Western Standard - Taxes, Crime & Rezoning： Calgary needs a clean sweep

00:00:00.000 Good day, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.

00:00:15.000 I'm joined today for a special interview with Congrey mayoral candidate Jeff Davison.

00:00:20.400 Many of you will recall that he was a candidate in the last election, scored a very respectable

00:00:26.200 third place, but as you all know, we ended up with current mayor, Jody Gondek.

00:00:33.060 There are a lot of candidates on the ballot this year that do seem to have a plausible

00:00:38.020 chance of winning.

00:00:38.820 It's a wide open field with no clear front runners yet emerged in any kind of head-to-head.

00:00:44.780 So I'm pleased today to be joined by Mr. Davison.

00:00:48.360 Thanks for coming in.

00:00:49.040 Thank you for having me.

00:00:49.700 I remember, I think the first time we actually met was when we did an editorial board interview

00:00:54.420 with you.

00:00:55.320 I think so.

00:00:55.480 Yeah, four years ago, we had a little rinky-dink office in the same building, just one floor

00:00:59.620 upstairs.

00:01:00.140 We had just one room with furniture from the 1970s.

00:01:05.600 I was very proud of our up-and-coming little office.

00:01:09.000 It's amazing to see the growth.

00:01:10.860 Truly.

00:01:11.300 Thank you.

00:01:11.880 Yeah.

00:01:12.340 Yeah.

00:01:13.640 You know, and we try to watch the municipal beat, you know, modern medium art industry

00:01:19.400 being what it is, there just isn't the resources to have big city hall crews going.

00:01:23.100 But, you know, we've, even though it's not the most, it doesn't make the most economic

00:01:27.140 sense.

00:01:27.500 We've tried to have someone at city hall.

00:01:28.980 We've had Mike Thomas.

00:01:30.020 I know you've talked to before.

00:01:31.960 You know, Corey Morgan, we've had on, you know, the mayoral race and the council races

00:01:36.560 pretty well.

00:01:37.020 Um, so, uh, I appreciate you taking your time because it's, it's, uh, it's not as clear

00:01:45.000 cut as the last election.

00:01:46.100 Last election, you had a very respectable, uh, third place showing, but in the end it

00:01:50.560 had come down to a two-way race between Jody Gondack, Jeremy Farkas.

00:01:54.860 Uh, Jeremy Farkas, uh, that time was, I think, seen as, uh, a more robustly conservative candidate

00:02:02.180 than he is now.

00:02:03.260 Yep.

00:02:03.560 Um, we go back a long ways.

00:02:05.800 Yep.

00:02:06.000 I'm not going to bad, uh, bad mouth Jeremy, but his, um, you know, I, I kind of rib him

00:02:10.560 that, you know, after he lost, he won on this Forrest Gump run and he, he came back, he

00:02:16.340 came back different.

00:02:17.160 Sure.

00:02:18.080 And, uh, I, I think he came by it, honestly, I, I don't think it was for show.

00:02:22.180 I think he had a change of heart.

00:02:23.940 Um, but he's no longer kind of the clear, more stridently conservative candidate, uh, than

00:02:29.640 he, than he was last time.

00:02:31.580 Um, uh, last time I think he received as maybe the more moderate conservative candidate, but

00:02:37.160 now I guess for the reorientation of Farkas, maybe leftwards, you arguably are the more conservative

00:02:43.600 candidate in the race, uh, and Sonia Sharp in a presentation seems to at least be kind

00:02:50.440 of going for the same thing that the two of you are the more conservative of the two

00:02:53.400 candidates.

00:02:54.560 Um, so I guess this is the big question.

00:02:57.820 A lot of people are wrestling with conservatives or non-socialists in Calgary.

00:03:01.220 Uh, even in our newsroom, it's, uh, it's totally mixed. 1.00

00:03:05.240 A lot of people just don't know who they're voting for.

00:03:07.060 Yeah.

00:03:07.420 Um, you know, why should, um, you know, more conservative or non-socialist Calgary,

00:03:13.600 vote for you as opposed to Sonia Sharp, uh, or Jeremy Farkas?

00:03:18.980 Yeah.

00:03:19.540 And, and to be clear, the, the undecideds are huge in this election.

00:03:22.720 It's, it's a very different race. 0.98

00:03:24.100 And I think to, to the point of, you know, policy last time versus now, where are we?

00:03:28.920 I think the world has changed.

00:03:30.200 I don't think in four years, uh, the city's gotten better.

00:03:33.440 I think we have seen public safety erode to such a point where people don't feel safe

00:03:38.460 in the downtown and now we're seeing crime eroded out into the communities.

00:03:41.120 I think we are now at a point where affordability has eroded so far that people just say, why

00:03:46.240 won't the city do its job to freeze taxes? 0.64

00:03:48.720 Uh, and I'm the only candidate saying I'm listening and I will.

00:03:51.540 Uh, I think when the vast majority of people feel like the blanket rezoning, for instance,

00:03:56.300 was just another example of city hall, not listening.

00:03:59.100 That's the standout point here, right?

00:04:00.900 I'm, I'm putting Calgarians back in the driver's seat and our campaign is very simple. 0.97

00:04:04.660 So, put out a vision of being an affordable, safe place of opportunity for everybody.

00:04:10.480 That's what Calgary has always been about.

00:04:12.040 It's the place where people can succeed.

00:04:13.900 And it didn't matter where you came from or what you planned on doing.

00:04:16.880 You could be successful because our city supported you.

00:04:19.940 And four years ago, I think I'd kind of moved on with my life.

00:04:23.420 I, I moved into healthcare.

00:04:24.900 I thought, you know what?

00:04:25.720 It's, it's going to be a long while before we see another opportunity like this.

00:04:29.280 And from the get-go, it was a climate emergency and canceling an arena deal and a bag bylaw

00:04:35.140 and a blanket rezoning and just about everything you could imagine that did one thing.

00:04:39.680 You are committed to letting us have bags and straws again, right?

00:04:43.580 You know, uh, I can tell you at the hospital, we've never gotten rid of plastic straws because

00:04:47.220 nothing says, you know, gross than a patient who has to deal with a, uh, a paper straw.

00:04:52.340 I'm sick of having to take four straws with me when I, uh, when I go somewhere.

00:04:55.380 I can take four because there's an ounce.

00:04:56.840 No, but at the end of the day, I think Warrick's council has failed.

00:04:59.980 And I think what makes me stand out is that people have lost trust in city council.

00:05:03.080 They no longer trust that they're putting them first and people, people are tired of

00:05:06.980 giving their opinions and not being heard.

00:05:10.160 I mean, for a law, a big majority of Calgarians, there's one thing they agree on.

00:05:16.700 They don't want Gondek.

00:05:17.860 Yep.

00:05:18.340 Uh, you know, I, we probably don't need to rehash the reasons why it's a mile long, but who

00:05:24.700 replaces her is the big question.

00:05:26.620 And also, um, not so-called splitting the vote so that she kind of comes up the middle. 0.91

00:05:32.940 I've always been a little hesitant of those who talk about splitting the vote as if one

00:05:37.340 party or one candidate has some kind of entitlement to your vote.

00:05:40.760 Right.

00:05:41.220 Um, and that you're somehow betraying them by voting for, you know, what you might see

00:05:45.280 as more principled, you know, like greens on the left or, you know, like a perform or

00:05:49.720 something more right wing on the other side.

00:05:51.600 Um, but there's something to it, just not as much as those who say that over and over

00:05:56.740 would think.

00:05:57.980 Um, so I, I think a lot of people don't want to split the vote in a way that would allow

00:06:02.580 Gondek to win.

00:06:03.660 Uh, the polling has been all over the map and inconsistent.

00:06:08.200 Janet Brown, a pretty trustworthy, incredible pollster, uh, was out last night, this morning.

00:06:13.300 Uh, as you said, huge, huge undecided.

00:06:16.080 Uh, normally you, you would never see an undecided vote, uh, as big as it is this close to election

00:06:21.540 day.

00:06:21.680 You might see that a few months out before people are thinking about it.

00:06:23.820 Yeah.

00:06:24.900 Uh, you know, I live out the county.

00:06:26.860 Thankfully, my choice is not as hard.

00:06:29.100 I, I don't, I don't get the vote.

00:06:30.880 Um, so I'm, I'm grateful I don't get the vote in this because it's tough.

00:06:33.920 Um, but you know, they don't want to split the vote.

00:06:37.520 Uh, Janet Brown's poll had Farkas as the leading non Gondek candidate, um, followed by Sharp

00:06:46.140 and yourself.

00:06:47.040 All three still competitive on the map.

00:06:51.440 They're, you know, they're not, uh, they're not in like Thyssen territory.

00:06:55.080 Right.

00:06:55.280 Uh, but I think Thyssen votes are, voters are probably all going to be faced with, well,

00:06:58.680 our candidate's not going to win.

00:07:00.660 Do we do then just get behind Gondek?

00:07:02.240 Correct.

00:07:03.380 Um, so among people who are thinking among the three of you, or even let, you know, let's

00:07:08.860 just even say you and Sharp, uh, there are differences, but I'd say the differences between

00:07:13.780 you are less pronounced than among the other candidates.

00:07:16.320 Yeah.

00:07:16.720 So, um, if we just take it as granted that policy-wise are very similar, why should they

00:07:25.660 vote for you over her? 1.00

00:07:27.900 Uh, if at least in that poll, she's got a net, Johnny has a better chance.

00:07:31.940 I've seen other ones that don't show that, but Janet Brown's generally pretty credible.

00:07:35.520 Yeah.

00:07:35.920 And, and to be clear, I mean, Janet's poll took place before the first major debate.

00:07:39.920 And so I think people, when, when you have such a large undecided population, I think

00:07:45.280 the debates are incredibly important.

00:07:46.720 And I think that debate has now shifted those numbers.

00:07:48.980 You know, just, I think some people might not know what you're talking about.

00:07:51.340 We're going to play that clip.

00:07:53.180 Uh, there's a clip you're talking about, uh, of a debate that took place recently where

00:07:57.400 Sonia Sharp had a bit of a moment. 0.86

00:08:00.400 Right.

00:08:00.600 I'm not running on a personal or an ideological agenda.

00:08:04.480 I'm running on a to-do list, a list I've compiled over the last four years with thousands

00:08:09.300 of conversations with Calgarians.

00:08:11.580 Three of those things are repeal blanket rezoning, 500 new police officers, downtown safety, and

00:08:19.000 bring administration to heel.

00:08:20.780 So if you want a safe, affordable city.

00:08:24.800 I'm sorry, is that rude?

00:08:26.100 That's rude.

00:08:26.700 That's rude.

00:08:27.140 That was not called for.

00:08:28.100 Jeff Davison team.

00:08:28.540 That's really rude.

00:08:29.440 Stuart, can I start my last statement?

00:08:31.960 Yeah.

00:08:32.220 Yeah.

00:08:32.420 So, you know, when we come out of that and you start to think about, okay, what's the

00:08:35.900 differentiator?

00:08:36.680 I mean, I'm not rolling back the blanket rezoning and I'm not part of the vote split.

00:08:40.180 I entered this election a year ago.

00:08:42.300 You're not rolling back the blanket rezoning?

00:08:43.560 No, no, I am.

00:08:44.380 Oh.

00:08:44.660 So she has since rolled back, uh, her opinion on the blanket rezoning and has created some

00:08:50.220 language that shows that her opinion on it is very wishy-washy.

00:08:53.620 Uh, I've never been undecided on this.

00:08:56.040 The blanket rezoning will be rolled back day one.

00:08:58.480 We are committed to that.

00:08:59.440 As we are committed to public safety changes.

00:09:01.640 Those are the two biggest things we're hearing in this election.

00:09:04.860 Um, you know, when it comes down to a vote splitting perspective, I think, you know, again,

00:09:08.880 I entered this race first.

00:09:09.960 I entered this race day one.

00:09:11.320 I put our policy out.

00:09:12.440 We talked about how we're going to do more to clean up our streets.

00:09:15.400 We talked about how we will roll back the blanket rezoning.

00:09:17.480 And I'm the only candidate today still talking about a tax freeze, a four-year tax freeze,

00:09:21.760 because we can't continue to erode our tax base, right?

00:09:25.100 We have to do more and budget more appropriately to the income levels that we have.

00:09:28.920 And so those are the things that I think ultimately will stand out.

00:09:31.740 I think there was a lot of conversation about the last election where people said, you and

00:09:35.780 Farkas split the votes and we ended up with Gondek.

00:09:37.840 But to be clear, Farkas and I together did not beat her.

00:09:41.060 And so that it's a bit of a misconception that I think has followed us into this election.

00:09:45.500 I think in Alberta, conservatives also have PTSD from 2015, which I also don't think was

00:09:50.780 strictly speaking votes, but there's a lot of other issues.

00:09:53.780 Yes, exactly.

00:09:54.700 So the issues aside, they're very different right now.

00:09:57.520 I think what people are looking for is somebody who can lead us potentially through the next

00:10:00.680 10 years.

00:10:01.200 Who's somebody who can champion our city?

00:10:02.880 Who's somebody who can bring opportunity?

00:10:04.860 And who's somebody who can get the things done that Calgarians are asking, which includes

00:10:07.860 cleaning up our streets and rolling back the blanket rezoning?

00:10:10.040 And I have been unequivocal on those things.

00:10:12.500 Okay, I want to come back to the same question.

00:10:14.800 I know it's a tough question, but I think it's fair that, you know, there are some policy

00:10:20.760 differences between you, you're saying on blanket rezoning, but otherwise pretty close.

00:10:27.320 You know, in another reality, you guys could, I could see you guys running on the same slate.

00:10:31.540 One is maybe running an award for council and one running for mayor, but I could see you

00:10:35.300 guys being on the same slate.

00:10:36.180 You're in the same universe.

00:10:38.920 So in the absence of policy, is there a strategic reason to vote for you?

00:10:44.800 If your goal is to stop, gone back.

00:10:47.660 Yeah, because I haven't been part of this mess for four years.

00:10:50.100 I think, you know, we've had an example of the two-party system already for four years.

00:10:54.240 You've got the yes mayor party and you've got the anti-anything party.

00:10:57.300 Neither one of them have been able to get anything done to the positive for Calgarians.

00:11:00.740 And that's why I'm calling for a clean sweep.

00:11:02.760 I don't think any of these people should be reelected.

00:11:04.840 I frankly don't think any of them deserve a promotion.

00:11:06.760 None of the current councillors?

00:11:08.360 Absolutely not.

00:11:09.020 Because they haven't gotten anything done.

00:11:11.280 And to simply stand up and say, well, when I'm elected mayor, I'm going to change that.

00:11:14.480 Well, all due respect, you've had four years to get the job done and you failed.

00:11:17.580 You failed to build public safety measures in place.

00:11:20.300 And you've talked about it, but you haven't done anything about it.

00:11:22.580 You failed to fix the water permanently.

00:11:24.620 You failed to fix our streets.

00:11:25.920 You failed to meet affordability measures.

00:11:27.800 You failed to develop our city in a way that led with community in mind.

00:11:31.920 This council has just failed, period, full stop.

00:11:34.080 Why would we ever risk the next 10 years with one of them again?

00:11:38.860 I think one of the issues that would probably be hang up for some conservative-leaning Calgarians to vote for you would be from four years ago.

00:11:51.060 It was a different map.

00:11:53.160 Farkas was perceived as being the most hardcore of the conservatives.

00:11:59.220 I don't think he would agree with the characterization of what he's writing today.

00:12:02.380 Sure.

00:12:02.920 So I think that's fair.

00:12:04.600 But, you know, we were in COVID and everything.

00:12:08.520 Everything was all over the map.

00:12:09.340 Like everything became COVID.

00:12:11.340 It saturated into every little piece of our politics and society.

00:12:16.340 And mask mandates had been a huge issue right then.

00:12:19.260 It was kind of engineered by outgoing Mayor Nenshi to have a big vote on masks and more lockdowns.

00:12:25.500 And, you know, Gondak had been with the Nenshi side.

00:12:29.180 Farkas had voted against.

00:12:31.460 Sure.

00:12:32.260 It may have hurt him in the end voting that way.

00:12:34.960 But I thought it was the right way to vote.

00:12:37.080 But I think, you know, you had been not quite as stridently against, you know, some of the mask mandates and whatnot.

00:12:43.740 And I know some conservative-leaning Calgarians remember that.

00:12:50.820 But is there anything you would say to kind of address, you know, we're not in COVID.

00:12:56.500 It's not an issue today.

00:12:57.220 But it was a test of everyone's politics and values.

00:13:01.060 Absolutely.

00:13:02.040 You know, what would you say today to Calgarians who didn't vote for you then because of, you know, where you voted on mask mandates, etc.

00:13:09.140 Even though it's not an issue today, what would you say to them to try and earn their vote when they didn't vote for you last time?

00:13:14.540 Well, number one, I spent four years working in healthcare and would have a very different opinion of things today.

00:13:18.860 I mean, you know, when we had international media pushing a narrative, when we had challenges going on, I mean, as city council, it was hard.

00:13:25.720 And whether you were for or against mandates or, you know, trying to stand up for one thing or the other, we were all kind of living in fear.

00:13:32.740 Right.

00:13:32.960 We were living in real time.

00:13:34.100 We really didn't understand what was happening.

00:13:36.900 Four years later, five years later, really, we have a different perspective on it.

00:13:42.100 I mean, working in a hospital now, I can tell you we've seen more cases of COVID in the last few years than we ever did during a pandemic.

00:13:48.380 Hasn't made the news and we've dealt with it.

00:13:50.660 So we know how to deal with these things now using different measures.

00:13:53.280 And I think that's important.

00:13:54.500 What we've learned from it and what we take forward and what we would do the next time would apply a very different value set to how we get through it.

00:14:01.380 So would it be correct to characterize what you're saying as you regret the way you had voted at that time, but you voted that way?

00:14:10.160 Well, look, I don't think it's about regret, right?

00:14:12.920 Because I think it was about living in real time with the information supplied.

00:14:16.320 And that was hard.

00:14:17.260 Allow me to rephrase.

00:14:19.120 Would you change how you voted then if you knew what you know now?

00:14:24.500 If we had all of the information?

00:14:26.100 Yeah, probably.

00:14:27.120 Because I think we do know more now.

00:14:28.980 And frankly, we've lived through more now, right?

00:14:31.100 Like, again, we've seen many cases and many times in the hospitals when we have been overrun with COVID cases since the pandemic had happened.

00:14:38.080 We managed it, right?

00:14:39.480 We have different protocols in place now.

00:14:41.040 We have different understanding of how disease is transmitted.

00:14:43.940 There's lots of different things that we would do because we have the advantage of having that information now.

00:14:48.540 So I would absolutely do things differently.

00:14:50.840 Okay.

00:14:53.100 You already touched on some of these things, but I want to get a bit more into them.

00:14:56.280 Sure.

00:14:56.360 You know, crime and drugs.

00:15:00.540 I mean, it's kind of a perennial in the top five, seven issues for people.

00:15:05.300 Yeah.

00:15:05.620 But I think it's shot right into the top one, two, or three at most now.

00:15:11.800 It's madness.

00:15:13.840 I just spent the better part of a week down in D.C., which has got a reputation as not in the safest place.

00:15:19.320 Now, I was in a safer area of D.C.

00:15:20.960 I wasn't in some of the rundown, more notorious areas.

00:15:24.320 But now they brought in the National Guard.

00:15:26.880 So they kind of, they took a cannon to, I don't want to say it was to shoot a mosquito, but they took a cannon to whatever they were shooting.

00:15:32.820 Yes.

00:15:33.100 I couldn't believe how safe the place was.

00:15:36.220 Yeah.

00:15:36.660 That's what a lot of people have said.

00:15:38.020 I didn't see a single math addict on the streets.

00:15:40.780 I saw only one old-fashioned drunk.

00:15:42.860 I forgot about old-fashioned drunks.

00:15:44.540 The guy was just sitting there drinking hooch and kind of muttering to himself.

00:15:47.840 Down on his luck, and that was about it.

00:15:49.240 Yeah.

00:15:49.540 He was just sipping some hooch and making a little racket.

00:15:52.900 But, you know, it was not what I see right behind our office in the alley here every single day.

00:15:59.240 Yeah.

00:15:59.540 I don't even need to describe it.

00:16:01.240 It's a horror show.

00:16:02.820 It's madness.

00:16:03.500 And, you know, it's a horror show to the souls that are afflicted by it.

00:16:09.080 And it's a horror show to anyone else who just wants to live and work around here.

00:16:14.220 Nothing's worked so far.

00:16:16.060 I'm sure more police is part of the solution.

00:16:19.460 But what is it that you would do to crack down on this beyond just some more cops out there?

00:16:27.960 Because I think everyone promises that.

00:16:30.280 Everybody understands we need more cops.

00:16:31.820 But that's only part of the problem, right?

00:16:33.260 And let's remember this is an incredibly complex problem.

00:16:35.680 So there isn't a simple solution.

00:16:38.340 You know, what we've actually-

00:16:39.180 The army seemed to work.

00:16:41.560 Short of that.

00:16:42.700 Short of the army, what would you do?

00:16:44.280 Well, I mean, to me, I think, look, Calgary's full.

00:16:47.000 We're a city full of bright minds, right?

00:16:48.720 We're an entrepreneurial city.

00:16:50.040 We know how to get things done.

00:16:51.540 To me, it's about not about being the smartest people in the room and not about doing the job ourselves as government.

00:16:57.020 But how do we gather the right people to the table to help solve the problem?

00:17:00.540 So when you think about it, it's bringing the feds in to talk about bail reform.

00:17:03.920 And how do we pilot a program here on bail reform so that we're not arresting people day one and seeing them back on the street two days later?

00:17:09.320 Which, by the way, is a huge problem and why we have 20% of our police officers off right now, right?

00:17:14.140 So it's getting them back to work as well as potentially looking at the additional measures of new officers, right?

00:17:20.360 It's looking at it from a provincial standpoint and how do we deal with mental health and addiction?

00:17:24.280 That is 99% of the problem right now, right?

00:17:26.560 We've got to figure out how we deal with that problem, how we get people off the streets.

00:17:29.320 Are you supportive of the idea of, I forget what the term was used, but mandatory treatment?

00:17:34.600 Yeah, I am.

00:17:35.640 Because I think what we're doing isn't working, right?

00:17:38.180 And we've got to take some chances here on how we can actually get people off the streets.

00:17:41.800 And so it's not going to work for everybody, but where and when we do need to apply, like there's no simple one thing we can do here.

00:17:47.980 But what we've got to agree to is what we're doing isn't working.

00:17:50.340 And the fact is, we're probably going to make some future mistakes, right?

00:17:53.860 We're going to bring in all of the agencies with the wraparound care.

00:17:56.680 We're going to bring in policing agencies.

00:17:57.880 We're going to bring in multiple levels of government.

00:17:59.900 We will make some mistakes, but we're going to have to be able to say that didn't work.

00:18:03.220 Pivot, let's keep moving because doing nothing is not an option.

00:18:07.160 And, you know, the one thing I hear from people is when seniors don't feel safe to walk downtown and parents like myself won't send our teenagers on C trains.

00:18:15.380 When our own transit officers are being assaulted on the job, when police are saying we're fed up, we don't have the resources to get the job done.

00:18:23.300 When frontline workers such as firefighters and EMS are doing the job five years ago, they never thought they'd be doing.

00:18:29.320 This is a problem and it's a problem we have to address quickly.

00:18:34.340 Let me speak to a question.

00:18:35.400 I wasn't expecting to ask, but, you know, you were talking about transit officers being assaulted.

00:18:39.940 There was a case very, I think it was just a few weeks or so, a month at most, where a transit officer was assaulted and Calgary police issued a statement saying, make yourself a good witness, but do not get involved.

00:18:55.880 I'm paraphrasing, but they said, do not, even if you see someone being assaulted, don't get involved to help them just be a witness.

00:19:06.100 And, you know, obviously not everyone's in a position to provide assistance.

00:19:11.240 You know, you're a small little woman or you're an older person or whatever.

00:19:16.420 There's a lot of people who can't, but you or me, relatively able-bodied guys, depending on the circumstance.

00:19:23.260 Yeah, we could.

00:19:24.360 Right.

00:19:24.440 And I just took that as kind of a cultural moment that, you know, the Calgary, I know, is the expectation that an able-bodied man is going to step up and help someone being assaulted.

00:19:39.900 But now our police are telling us, don't help someone as you see them with your own eyes being actively assaulted.

00:19:47.840 It smacked a bit of when, you know, the Toronto police said to leave your keys by the front door so that when someone breaks in, you know, they don't come and shoot you.

00:19:54.960 Right.

00:19:55.660 I don't know.

00:19:56.680 How do you respond to that?

00:19:57.680 I think the biggest challenge we're seeing is that don't be apathetic to the crime.

00:20:02.320 Do what you can.

00:20:03.200 Right.

00:20:03.400 And I think the, the idea that don't just walk past it, call 9-1-1, do something about it.

00:20:09.120 But I think the challenge has been downtown, largely in part, guys like us do get involved and then we get just as hurt as that, the rest, because more of them.

00:20:16.580 Or we depart.

00:20:17.360 And then nobody's helping us.

00:20:18.780 Well, I don't, I don't even know that it's a charging factor.

00:20:21.080 It's the fact that, you know, more of them are jumping in to compound the problem than are helping.

00:20:27.880 And so are we making the situation worse or are we making it better?

00:20:30.940 Because I feel the same as you.

00:20:31.940 Like there are times when you just want to jump in, but it's knowing the right circumstance.

00:20:35.520 It's knowing the right intervention for the right circumstance that has to happen.

00:20:39.700 I think the biggest thing we've got to do is like, if you, if you talk to the city council, for instance, they'll tell you that crime is down.

00:20:45.600 We should feel safer.

00:20:46.960 And I totally disagree.

00:20:48.220 I think the problem we have is.

00:20:49.560 I don't feel safer right now.

00:20:50.160 Well, I don't either.

00:20:51.100 And the problem we have is that it's not that crime is down, is that it's crime reporting is down because people are tired of reporting it and then nothing happens.

00:20:58.980 And I think what the police are trying to say is you have to report it.

00:21:02.360 We have to resource it according to the reports and you have to get involved and make sure we call 911 when you see disorder happening.

00:21:08.660 But people are not going to report if nothing happens.

00:21:11.020 I agree.

00:21:11.480 I think that is the challenge.

00:21:12.500 Just so the alley where I said, you know, we've got attics behind our building here, right in the alley here.

00:21:17.800 About this, two years ago, I had my motorcycle parked there and an attic came, pushed over my motorcycle just for a moment.

00:21:24.360 I remember you telling me this story.

00:21:25.740 Yeah.

00:21:26.120 Yeah.

00:21:26.440 I rode around, found him.

00:21:28.200 I didn't intervene.

00:21:29.380 I didn't do what my brain wanted you to do.

00:21:33.100 Yeah.

00:21:33.580 I restrained myself.

00:21:34.800 I didn't do it.

00:21:35.520 I got the cops.

00:21:36.340 They arrested him.

00:21:37.500 They charged him, immediately released him.

00:21:39.540 He never showed up for court.

00:21:40.760 And then they do nothing to even attempt to execute the warrant and they'll pick him up and release him again.

00:21:46.060 Nothing happens.

00:21:47.040 Yeah.

00:21:47.180 And so I've had other cases of vandalism where now I just, I don't want to have to spend a couple hours of my life talking to the police so that nothing happened.

00:21:57.920 Well, and that's how business owners in the court feel right now, right?

00:22:00.760 I mean, largely in part, they go up front and there's disorder happening in front of the business and they say, please move along.

00:22:06.040 Yeah, they might move along, but then the shop owner comes back the next morning and all the windows are broken out of the store.

00:22:10.760 Right.

00:22:11.120 It's that type of thing.

00:22:12.120 And it's that type of reason why people say, maybe I don't want to get involved.

00:22:15.700 The challenge is, is there's more of us than them.

00:22:17.980 And, you know, our agenda here is to get tough on crime.

00:22:20.560 And again, to do that, we need to talk about bail reform.

00:22:23.120 We need to pilot more community courts.

00:22:24.980 We need to get the criminals off the street.

00:22:26.720 Right.

00:22:26.940 Because at the end of the day, these criminals are preying on people who fall into addiction and mental health challenges.

00:22:32.620 These criminals are the ones causing social disorder on our streets.

00:22:35.680 These criminals are causing people like you and me to have to look over our shoulder in the downtown, let alone our teenagers and our parents won't walk around or beyond LRT right now because it's just not safe.

00:22:46.040 That absolutely cannot be the norm going forward.

00:22:49.400 And we're absolutely committed to making this a safer city.

00:22:51.840 So crime, that seems to be one of the absolute core functions of government at all levels, particularly municipal.

00:23:01.880 Another one is just making sure that basic infrastructure works.

00:23:06.440 And for, you know, I said I'm in the county now, but I was living in a West End community when water mains just, or was it feeders, the feeders.

00:23:17.760 You never knew you had so many best friends calling to have a shower at your place.

00:23:20.780 Yeah, and I didn't ever knew how much my friends stunk.

00:23:25.000 It was, we were on water reduction, but I wasn't in the area that had no water.

00:23:30.080 But I certainly had a hell of a commute for a very long time, driving through there every day. 0.97

00:23:38.020 And it was just a reminder every day that basic crap doesn't work in this city. 0.90

00:23:43.700 And that the basics matter. 0.97

00:23:44.700 Yeah, we've got a climate emergency that they pledged a theoretical amount of money on that Calgary could have bought an aircraft carrier and put it in the Glen.

00:23:54.680 We could have put it in the reservoir.

00:23:56.440 In the reservoir.

00:23:58.500 And I think it would have been a better use of money.

00:24:00.280 I mean, at least it's cool.

00:24:01.400 We would have cool calories on an aircraft carrier.

00:24:03.680 We can attack.

00:24:05.000 Bam.

00:24:05.520 I don't know.

00:24:06.120 But, you know, we've got that huge emphasis on gender ideology, politics, you know, just all this weird stuff that has nothing to do with making sure that the water runs, the streets are plowed, and that the parks are clean, and that the streets are safe.

00:24:29.480 So, I don't know, I kind of bring it back to these feeder mains.

00:24:33.660 It's just simple, simple stuff, not getting done.

00:24:36.400 The stuff I would expect my tax dollars to write towards.

00:24:39.320 I don't know.

00:24:40.360 Our campaign is completely about getting back to basics.

00:24:42.720 You've got to build the foundation first before you move forward.

00:24:45.200 And, you know, to me right now, like you, when the water stops running in a world-class city, when 40% of our roads have fallen into disrepair, when we talk a big game about climate and mobility, yet we don't shovel the walks for nine months out of the year, that's a problem, right?

00:24:58.580 And so, it's about taking care of our infrastructure first and making sure that we are set to continue to grow.

00:25:04.400 Because that is one of the bigger challenges behind the infrastructure debate, is that Calgary, we're growing by 70,000 people a year.

00:25:10.760 In order to keep up with that, we've got to maintain the basics, which means we've got to maintain the water, and we do have to maintain the roads, and we do have to take care of our parks.

00:25:18.120 And we do have to do things like traffic synchronization, right?

00:25:21.080 If we want to talk a big game about climate, how about just moving people from point A to point B in a timely manner, right?

00:25:25.920 The last time we looked at traffic synchronization, there were 600,000 people less in Calgary.

00:25:30.480 It's time to play catch-up here on the basics so that all of us can live a better lifestyle without getting into the weeds about things that we can't control as a city.

00:25:37.860 So, I want to touch on something that involves infrastructure and growth that is not under your jurisdiction, but you would have possibly some influence over.

00:25:47.920 Immigration wasn't in most people's top 10 issues in Canada two years ago.

00:25:53.440 Now, it's number one for a ton of people, and it still ranks in the top five for a majority of Canadians.

00:26:00.980 There's different parts to it.

00:26:04.060 A society cannot digest and assimilate this number of people.

00:26:09.280 No society has ever succeeded in doing it.

00:26:11.460 We're not any different.

00:26:12.660 We're clearly failing.

00:26:13.540 We can't.

00:26:14.060 It's putting huge stress on our infrastructure, like schools.

00:26:19.540 We just have to build more schools because of it.

00:26:22.480 Infrastructure, affordability, everything through the roof.

00:26:26.220 No one likes to say it, but it has an impact on crime.

00:26:30.340 You know, people who are not yet assimilated and integrated are going to be more likely to fall into it.

00:26:34.820 It's uncomfortable, but it's a fact.

00:26:38.480 Immigration is federal.

00:26:39.640 The province is rattling its saber, at least, about taking provincial control over it in a similar way that Quebec has.

00:26:52.240 Would you, you know, if you're mayor, would you exert at least some kind of influence about trying to restrict or control the amount of newcomers?

00:27:03.940 In so much as you reasonably can.

00:27:05.560 You know, we're not going to build a wall around Calgary.

00:27:07.040 That's not feasible.

00:27:08.860 But, you know, what would you do on this issue?

00:27:14.160 Because it's an aggravating issue on a bunch of these other things that we're talking about.

00:27:18.500 Yeah, and, you know, to be clear, I think it's about tying job growth to immigration, right?

00:27:22.720 I mean, I think it's about making sure that we manage growth in terms of the amount of people coming here.

00:27:26.920 And I think that's where City Council has failed to build partnerships with both the provincial and federal government.

00:27:31.540 I mean, when we have these national issues that are happening and we are part of the fastest growing jurisdiction, to us, we need a better deal in Calgary because we see a lot of our dollars being spread across the country.

00:27:42.620 I mean, nobody loves the fact that our transfer payments are going out east.

00:27:46.480 How do we get more of those dollars back to make sure that we can manage growth in a different way?

00:27:50.500 If this country is going to keep growing and we can tie that to job growth and we do want new economic possibilities to be happening, those are all good things.

00:27:57.900 But you have to manage the process.

00:28:00.120 And by way of not managing the process, we now get into affordability challenges.

00:28:03.980 We get into housing challenges.

00:28:05.260 We get into job challenges.

00:28:06.920 And largely in part, I would tell you that the housing and affordability piece are self-inflicted at the city, right?

00:28:12.120 Our challenge is when it takes eight years to get a building out of the ground.

00:28:15.460 Well, you failed to meet both housing and your affordability commitments, right?

00:28:19.160 You need to develop faster.

00:28:20.720 You need to keep up with the pace of growth and you need to move at the pace of business if you're going to be a city that continues to grow and achieve opportunity.

00:28:28.220 You know what?

00:28:29.040 I'm going to ask.

00:28:29.620 This one wasn't planned.

00:28:30.460 I'm going to ask because I'm self-interested now that I'm in the county.

00:28:35.160 You know, the relationship between Calgary, Rocky View, Foothills, and then the small town, you know, you got Airdrie, Cockroach, et cetera, Strathmore.

00:28:46.120 It has at times been tense.

00:28:48.480 You know, I know there's the regional board and some of the outlying areas feel it's a little unfairly weighted to Calgary, gives it an effective veto over things.

00:28:58.620 Obviously, Calgary should have the most weight.

00:29:00.080 It's by far the biggest.

00:29:00.940 Sure.

00:29:01.200 But it's a tense relationship normally on issues of development.

00:29:06.280 And the tensions often, not always, but often being that the outlying areas are maybe seen as a bit more development friendly.

00:29:16.000 Yeah.

00:29:16.160 And they're attracting development there that increases their tax base at the expense of Calgary, which thinks it should have gone there.

00:29:25.580 I don't know.

00:29:26.260 How would you manage the relationship with kind of the outlying municipalities, you know, the two counties, Foothills, Rocky View, and then, you know, the smaller towns?

00:29:33.480 Yeah, I think it's about shared economic prosperity, first of all.

00:29:36.600 I think there's lots of things to go around.

00:29:38.280 But let's be clear.

00:29:39.060 My job is to keep tax base in the city.

00:29:40.860 And if we're losing tax base in the city because of timing issues or the inability of the city to move at the pace of business, then that's a challenge we have to fix.

00:29:48.980 Right.

00:29:49.160 I mean, there are lots of opportunities and ways for us to share regionally in terms of some of these projects.

00:29:54.500 Prairie Gateway is a great example of all of those things coming.

00:29:57.880 The challenge we have is that if I'm going to freeze taxes, the offset to that is I have to build tax base, right?

00:30:04.960 Because we can't continue to erode the tax rate that we have.

00:30:07.260 We have to build new tax base.

00:30:09.280 And that's exactly what I plan to do.

00:30:11.060 So will Calgary compete differently in terms of timing and opportunity?

00:30:14.060 Absolutely, we will.

00:30:14.920 But we will ensure that we work as regional partners to ensure that everybody can benefit.

00:30:20.720 Well, I think that segues nicely to blanket rezoning.

00:30:25.540 You know, it's one of the reasons I decided to leave the city.

00:30:30.140 There's a few.

00:30:30.980 We've talked about a few of them.

00:30:33.580 But, you know, blanket rezoning, what it's trying to achieve, you know, it's a difference between the means and the ends, I guess.

00:30:42.120 Okay, we're trying to build more units for more people to live here, should theoretically bring down some housing prices.

00:30:49.720 Right.

00:30:51.100 But I see it, it was violating the property rights of people who bought properties on an assumption if it's zoned this way, and that's the nature of the community, that's what I bought.

00:30:59.600 You're now changing the rules of the game.

00:31:01.300 That's a violation of property rights.

00:31:03.120 You said you're going to get rid of blanket rezoning.

00:31:06.760 What would you see as, and there's a constant tension, I guess, between the need to develop and NIMBYs.

00:31:12.660 Now that I'm out of the country, I'm a little bit of, I try to be self-aware, I'm a little bit NIMBY.

00:31:18.440 I like my privacy and being alone.

00:31:22.020 Sure.

00:31:22.300 That's what I want.

00:31:22.980 That's what I went for.

00:31:24.820 And that's not a bad thing, by the way.

00:31:26.760 No.

00:31:26.960 At least I'm self-aware, I'm a little bit of NIMBY now.

00:31:31.760 Yeah.

00:31:33.040 Most people just never admit to it.

00:31:34.360 That's right.

00:31:34.780 I am.

00:31:36.800 But, you know, when I was living in a suburban house, that was the nature of the community.

00:31:42.840 I don't want an eightplex next door.

00:31:44.540 It would totally change the nature of the neighborhood.

00:31:47.240 But at the same time, there probably is a place for it in some communities.

00:31:51.440 Sure.

00:31:51.600 And the normal neighborhood says, yes, but it's not in mine.

00:31:54.040 Put it in that one over there.

00:31:55.420 So, I don't know.

00:31:56.960 How do you balance the need to respect the property rights of those there, the nature of the communities that people bought into when they bought their homes, but also the legitimate need for growth, development, so that we can have more affordable housing?

00:32:12.680 Yeah.

00:32:12.880 And again, you know, a problem that didn't need to get created.

00:32:15.660 Nobody campaigned on this last election, right?

00:32:17.820 So, you know, let's start with one of the greatest things I think about Calgary is the diversity of our communities.

00:32:22.840 I don't want our communities to look the same because I actually value the idea of, you know, we can go for dinner in Kensington and have a very different experience than perhaps going to the Northeast for dinner.

00:32:31.240 We don't need to look the same.

00:32:32.600 Number two, we were told this was about density.

00:32:34.720 We were told this was about affordability.

00:32:36.100 When the average row house is starting at north of $700,000, that's not affordable to most people, right?

00:32:42.940 When we're talking about 70,000 people, as we just discussed, moving to Calgary every year, you're not keeping up with density by building four units at a time.

00:32:51.000 So I would much rather work with communities on a couple of different things.

00:32:54.420 Number one, we roll back the blanket rezone and go back to the program we had before because it actually worked when we put communities in charge of their development.

00:33:02.160 Giving them a bigger voice in development is key here.

00:33:04.760 And I'll give you an example of where it worked for me as a former city councillor.

00:33:08.140 On the west side, I put in three new districts at Springbank Hill, West District, and the project down at Winsport.

00:33:13.180 All of those communities have diversity of products.

00:33:16.000 They have parks.

00:33:16.620 They have amenities.

00:33:17.400 They have affordability built in.

00:33:19.660 They will add 55,000 residents to the west side.

00:33:23.300 We built three new communities within existing communities.

00:33:26.880 That's how you build density, right?

00:33:28.640 Work with community to talk about where does the density make sense?

00:33:31.840 How do we add value and character to communities rather than erode it?

00:33:35.360 The last thing I ever want to see, and it pains you to see this going on in the city,

00:33:39.500 where citizens are using their last dollar to sue the city over parking issues. 0.86

00:33:44.300 To me, that's silly.

00:33:45.700 It should never happen.

00:33:47.400 And, you know, when we talk about council's discretion in this, we've always talked about

00:33:51.340 the idea that if you're going to develop, there should be tree canopy.

00:33:54.480 There should be rules.

00:33:55.680 There should be on-site parking for everybody who is developing a lot.

00:33:59.620 And on the parking thing, for instance, now it's gone from one unit, you know, for one

00:34:03.500 parking stall on a lot to one unit and half a parking stall on a lot.

00:34:07.600 Well, I don't know anybody who owns half a car.

00:34:10.100 But I'll tell you, it's wrong, right?

00:34:11.520 And it's wrong from the sense that neighbors should never be fighting each other over

00:34:15.020 concerns of parking.

00:34:17.100 Yeah.

00:34:19.860 I think the last question will be around taxes.

00:34:24.120 Jeez, that shows you just how my, you know, the top issues for me have changed over here.

00:34:27.480 My last question is about taxes, you know.

00:34:30.220 But that's the case of the city, right?

00:34:31.800 I mean, issues are very different four years later.

00:34:34.300 It's still a big one.

00:34:35.720 Another reason I left.

00:34:37.180 What were taxes of the county?

00:34:38.420 Yeah.

00:34:40.360 Taxes are pretty nuts right now.

00:34:42.220 I mean, they're not as high as in some other major cities.

00:34:44.700 But those are off the charts high.

00:34:46.360 Yeah.

00:34:46.660 So, you know, Cal Ramirez and Council's excuses for it are, well, it's not as high as Toronto

00:34:52.680 or Vancouver.

00:34:53.700 Well, yeah.

00:34:54.240 It's like comparing your freedom to North Korea. 0.60

00:34:55.960 Yeah.

00:34:56.100 Like, you're really setting the benchmark that you can't lose on.

00:35:01.140 Yeah.

00:35:01.300 All right.

00:35:02.820 You've promised a four-year tax freeze.

00:35:06.600 Of course, you need to get council on site for that.

00:35:09.340 Sure.

00:35:09.500 But, you know, that's your platform.

00:35:10.960 The city's growing like mad.

00:35:15.640 Like, immigration has, despite the federal government's promises, is not really slowing

00:35:19.340 down.

00:35:19.720 It's still just coming.

00:35:20.980 We don't even know how many now.

00:35:22.140 Yeah.

00:35:22.880 But, um, uh, easier said than done.

00:35:27.900 What are kind of the, beyond just kind of the bullet points?

00:35:32.220 Well, restraining, spending, et cetera.

00:35:34.180 Give me your top three specific things you would do to be able to keep taxes down.

00:35:39.920 Yeah.

00:35:40.140 Are you specific?

00:35:40.700 And let's, let's talk about the context here, because I think it's important, right?

00:35:44.300 The number one issue for people right now is affordability.

00:35:46.940 And so what is the city going to do to do their part to make life more affordable for

00:35:50.440 people?

00:35:50.680 Well, taxes are the biggest thing that we have, right?

00:35:53.160 Um, at a point where we're seeing more and more vacancy happen and more consolidation,

00:35:57.040 frankly, uh, driving that vacancy in the downtown core, we can't continue to push the costs

00:36:01.220 out to other small businesses across our city.

00:36:03.160 So number one, those small businesses, they're at a breaking point.

00:36:05.740 So you're, you're, you're for your, sorry to interrupt.

00:36:08.280 Is that, is that for residential and business?

00:36:10.660 Yes.

00:36:11.640 Yeah.

00:36:11.900 Because here's the point.

00:36:12.820 Everybody just dumps it onto business to keep residential.

00:36:14.940 And that's what we can't keep doing, right?

00:36:16.420 We're now at a ratio of, you know, non-residential to residential.

00:36:19.640 Uh, I think it's something like 4.65 to one at 5%, you know, so think of it in terms of

00:36:25.280 like $1 to $5 at $5, the province takes over taxation because we've failed to manage it.

00:36:30.500 Right.

00:36:31.060 And so, you know, to me looking at a tax freeze and then how we, how we're going to offset

00:36:35.520 that is, is, is a big issue, but it gets back to focusing on core services, focus on the things

00:36:40.440 that Calgarians have asked, focus on public safety, affordability, infrastructure.

00:36:43.960 So to me, you know, there's a couple of things to do here.

00:36:46.040 Number one, in the first half of this year, we had a $220 million surplus, right?

00:36:52.300 The city should have had better protectability on this.

00:36:54.380 And I would fire any analyst who didn't calculate this correctly, right?

00:36:57.860 Um, that's a 12% property tax reduction.

00:37:00.240 So in a year when we had an 8.9% increase, literally they could have done nothing and

00:37:04.820 still been ahead of the game.

00:37:06.080 Right.

00:37:06.300 So that tells me that we could have budgeted accordingly here and not have a tax increase

00:37:09.860 this year.

00:37:10.660 Um, going forward, I, I'm the only one saying for your tax freeze, uh, they're saying,

00:37:15.160 well, we're going to increase taxes by 5.5% next year.

00:37:17.840 When we know affordability matters to more people than not by that, do you mean, uh,

00:37:22.820 the sharp, sharp and her slate, the current city council.

00:37:26.060 Okay.

00:37:26.340 That's great.

00:37:26.580 Okay.

00:37:27.520 That we will have a 5.5% property tax increase again, because we haven't got budgets in line.

00:37:32.300 So if we look at a couple of things like, you know, the $220 million surplus, if we look

00:37:36.280 at saying I'm freezing new spending on bike lanes, right?

00:37:39.160 So $45 million in next year's budget is allocated to new bike lanes.

00:37:42.900 So, but no, no new bike lanes, no new bike lanes.

00:37:45.780 This is absolutely the priority.

00:37:47.000 All right, so that's what I'm looking for, specifics.

00:37:48.260 I know they're not going to all add up to one, but I'm just looking for three big specifics.

00:37:52.040 So, okay.

00:37:53.960 So, so number one, you manage your reserves differently, right?

00:37:57.680 We'll manage our ask class better.

00:37:59.320 We reduce our, or improve our risk profiling so that we can actually, you know, an example

00:38:03.980 would be, do we need to buy a new truck this year or can we push that off two years type

00:38:07.000 of thing, right?

00:38:08.000 Um, we're going to look at how we grow tax base, which is absolutely part of an industrial

00:38:12.080 land strategy, as well as a development strategy to keep more dollars right here within the

00:38:15.920 city of Calgary, grow our revenue base so that we can stop eroding.

00:38:18.980 The tax rate is really the three big focuses of how we're going to do that.

00:38:22.800 I guess, let me rephrase.

00:38:24.200 Cause those are important measures.

00:38:25.700 Um, but I'm looking for things like, okay, no new bike lanes.

00:38:28.680 So that's a cost saving.

00:38:30.120 So, so if you think about it, if you're sure to cost saving one of those, but, but it's

00:38:33.440 also about reallocation of funding onto the things that matter to Calgarians.

00:38:36.760 Right.

00:38:36.960 Which is why we're saying we can freeze our tax water feeders. 0.97

00:38:39.700 I wasn't going to argue with that.

00:38:41.360 Right.

00:38:41.740 Public safety.

00:38:42.580 Right.

00:38:43.260 Um, you know, people are concerned with a lack of transit options.

00:38:46.120 All of these things are going to matter.

00:38:47.740 But if you look at the specifics you've got, you know, again, reserves manage them differently.

00:38:51.640 And when you have a surplus apply to tax base, when you have things like $45 million next

00:38:56.020 year for bike lanes, reallocate that that's not an important spend right now.

00:38:59.260 And Calgarians have told us that's not an important spend right now.

00:39:01.960 And things like climate, right?

00:39:03.140 Are we can, are we going to continue to spend money in areas of climate that are really the responsibility

00:39:08.380 of the federal government, not the responsibility of the city of Calgary.

00:39:12.780 You know, I, I'm starting to think that bike lane people might be the equivalent of like 1.00

00:39:17.700 the dairy farm lobby.

00:39:19.200 Like no one wants this, but it still happens with our tax dollars every year and we can't

00:39:23.800 seem to defeat it.

00:39:24.700 But I think like, I think where people have gotten to on that subject though, is.

00:39:28.800 Reasonability.

00:39:29.620 Right.

00:39:30.140 So where, and when we have bike lanes that are negatively impacting businesses and parking,

00:39:34.000 fine, let's remove them. 0.91

00:39:34.880 We can do better.

00:39:35.880 Right.

00:39:36.080 And all we're saying is let's not do anything new.

00:39:38.380 Until we further understand the usability of the program.

00:39:41.140 We got to convince them to actually ride on the bike lanes, not on the road, right beside

00:39:43.980 the bike lanes.

00:39:44.700 That is a big problem.

00:39:45.420 I'm not sure how we do that one, but that'll be maybe your job.

00:39:49.320 A challenge for another day.

00:39:50.520 Well, Jeff, Mr. Davison, thank you very much for coming in and sharing some of your time

00:39:54.800 and good luck on election day.

00:39:55.920 Thank you very much.

00:39:56.960 All right.

00:39:58.700 That's a Calgary mayoral candidate, Jeff Davison.

00:40:02.520 Election day is October 20th.

00:40:05.180 I believe that's a Monday.

00:40:06.980 That's a Monday coming right up, not just in Calgary, but every municipality across Alberta.

00:40:13.720 If you're not sure about who to vote for, my general rule of thumb is look online about

00:40:18.520 who the unions have endorsed and just vote for someone else.

00:40:21.360 That's how I always vote for school board.

00:40:23.440 All right.

00:40:24.040 That's it for today.

00:40:24.720 Thank you very much for joining us today.

00:40:25.920 God bless.

00:40:26.660 God bless.

Western Standard - October 12, 2025

Taxes, Crime & Rezoning： Calgary needs a clean sweep

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