was just one thing after another just the

00:10:02.960 mismanagement of the entire process it was very frustrating um to be giving such a large contract but

00:10:10.960 then have to deal with such mismanagement right and so i it was stressful right so but in the end the

00:10:18.160 job got done in the end they i believe um they lost the contract to the province so the province that

00:10:26.160 actually came in and and took the contract away from city of calgary or calgary housing and then i

00:10:31.840 finished the contract through the province and it was actually the province who ended up who had always

00:10:37.200 owned the houses and it was their contract it was just being facilitated through calgary housing yes

00:10:42.720 right and so i i did finish the contract um back in the spring i mean it took about four months longer

00:10:49.200 than it should have um but i mean just it was it was torture but you got paid the job got done and you

00:10:56.720 got paid should have been the end of the story yeah permanent everything was done you get elected to

00:11:01.840 council on the rebound from this uh actually i was i would call it a successful recall campaign and as

00:11:09.040 much as that you even got it to happen but leaving that aside now you're on council and uh did you ask

00:11:16.640 to be on the board of this particular calgary housing authority it was a big reason why i got hired

00:11:21.920 as a counselor right people were very well aware of my issues with calgary housing i talked to people in

00:11:27.360 the ward for yeah i talked to him about doors they'd always ask me where there's mismanagement and and

00:11:33.200 waste and then i said well i have first-hand experience of this right and and the whole idea

00:11:37.360 of me being on the board isn't to i'm sure that wasn't the only reason that you ran for council no but

00:11:43.200 it was a big part of it because there's waste all over and people are wondering why their taxes are going

00:11:48.480 up and then me seeing firsthand where their taxes are going and i could be like well if i can get in there

00:11:55.840 expose the mismanagement maybe we can deal with the level of taxes right that was my idea right um and

00:12:04.800 so yeah i put my name on the list for committees um and again it's it's the process that we're dealing

00:12:14.480 with as council members so on friday i handed my list for which uh committees i want to be on

00:12:20.320 mm-hmm at some point during the weekend a letter was sent to the mayor right just in dark of night

00:12:29.520 he got a letter um and then the date of the the organizational meeting he brings me behind closed

00:12:36.800 doors and says hey i received the letter from calgary housing and i said oh well i kind of think i know

00:12:44.160 what that letter is going to say right and so um and i was very vocal with calgary housing of my

00:12:52.560 disdain for their operation right i was very clear about that um they they called me a bully right they

00:12:59.760 said i would bully them um i all i ever said to them was that if i ever become counselor i'm gonna audit

00:13:05.520 you guys right well i was like right and they didn't like that they ever sniveled service would take

00:13:10.640 that as as as bullying i guess that's fine they call bullying whatever i'm never gonna sugarcoat it

00:13:16.000 let's just be very specific about what's happened here you are you run for council right uh part of

00:13:22.640 your engagement with the public says you know i actually have some insight into how things are

00:13:27.760 done in city hall and the things that i don't like and you wouldn't like it either because whenever

00:13:33.600 there's waste up go your taxes people said you the man we need somebody like that who knows stuff

00:13:40.720 to ask the right questions and maybe bring about effective change you then go get elected you get

00:13:46.800 elected quite handsomely as a matter of fact you're then put down to go on the committee where you can

00:13:54.320 do the most do the most good right and the administration somebody within the administration

00:13:59.920 actually said oh we don't want him so who's actually doing the job who's appointing people

00:14:05.920 to committees is that the the ones that the city administration likes or is it actually the

00:14:13.920 mayor in council something seems a little well no the precedent has now been set that administration

00:14:19.680 can pick and choose who they want to be on a council all right as long as they put confidential

00:14:24.080 on any memo they send to the mayor the mayor can now again at his discretion he could have

00:14:29.760 waited on that letter because he read it he's the only one that actually had read this letter um and

00:14:34.960 i do have to be careful because a lot of what was said was said in camera and again that was something

00:14:41.040 he promised not to do as much as the last mayor did it was one of the first things he did was go

00:14:46.080 in camera right and again it was it was a um i can use the word prejudice because that's a behavioral word

00:14:52.880 right and so there was prejudice in camera right and so again i felt that that kept me off of a board

00:14:59.920 um now if you look i did take my name off of the committee but i can't talk about why i did that

00:15:06.800 because of the reasons were in camera right but and the whole purpose of me bringing this notice of

00:15:11.680 motion forward was to release uh the confidentiality of in camera right so as long as it's in the public

00:15:18.160 we can talk about it and so the idea was to get that memo read to everybody um which i'm still

00:15:23.840 trying to figure out if i can release it because i had to ask the mayor to allow the rest of council

00:15:29.760 to see what that letter said after we had already picked right so the the waters have been muddied

00:15:35.920 right that the council now thinks well maybe there was a conflict of interest or whatever so i'm all

00:15:40.880 about finding the truth i have nothing to hide i didn't do anything wrong with calgary housing i might

00:15:45.360 have been abrasive i might have been um frustrated but if people and i've been asking for a third

00:15:51.200 party mediator for over a year to look into the allegations that i've made and the allegations

00:15:56.320 that calgary housing has made and i 100 believe i'll be cleared people understand that there is some

00:16:01.680 frustrations and some misdoings at calgary housing and if it's basically based off of what i saw

00:16:07.920 personally i think people would so what what committees did they put you on in the end um

00:16:16.560 there's the intergovernmental committee the federation of canadian municipalities um

00:16:24.080 the pension committee i'm excited about that one committee yeah i could do some good in there too yeah

00:16:30.960 i believe you might yeah no but it's just it's just uh i can sense your frustration and i'm

00:16:36.720 tend to sympathize it with the one thing that you actually know something about you can make a

00:16:40.080 serious input into but they don't want to hear from you i should i should be on that and you

00:16:44.800 know i just want to have the fair chance of being on that committee i don't know if the rest of

00:16:48.640 the council would vote did you know that the front that administration might be a problem before you

00:16:54.400 always okay i i have more how did you know what did you know well i filed almost a thousand freedom

00:17:00.960 of information act requests right across canada and a big portion of that was in the city of calgary

00:17:06.480 right so i have on every single department i've got thousands and thousands and thousands of

00:17:15.520 emails whatever it's just as a hvac owner who works hard i've got time to play and this is how i i play

00:17:22.720 is i like to investigate things i like to find the truth um in london i mean we're forthcoming

00:17:28.640 if you have these uh information requests and they actually get back and give you meaningful information

00:17:33.520 information only if you flood them with enough that they can't redact everything right and so

00:17:40.320 if you ask for 10 pieces of paper they'll redact everything properly right but if you ask for a

00:17:47.280 thousand pieces of paper they might miss something so um yeah it was very interesting to to see what i

00:17:52.480 found out during these little investigations um which again i'm not here to burn the system down but if

00:17:58.640 if nobody's in there who understands the problems then nobody's gonna fix it right and so well i mean

00:18:06.240 it sounds like you have some experience of dealing with council that goes way back before you were

00:18:13.200 elected so um do you think the council actually runs the city do like does the administration take

00:18:23.600 direction from the the council or is it kind of the administration says well here's what you can do

00:18:29.360 and give some gives council safe choices well i went through orientation that was an eye-opener

00:18:35.760 um oh this is where they tell you what questions you can't ask yeah and so i was shut down twice in

00:18:42.720 orientation by administration for questions i wanted to ask them uh duly elected representative oh yeah it was

00:18:50.400 very disturbing right um so they just say no you can't ask about that yeah so they they hired an air

00:18:56.480 back you up on these things no and that's the frustrating part right he he allowed administration

00:19:02.560 to take control of what council and council can't do right and uh you know he he made promises that he

00:19:14.400 has her back and he's gonna fight for us and stuff but i mean it just seems council is a very ceremonial

00:19:21.600 position right now i wonder how many voters actually understood this when they went to the ballots and

00:19:28.480 whether more people in calgary would have gone to the ballots if they they knew just what was going on i

00:19:36.400 mean we have been saying there's been lots of people saying that the administration is in control over

00:19:42.480 there in city hall and that the city council tends to be a rubber stamp for just choosing between

00:19:49.200 pre-approved options now you're saying that based on what you've seen so far in your freedom of

00:19:56.400 information requests which don't really which in which they try to conceal information that frankly

00:20:02.320 should be available to the public that's a public organization and now you're elected and you get told

00:20:08.320 by administration that you're supposed to be controlling what you can and what you can't do

00:20:14.640 and then you get uh and then in the one part where you might actually have some specialized

00:20:19.600 knowledge that would be helpful they shut you off yeah well landon it's going to be a long four years

00:20:28.400 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

00:20:36.160 and honestly besides my little frustrations with government in general i'm not i'm not a small

00:20:43.520 government person i'm just a smaller government person right um but our ward 14 has been a piggy bank

00:20:51.200 for the rest of the city for a very long time we have no major capital projects that people can actually

00:20:56.960 use or can enjoy right and so my goal was to to bring engagement back right it was ward 14 i mean for

00:21:04.640 people who don't know the city as well right maybe what part of the city we talked about that has no

00:21:09.360 capital projects yeah so we're in the south we're uh basically south of anderson okay and uh yeah it

00:21:16.000 goes all the way down to legacy uh we've got mckenzie town so it's awesome we surround fish creek

00:21:22.080 it's a great place uh that i've lived almost yes my entire time and okay so you're saying that

00:21:27.920 the tax base down there is making possible a lot of things in other parts of the city and you know

00:21:32.320 actually cost them a lot that's right and so my goal is to bring that engagement back um

00:21:37.760 i'm telling everybody to think big right uh the city owes us a lot right and i want to make sure

00:21:42.640 we get what we're owed right um and i get we're not going to get rid of taxes but there is funds

00:21:48.000 available for fun right recreational center like we don't have a pool we don't have a nice drink we

00:21:53.200 don't have um any library we don't have any city-ran facility the only one in the entire city that ward

00:21:59.680 14 does not have any sort of facility then that that's frustrating for a lot of new families down

00:22:06.240 there where we have to go somewhere else to go to the library go to a pool go to skating rink go

00:22:10.960 wherever right so i want to bring that back i want to bring some value back to ward 14 and that's what

00:22:16.000 i'm going to fight for i'm going to bring that same level of fight that i would bring you know to

00:22:21.680 that recall i did to any frustration i want to bring that fight for ward 14 right it's just we've been

00:22:27.680 misrepresented for a very long time um the leadership is just wasn't there for in my opinion

00:22:34.640 a long time and that's why there was such a a small voter turnout just frustration um a lot of

00:22:40.240 fatigue a lot of uh um for frustration and i think that is why i won i think people did appreciate the

00:22:48.000 fight in me and they want that fight to to fight for them so that's what i'm gonna do so good luck

00:22:53.680 land yeah well then you got elected now you're finding out what it's like in there stay the

00:23:01.280 course appreciate it four years yep welcome yeah the western standard thank you sir and for the

00:23:08.160 western standard i'm nigel hatterford thank you for being with us

00:23:25.760 you

Western Standard - November 24, 2025

HANNAFORD： Anonymous letter blocks new Calgary councillor from key board

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