In this episode of the Cory Morgan Show we have a special guest, Marcel Latouche, who is running a group called Lead Calgary, which is dedicated to fighting for the upcoming municipal election in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
00:14:00.880Look how brutal it is with the Trans Mountain.
00:14:02.520and they're shut down again because somebody went and mowed some grass somewhere on the right-of-way
00:14:06.080that they weren't supposed to. It was shut down for a few months last winter because of a fatality.
00:14:11.740But I mean, how long do you do a safety stand down? I tell you what, we're coming into some
00:14:15.480really tough economic times. We're sitting on some of the best resources with world demand
00:14:20.420rising for it all over the place. Oil's back up to $70 a barrel. We need to recover with all this
00:14:26.120debt we've taken on, all this spending, all these unemployed people. We're sitting on this pile of
00:14:30.780golden eggs, and we're busy putting a brick wall around the nest. And it's stupid. And we're all
00:14:36.780going to pay for it. You know, we got to push back. This is ridiculous. How much debt do you want to
00:14:41.820take on that we can't borrow forever? We're going to see some inflation coming. Meanwhile, the man
00:14:46.380in charge of our energy sector is up there musing, saying, ah, you know, I don't know if we need any
00:14:50.480more pipelines. Shut up, Seamus. You don't know what you're talking about. You're an East Coast
00:14:55.540guy. You know nothing about the energy sector. You're grossly unqualified for the role you're
00:15:00.260in just just put in your days nine to five head to the bar talk about how important you are and
00:15:06.280let us get to work we'll take care of it don't try to speculate on whether or not we need pipes
00:15:10.660you're wrong you know and yeah think about that he looks up to trudeau as a mentor that's a
00:15:17.100frightening thought mr blackface who's over there unmasked hugging and kissing and doing whatnot in
00:15:22.240the g7 summit over in europe whilst the rest of us remain following pandemic restrictions either
00:15:29.080way, that's my rant for the morning. Like I said, I had some good news. Jane's still hanging in there
00:15:34.780with me and she's gotten another year old or bad news. The liberals are still in power in Ottawa
00:15:38.940and we still have our battles. So I've got Marcel Latouche joining me though, and we can perhaps get
00:15:43.300some good productive talk on how we can improve our status and things going forward, how we can
00:15:48.580use our democratic exercises to get better government, hopefully. And, you know, all is
00:15:54.740never all lost. It's just, we can get ourselves into a bad hole before we dig ourselves out.
00:15:59.080so let's bring marcel in here hey marcel how you doing good morning corey how are you oh very good
00:16:05.880thanks actually i love i love the hot weather and the heat it's hard on some people but i just drive
00:16:10.680on it so that puts me in a better mood and oh i'm just hoping to get some sunshine and be able to go
00:16:17.160outside without a mask yes yeah the masks are a little unpleasant in 30 degree weather that's
00:16:23.080that's for sure um so yeah i appreciate you you know uh coming on there's a lot lining up as we
00:16:29.560get into july and august it's going to be uh hard to um uh you know pay attention to politics
00:16:37.000hopefully we're getting a good summer we're all going to get out and all that stuff we've been
00:16:39.800holding back on and all that um we got to pay attention because we've got a big municipal
00:16:45.800election approaching us this fall in the entire province and as i said in my intro uh it's uh
00:16:51.160we've got a real sick municipal political situation is the term i used for it all over
00:16:56.440the place um i wanted to clarify though so you're with lead calgary now is that right marcel uh yes
00:17:03.160for the municipal election uh i am going to be working with lead calgary which is a political
00:17:09.880action committee that some people have put together and so that we can monitor uh interview
00:17:17.880some of the candidates make sure that we get some good ideas out there get the information required
00:17:25.720to the electorate so that they can make the best decision because in our view we believe that in
00:17:32.6802021 municipal election across the board in the two big cities and some other jurisdiction are
00:17:40.680going to be a watershed we need to look at things in a totally different way from the past 10 years
00:17:47.880And with Iverson leaving and Nancy leaving, we've got to be very, very careful how we elect and select people to be elected in October of 2021.
00:18:01.660And I want to talk to you about a certain number of things.
00:18:10.100Yeah, there's unfortunately always a lot of problems to lay out and things that need to be addressed.
00:18:15.720I guess one of them, and you mentioned it earlier with your email, we've had issues in Edmonton and in Calgary with councillors who don't toe the line and the others sort of circle the wagons and try to censor them.
00:18:28.080We're seeing that with Mike Nichol in Edmonton.
00:18:30.340Again, we're seeing that in Calgary with Farkas.
00:18:36.080Well, there is a major problem here, and we've got to be very careful about this.
00:18:40.560This goes down to the fundamentals of democracy.
00:18:44.580In Alberta, we continue to say there is no party politics at the municipal level, but what we have now is a wave of censorship between councillors who do not like people who do not stand with their policies of big spending and taxation.
00:19:04.920Let's first start with Calgary. For the past four years, we've had Farkas, who opposes a lot of things because he's a principal councillor who believes in less spending, less taxes, who's been marginalised by most of councils.
00:19:24.900And what happens is he's been sanctioned, he's been censored, and together with Sean Chew,
00:19:32.980another councillor, they've been maligned for the past four years. And this is not only Calgary,
00:19:39.300you've got Mike Nicol who's now going on and on with all sorts of sanctions by the remainder of
00:19:46.260the edmonton council what happens is if these people do not do not like what other people say
00:19:57.700in democracy they've got a right to stand on their principles and the other majority of people on
00:20:05.780these councils are beginning to ostracize these people and it's not just the the two big council
00:20:12.260let's look at initial for instance uh carrot has been ostracized and he has to step down
00:20:20.900and he's running for mayor of initial and last week we got a report from the rocky view now
00:20:27.700they are they are attacking samantha samantha wright a counselor telling her that she's not
00:20:33.940been paying her taxes and so on and so forth so much so that the judge has said that this
00:20:39.460is harassment i mean what is going on here do we have democracy in our local government or don't
00:20:48.500we because some people are getting away with it if they form part of the cabal they get away with it
00:20:56.900if you are you are not with the cabal you get ostracized and your constituents do not get
00:21:04.420respected because you don't respect the elected representative this is becoming a very very big
00:21:12.020issue and albertans especially in both cities have got to recognize this and start and asking
00:21:19.140the questions do we ask people to be elected to represent us or to represent a cabal yeah well
00:21:29.540Well, the only thing worse than a party system is an unofficial party system in my point of view.
00:21:35.480I mean, they've got their little groups where they stick together and they organize and they move as a block, which is essentially a party system.
00:21:42.760But it doesn't even have the checks and balances that a party system would have.
00:21:46.660So it's actually kind of an uglier hybrid.
00:22:40.920Where is the outrage about somebody using his office to support another councillor?
00:22:49.360And this is very important because I'm going to talk to you about what is this collusion about
00:22:55.040down the road. Councillor Gondek, who is running for mayor, has a signs all over the place in
00:23:04.320Calgary on public areas and nobody has done anything about it. Nobody has complained about
00:23:11.440it. The electoral officer has not done anything about it. And this is what worries me. I don't
00:23:17.520care if somebody supports somebody as long as they support them within the rules as put forward in
00:23:25.520the electoral system and if we are going to have a cabal supporting a group of people and by the
00:23:32.160same token ostracizing other people we've got a problem this is not a banana republic
00:23:40.960yeah well and that's i'm glad you brought it up because i've noticed that driving around the city
00:23:44.640and I've run in a number of elections, and typically you're not allowed to put any signs
00:23:49.260on public property until the writ period begins, which is still months away. Yet I am seeing Jody
00:23:54.500Gondek's signs in ditches, and actually on Blackfoot Trail, for example, where I know from
00:23:58.560past elections, you're not allowed to put election signs on that at any time. Yet where is it? But
00:24:03.720you know what I almost fear, because we've got some really ugly politics going on, and I know
00:24:08.620the manager of Gondek's campaign won't stop anywhere, is they're waiting for somebody to
00:24:13.680out and vandalize or tear down one of those signs or do something nasty and then they'll claim that
00:24:18.320it was racism of course because that's always their favorite plot to go towards even though
00:24:22.800it might be just some drunken clown going after a sign he didn't like on the side of the road but
00:24:26.640i think there's quite a strategic basis to what they're up to right now oh exactly i remember
00:24:31.840clearly 10 years ago uh with the mac ivor campaign when apparently uh a brick was thrown into the
00:24:39.440Nancy campaign and it was claimed to be racism from from MacIver and having been with MacIver for
00:24:46.000years I knew it was nothing to do with him and and this is exactly what you said we may be able
00:24:52.800to see these kind of things coming up very soon the problem is Heather uh Heather McRae is the wife
00:25:03.520of Gondek's manager, who is Stephen Carter. The problem is, are we going to have collusion if
00:25:12.160Gondek becomes mayor and then Heather Macrae is elected? We've got to make this quite clear
00:25:18.640to the electorate. What is your position? Which brings me to something else,
00:25:23.920which is even more important. My sources say to me that if there is a federal election,
00:25:31.040councillor shahal may be running for the federal liberal party now let's look at this then there
00:25:44.480is the issue of sutherland thinking that by supporting jeff davison he might run as a
00:25:55.680candidate and then step down to be davison chief of staff if he is elected for mayor let's talk
00:26:03.520about this very clearly here so if shahal runs for council he wins his position in council
00:26:12.560without telling people that he has an intention to run as a liberal candidate at the federal level
00:26:18.320the federal election is gold and he steps down and he runs for the federal election
00:26:29.360and then we have to have a another by election same thing with sutherland if if jeff davidson
00:26:37.040wins as mayor does the sutherland step down as counselor if he wins and run for chief of staff
00:26:45.040with him. There is a need for clarification to the electorate. This is what I'm going to do.
00:26:52.560This is what I expect to do. And if I do this, we are not going to expose the electorate to a
00:27:00.160by-election, maybe a month after the municipal election. We need transparency. We need these
00:27:07.760candidates to announce what their intention is clearly before the election so i challenge both
00:27:15.760sutherland to tell us what his intent is and shahal to tell us whether he's running as a liberal
00:27:22.480candidate in the federal election yeah i'm just going to step back one moment because there was
00:27:28.240a good question over cladette she was asking this was getting back to the signs though some others
00:27:32.000are speaking up what has to be done to get that addressed uh cladette there's two things you can do
00:27:37.040call 311 and get the complaints in because it's breaking city bylaws and they should come out and
00:27:41.600remove it and at least it's on the record that there has been a complaint and i suggest i suggest
00:27:45.600that to everybody else as well and you can also call the electoral officer or email them with uh
00:27:50.720uh boy i'm not sure where it is it's at the city of calgary site perhaps i'm used to elections
00:27:54.400alberta but those signs have to be addressed and it kind of indicates again i mean we've got
00:27:59.760the person who's breaking those rules is somebody who was very tightly tied to the nenshi uh
00:28:05.200campaign i mean it's all that same group as you're saying it's a cabal and they know that
00:28:09.520they're not going to get cracked down on because they got connections with the existing mayor and
00:28:13.440it's again abusing uh the how entrenched they are so either way getting back to where you were
00:28:19.600marcel yeah there's a lot of them with some strange uh competing interests going i remember
00:28:24.400diane collier cart she ran to be uh mla in a by-election uh but she didn't leave it open for
00:28:30.480a by-election for municipal council because she lost the provincial campaign so she just went
00:28:34.160right back to her seat you know she hedged her bets there that's that's right i mean edging your
00:28:39.200bets is an insult to the electorate because what you're doing is you're looking for your own
00:28:46.000self-preservation as well as looking for a new job at a higher level we've got to stop this sort
00:28:54.000of double dipping that goes on here not only are they uh lying to their constituent vote for me
00:29:01.760vote for me and we are going to be representing you but next week if there's a federal election
00:29:07.840i'm going to seek a seat on the federal uh uh on the federal government because i have been
00:29:15.120promising a position as minister to represent calgary i mean this is absurd we cannot have
00:29:21.200this anymore and and the electorate is going to be fooled once again yeah well so is that part of
00:29:28.880what uh you know lead calgary is going to be doing is putting the question to them i mean try to get
00:29:33.360a commitment say hey if you're running or you're running for a four-year term we expect you to put
00:29:37.280in the job for four years when you're asking for my vote today things such as that exactly
00:29:43.040and this is this is what we are going to do i mean uh my work with the institute for public
00:29:48.000sector accountability has always been about transparency and accountability and that's
00:29:52.960what we are going to continue at lead calgary if people want to know what we are about they
00:29:57.600can go to leadcalgary.ca or follow us on facebook at lead calgary i mean the the fact that we are
00:30:04.800going we are not going to be sort of attacking people we want to educate the electorate so that
00:30:10.800they get the best information to make the best decision when they vote i mean we are not going
00:30:18.240to start having a slate of candidate or whatever i mean what we are going to do is we are going to
00:30:23.040evaluate we've started interviewing candidates we know that it's a little bit uh set up by number
00:30:29.760of wards here already we're going to talk to people we're going to find out what they stand
00:30:34.880for we are going to start asking them the tough question so that we know if we are going to make
00:30:40.960them accountable when once they're elected the electorate deserves to know what people stand for
00:30:48.400what they are going to do for them do they say oh i am going to run as a conservative
00:30:55.440and then once elected i operate as a liberal nobody says they are liberals or conservative
00:31:01.360when they run at the municipal level but the ideology exists i was fooled last time i supported
00:31:09.440a number of candidates in calgary including davison gondek shahal and and i've been fooled
00:31:17.440because these people never ever operated as conservative they say they are conservative
00:31:24.240but anybody who supports tax increases for four years and huge expenditures on all sorts of
00:31:32.400political legacies cannot be a conservative or a principled conservative and that's what we are
00:31:38.960going to do at lead calgary we are going to examine the situation we are going to look at the the
00:31:44.640the economic basis of calgary and advise people on what kind of candidates you require to bring
00:31:52.880us back to where we are well and i appreciate that you know one of our problems as jake uh
00:31:59.280pointed out one of the commenters too saying the municipal level people vote for the most
00:32:02.400recognizable name and unfortunately there really is a very strong incumbent advantage when it comes
00:32:07.760to municipal politics again some of it comes down to our apathy uh you know we we don't get out there
00:32:14.240and look i mean that's the government that's closest to us it impacts us so much yet we're
00:32:18.480terrible for giving off our butts and checking out who's running and uh casting our ballot
00:32:23.440and this time around it's such a huge opportunity for potential change uh we really need to be get
00:32:29.200people informed and get them out to vote this time because it might be 10 more years before you get
00:32:32.240another chance to knock off a mayor absolutely but there is there is one more fundamental thing
00:32:38.560that we've got to look at now and we've submitted a letter already to the municipal affairs uh
00:32:45.200ministry because we we have a real problem here because of the behavior and i don't know anything
00:32:52.800about mr johnston uh to tell you the truth there are legal cases going around i don't know the
00:32:58.240person has never spoken to him i just read what is in the newspaper that he's being charged or
00:33:04.320whatever so i'm not going to go there but the issue that i want to talk about is the fact that
00:33:12.080there will be no no electoral list this year because they don't want to give him the electoral
00:33:20.400list what that does is it prevents other candidates for getting an electoral list which is unfair
00:33:29.120because incumbents already have maybe not a full list but at least a list that they've used
00:33:36.720in previous elections so they have an unfair advantage and this is wrong we've got to look
00:33:42.560at this very seriously and talk about whether we should have a list of electors given candidates
00:33:51.200or preclude somebody from it it's very very dangerous because incumbents will have an unfair
00:33:58.080advantage yeah that's a sticky and difficult issue you know because i mean it's it's led people to
00:34:04.880ask that question well why do they need those lists any longer you know they can pound the
00:34:08.800pavement and find out who lives where um i wrote an article on it though it's a little dry and
00:34:12.960boring but at the end when it comes to scrutineering and things such as that there's an
00:34:17.120important reason for those because that get spreading that list to others at some point
00:34:21.840actually helps prevent electoral fraud it makes it much more difficult uh but and at the same time
00:34:30.400we are seeing a valid issue that perhaps there's some people are going to get a hold of personal
00:34:33.840information but we really don't want getting a hold of it but how do you ease out of it without
00:34:38.400giving that incumbent advantage it's a tough one this one exactly it is a tough one and since i'm
00:34:43.680not a lawyer i'm not going to dwell into this because but i just want to let people know that
00:34:48.720there is a possibility of unfair advantage i mean you know i i don't know the legal uh processes or
00:34:56.400whatever what to do about this because i'm not a a lawyer you know these are the sort of things the
00:35:02.480other thing that we've got to talk about is the possible return uh in calgary of people who have
00:35:10.880been uh counselors retired and coming back again my point is very simple you're gone you didn't do
00:35:19.520very much for calgary and you're trying to come back what are you coming back for to bring back
00:35:24.880the old policies that fail and or is it for you to come back and double dip again in the big pension
00:35:32.160funds i mean if you were unsuccessful last time you're going to be unsuccessful this time to make
00:35:38.880us better and if you brought the policies of higher taxes and huge spending you're going to
00:35:44.560do the same thing again this time because the cabal if you're part of it is going to continue
00:35:50.800the old uh political legacy thing i mean and let's spend let's spend and get it done
00:35:58.480the big spending that is going to happen now is this this projection of uh revitalizing the
00:36:05.520downtown. This is a huge boondoggle, you know. There are going to be billions of dollars
00:36:12.400being spent in revitalizing the downtown core of Calgary. There are major problems with this.
00:36:18.880People have got to seriously think about this. The oil industry has been decimated and
00:36:26.800with COVID, we've seen that the whole of downtown is completely empty, the offices. My sources in
00:36:35.280the in the development and and construction industry have told me that they believe that
00:36:40.880there are perhaps only ten buildings four buildings that can be converted to residential
00:36:47.680because of of the the construction uh constraints and so on and so forth we are going to spend
00:36:54.000millions of dollars uh from now and over 10 years to revitalize downtown it's not going to happen
00:37:03.600More and more reports are saying that with COVID-19, people are saying, hey, I'd like to work
00:37:11.280from home, maybe three days a week, and I don't need to go downtown to the office.
00:37:17.680The other thing is that most younger families don't want to leave downtown, because over the
00:37:23.840past years we've we've seen the lack of security the the drug dealing downtown after after hours
00:37:32.400and we can't keep people safe downtown and why are we putting so much money in those buildings
00:37:38.800and refurbishing private owners with taxpayers money to revitalize downtown
00:37:47.360What it is about is to revitalize it, to get taxpayers to pay for it, so that we get more tax revenue from those buildings.
00:37:58.800People want to live in suburbs where there are green spaces. They don't want to live downtown.
00:38:04.140We messed up a long time ago. In 1997, when I wrote, sorry, 2004, when I wrote Take Back City Hall, I told people we should never have put so many buildings in the downtown core because technology is going to change things.
00:38:23.020Now, 17 years later, it has happened. And what we should have done is have different places for buildings and corporations in different places in Calgary, closer to where people live, as opposed to just concentrate on the downtown, which at five o'clock is closed down, and the riffraff comes in at night, and we get crime increase downtown.
00:38:52.020this idea of revitalization is going to cost us money and it's not going to work because of the
00:39:00.240new technology look at you and I we don't have to meet now we can talk I can talk to the world
00:39:05.640with you by staying in my office and you in your office we don't need these big buildings anymore
00:39:12.660yeah well and if we're going to do anything about downtown I mean it's ridiculous the way they're
00:39:18.760going about it. They've got a whole pile of vacant apartments. I mean, if they were full,
00:39:23.300you could say, well, we need more so people will move down there, but people don't want to live
00:39:27.680down there. That's what they've got to address. You're just going to build more empty spaces.
00:39:32.340As you said, it's not just at night. Actually, when I go down to the standard office once a week
00:39:36.480downtown, it's daytime. The addicts are out of control down there. You do not feel safe in
00:39:42.380Calgary's downtown these days. If they want step one, you don't need more accommodation. You need
00:39:48.520make people feel safe walking up and down the streets because nobody's going to move down there
00:39:51.880no matter how pretty a condo you build when you got to walk through a wall of addicts
00:39:56.200passed out and spitting on the streets wherever you go but as you said there's a heck of a boondoggle
00:40:01.800coming where they can spend a lot of millions changing buildings that nobody's going to move
00:40:05.560into later anyhow but what is going to happen is that the the one of the things that the institute
00:40:12.760for Public Sector Accountability has put forward to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs is a change
00:40:20.840and a look at the assessment of property taxes. We have to look at this very seriously
00:40:30.680because what's happening in the revenue now, the revenue is coming down because these buildings are
00:40:35.240empty. And what is going to happen to property taxes? The condo market, the condominium market
00:40:41.240is going to collapse with this so-called revitalization. We are going to have major
00:40:47.240problems here if we don't look at how we are going to revitalize Calgary, not just the downtown core.
00:40:55.400We've got to look at the expenditures. We've got to look at how we are going to have a new Calgary
00:41:03.160in this new environment. And we are going to have to live within our means. And if we get
00:41:10.520people who have been spending and spending over the past 10 years re-elected again, we are going
00:41:16.920to have a major problem because now we don't have revenues, we don't have a source for taxes,
00:41:22.280but we continue to spend. Who do you think are going to pay for it? The taxpayer. And the taxpayer
00:41:27.880is not going to be non-residential or business taxpayer because the small businesses are
00:41:34.440collapsing anyway because they've been decimated by COVID-19, who's going to pay for it? The
00:41:42.440residents. The residents are the ones who vote, so they should be very careful who they vote for
00:41:49.240on October 18. So in finding out who they're voting for and looking for information,
00:41:55.640one of the things that used to be out there for a while was the council tracker from the Manning
00:41:59.400Institute when that was active, because, you know, that's one of those things lacking in City Hall.
00:42:04.840You don't have a good Hansard. You don't have a good, you know, gazette system like you do in
00:42:08.120other levels of government and municipally in the smaller areas, too. I mean, I keep neglecting to
00:42:14.240bring up, as you said, in Rocky View, we're seeing judges having to intervene because of these guys
00:42:19.480fighting with each other. And in Innisfail, you know, the battles are going on. So this is important
00:42:24.080to us everywhere. But where can we find records of where these councillors are voting so we do know
00:42:29.160the high spenders are because they can lie to us they can say i'm a fiscal conservative and
00:42:33.240unless you dig in deep and find out what they've actually voted for people believe it well there
00:42:39.000are other organizations who do this kind of thing i mean you know the the alberta institute has been
00:42:44.520doing this for the for the the whole of uh of alberta the the issue uh listing and uh of uh
00:42:53.480voters voters uh uh sorry councillors votes and so on and so forth people have got to to follow
00:43:00.200these people like save calgary uh the alberta institute and and places like this i mean these
00:43:07.320are the people who give them this kind of common sense calgary is one of them uh for sure giving
00:43:13.160them the information i mean these the sort of non-profit organization like uh ipsa.org
00:43:20.920Common Sense Calgary, Safe Calgary. These are the organizations who are trying to hold these
00:43:26.920councillors' feet to fire. That's where you can find this information. It's important for people
00:43:33.320to go and look for this because it's there. It is not that the information is not there.
00:43:40.040We have to search for it. We are going to make it available to people closer to the election.
00:43:45.400we want to make people understand this time what is at stake that's uh appreciated i i wonder what
00:43:53.880we're going to go into this fall it's kind of interesting to see any um actual debates or or
00:43:59.640things such as that i remember a civic camp years ago back when that little uh fake group was running
00:44:04.200around uh they managed the debates one year and kind of stacked them up i mean again for getting
00:44:08.680voters informed i hope we have some sort of system where where people can see their candidates and
00:44:12.840and make a good choice when comparing between them well what people have got to be very careful about
00:44:18.200now is the involvement of unions the unions have got two million dollars available to tell you
00:44:26.040that we must not private uh privatize services the problem that people have got to find out is
00:44:33.240services can be delivered in a totally different way if we can we we can put a man in space by a
00:44:42.760private company i can guarantee you that your garbage can be collected by a private company
00:44:49.800you don't need unions to collect your garbage what we need is a complete rethink of how
00:44:56.520services are delivered not all services have got to be delivered by the government
00:45:02.280because 50 percent more than 50 percent of the operating budget of of local government is in
00:45:10.040wages and benefits and the unions are going to tell you that they are essential for them to do it
00:45:18.200i don't want people to lose their jobs i want people to get their jobs by delivering the
00:45:24.280services in more efficient way and the unions are going to use two million dollars of their their
00:45:31.720jews or whatever they collected to influence this election and the electorate has got to be very
00:45:37.960careful because they could be very sorry for what they wish for after october 18 if you continue to
00:45:45.240vote for people who think that city hall should be the only delivery of of services you can't deliver
00:45:52.680services and you must deliver services with new technology and with the private sector involving
00:45:59.320it because the private sector creates jobs small businesses creates jobs not city hall
00:46:06.040Yeah, well, and it's funny with unions, you know, just for that reminder for some people. I mean, if we're looking to get into change and efficiency and modernization, traditionally, whether people want to admit it or not, unions hold that back quite terribly. I saw that recently with Canada Post. We'd actually had a little outlet for a little while where we were servicing an area with a side business. And boy, the restrictions it would throw on you that had you could you were not allowed to use certain new technologies.
00:46:36.040to like scan and track packages because it would put the union outlets at a disadvantage it was
00:46:41.960ridiculous i mean so they're actually lobbying to keep in the dark ages i mean if the unions
00:46:47.320had their ways we'd still have milkman running up and down the roads which is practical but
00:46:52.440not really uh cost efficient or realistic but the unions have been spending advertising already
00:46:59.560absolutely and this is what's going to happen so i mean we urge people you know come closer to
00:47:07.160over the end of august we are doing our research we're doing our work now and we are working with
00:47:13.240people we're interviewing people and about september we are going to really get into it
00:47:19.640people are going to have holidays having been cooked up for 18 months at home they are going
00:47:25.240to enjoy the summer and we don't want to bother them with uh election purposes right now you know
00:47:33.800watch us in in at the end of august after the holidays in september we are going to let them
00:47:39.960know by then we would have interviewed a number of candidates we can have our opinion uh and and
00:47:46.440tell them who we think should be elected why they should be elected and the others when we evaluate
00:47:52.520them why they should not be elected excuse me yeah that's good you know i mean we really
00:48:00.360need that and it's going to be an unusual summer we've all been waiting a long time it's going to
00:48:05.960be hard to catch people's uh attention i'm certain candidates will be working throughout the summer
00:48:10.920however they can uh but i mean people are going to be camping and stampeding and doing whatever
00:48:16.600they can. I guess wish the best. Claudette is asking, is there a version of what you're doing
00:48:23.860or a version of you even in Edmonton to speak to Edmonton voters there? We do have a number
00:48:29.780of listeners up that way as well. No, I don't actually. I have been so busy with Calgary that
00:48:36.260the only person I know about is Mike Nichol and his tribulations down there. But no, years ago I
00:48:46.020did but uh this time i uh i am concentrating mostly on calgary but uh they have the same
00:48:52.420problem and if claudette would take it i mean she can speak to me and uh but uh and and i can advise
00:49:00.260her if she wants to take that role uh she should step in and do it yeah well it's difficult edmonton
00:49:06.980is a tougher city than calgary i think when it comes to uh well particularly organized labor
00:49:11.700and some entrenched attitudes just due to being kind of a government town but as you said both
00:49:17.380cities are turning over mayors this time this is really important i mean for the whole province if
00:49:21.780we can get some good solid change this time around because we're in for some critical years pretty
00:49:26.900soon we we have to make a change we cannot continue on the same path that we've been going on
00:49:33.700for the past 10 years these people ran as supposedly centrist but both these mayors
00:49:41.700were liberals because iverson is going to run as a liberal in the federal election anyway i mean
00:49:48.100who knows what man she wants to do and uh he's been cozy up with with uh with trudeau for years
00:49:55.300uh and uh his his true colors are are there he's a liberal he's never been a conservative
00:50:01.940and and all all is uh during his his mayoral uh term is but nothing but spend spend and tax i
00:50:11.620mean you know this this has been debated for for the past four years by myself and and and and
00:50:17.380other people i mean it's been a tax and spend two mayors in alberta of big cities and we don't want
00:50:25.140to get this going on because there are different ways to do this and if people want to know uh
00:50:32.100where where to get information they can always go to vipsa.org and we have papers published
00:50:38.980in there on how things should be done yeah well that's a good buzzword to watch for when you see
00:50:44.820people campaigning particularly in alberta when they say center what i see with center is somebody
00:50:49.700who is obfuscating, like you're just actually hiding from where you want to be. Take a stand
00:50:55.680one spot or another. I mean, we saw that with the Alberta party and voters saw through it.
00:51:00.180They keep saying we're center, we're center, we're center. People realize, well, you don't
00:51:03.080stand for anything, so I'm not voting for you. But unfortunately, it's much more effective when
00:51:07.200you're a municipal candidate when you say that and you try to stand for nothing because then
00:51:11.600you get away with quite a bit once you get in. I mean, what is important to know is that
00:51:17.600People talk about conservative, and if you're conservative, you're the far right.
00:51:32.360And when people say they are of the center in Alberta, they are liberals who are obfuscating
00:51:39.780and disguising themselves as liberals.
00:51:43.420they are not in the center because once they get elected they move to the far
00:51:48.160left and this is what we are waiting for and we've got to start firing these
00:51:54.040guys when they do that and Claudette's pointing out a good one with the
00:51:56.960Edmonton race one thing I have been watching a bit too so so he is running
00:52:00.940in that and he was for people don't want a liberal member of Parliament he was
00:52:04.780actually minister when they brought in the no more pipelines bill and he threw
00:52:08.260Alberta under the bus and Edmonton voters fired him but now he's running for mayor up in Edmonton
00:52:15.140so as said he's hoping to get another turn at the gravy train better stand up and make sure so he
00:52:20.180does not get that mayoral seat and this is what I've been talking about about these old candidates
00:52:26.340who've been there before coming back to double dip again I mean so he was a liberal he was a liberal
00:52:32.980minister and it was a disaster uh in in the trudeau uh era and and he's going to come back to
00:52:39.940edmonton i mean come on guys i mean in edmonton wake up i mean he is a liberal he's going to vote
00:52:46.020as a liberal he's going to operate as a liberal and and there is absolutely no way that he's going
00:52:52.340to do any good for you except spend and tax yeah that's the basis and that's what's important with
00:52:59.860these conversations to bring it up because it's not coming into the general uh sphere and public
00:53:04.420discussion so hopefully uh something organizes in edmonton you know similarly uh to to what uh
00:53:09.620lead calgary is putting together just to at least help people make an informed decision when it
00:53:13.620comes this fall um so getting towards wrapping up here what else would you like to touch upon
00:53:18.340today marcel well i mean you know the the covet 19 i mean i think people have got to think about
00:53:24.180this very carefully uh i mean uh there are look i am 76 years old i've had many vaccines over my
00:53:32.580lifetime and i am not an anti-vaxxer if the vaccine is supposed to help please do it but
00:53:39.620i am not going to tell people to wear a mask or whatever it is because i'm in the camp saying that
00:53:45.540if you've had covet 19 you are immunized naturally if you have been vaccinated
00:53:53.300you're immunized so go and enjoy yourself for the summer for goodness sakes let the sun shine
00:54:00.580have a good time and then we'll talk about politics in in september so that we can get
00:54:06.740a better time by electing good people at council in all the local authorities jurisdiction
00:54:15.540Excellent. Yes, we're all looking forward to a good summer after kind of losing one earlier. So, and where again, just one more time, where can people find more information on what you're doing and keeping up with candidates and such?
00:54:26.740you can go on leadcalgary.ca, and you can go and follow us on Lead Calgary on Facebook page.
00:54:36.600And if Claudette wants to get in touch with me, please do so at ipsa.info at shore.ca.
00:54:47.640Great. Well, thank you very much, Marcel. It's always a good time talking to you. Appreciate
00:54:51.900the work you do and uh i'm sure we'll talk again as the campaign starts to really ramp up this fall
00:54:58.620look forward to it have a great summer cory always nice talking to you and your audience great thanks
00:55:07.740kind of mid-word there but he was saying goodbye uh but yeah as i said it is always good getting
00:55:12.860marcel on he's been a voice for municipal common sense for a long time in the calgary area and just
00:55:19.180you know again the issues are the same everywhere you go whether it's calgary edmonton or as said
00:55:24.460innisfail uh rocky view county uh left bridge boy they've had some hornet's nest politics going on
00:55:31.900down there in municipal politics since as far as living memory goes for me so we as i was kind of
00:55:39.820saying with my opening ramble we've just got such challenging times distracting times tough times
00:55:46.780and it can lead people to not paying full attention to these issues as they go.
00:55:52.380As Marcel was saying, people are going to be enjoying the summer. They want to get out. They
00:55:55.340want to live a little. Hopefully the bloody masks come off. Here's another reminder. Let's remember
00:56:00.300that with Ninchy. He set the mask mandate all the way until the end of 2021. So even if assuming,
00:56:08.140you know, and again, I don't want to get in the debate. I don't think Marcel either
00:56:11.100effectiveness of vaccines or whatever, but let's assume that everything's reopened. Provincially,
00:56:14.620it's reopened. The infections are down. We're in full force this summer. You're still going to be
00:56:19.820gagging under a mask all the way till Christmas because Nenshi and the majority of members of
00:56:25.440the current city council made the law all the way to the end of this year. That's the kind of
00:56:30.120imbeciles we've got in city hall. That's the kind of control freaks we have in city hall.
00:56:37.160They want these laws. They keep their thumb on you. They put them in for such a ridiculously
00:56:42.680long time on a fluid situation and uh they should be fired for it we're gonna do it this fall so
00:56:50.740marcel is providing uh yeah information on that so we know who to fire i think a lot of us already
00:56:55.700do the other thing of course is remember to get up go out and actually cast your ballot you know
00:57:01.620it's important in municipal politics it's it's one of the worst for us being apathetic and not
00:57:05.640getting out and voting on it and you can't forget they are a huge part of your life whether you like
00:57:10.180or not they tax you a whole lot they're very directly involved with you uh as government
00:57:15.380goes and that's part of why they slide under the radar uh and and we just need to pay attention
00:57:21.220to it and fix that up the other thing as was pointed out yeah i've been seeing those those
00:57:24.900gondek and mcrae signs all over the city make sure to call 311 call them up and complain about these
00:57:30.580things get those things out there maybe if they get enough you know nancy's not running again
00:57:35.140maybe uh city of men will have lost the fear and actually issue some fines to these guys because
00:57:39.620do you really want to see this is something i've written on in the past anyways a couple of things
00:57:44.820i'll go on a side rant as i wrap up the show today i i've managed a number of campaigns i've
00:57:49.460run in a couple um the election signs are almost kind of one of the most fun parts in a campaign
00:57:54.740you're really excited you get them in there you get those bundles you uh you know get out you want
00:58:00.820to get that name out there it's really exciting it's a step up but they're terribly overrated
00:58:04.980especially on public land the amount that signs actually impact electoral decisions is minuscule
00:58:11.860i mean you don't want to have none because then people do say well is that person in the race or
00:58:15.300not and it's just kind of a each race is the others that have more and more and more signs
00:58:19.380of public land it just clutters it and eventually you don't even see those signs on the side of the
00:58:23.460road you know because there's so many of them they're just a colorful ugly blur of plastic and
00:58:29.380would the signs that count are on people's lawns the the the ones that count are when you go to
00:58:36.180a door you knock on their door you talk with them so theoretically you've got their support
00:58:43.300and uh you ask them if you can get the sign on the lawn and that's a show of support from that
00:58:48.660person for your candidate or if you're the candidate for you yourself that is a sign that'll
00:58:53.380have some impact that's a sign that has the neighbors on either side looking saying oh you
00:58:57.220you know, such and such there supports the, you know, this candidate. Maybe there's something
00:59:03.820about it, but it's a lot of work. You really got to go pound those doors and get the permission,
00:59:07.300get those signs out. The ones on public land really have little impact. But if, I mean,
00:59:12.440personally, I don't think they should be out at all. They're just ugly and they don't have much
00:59:14.920impact. If you just ban everybody from the public land ones, then everybody's equal on it. But if
00:59:19.360not, they should just have them during the election period. So you only have to look at the bloody
00:59:23.300things, you know, for 28 days. But we got Gondek polluting illegally on a bunch of areas all over.
00:59:31.940As I said, on Blackfoot Trail, you're not even allowed to put signs on Blackfoot Trail
00:59:34.860during the election, much less often. It's the attitude and you can tell from campaign
00:59:41.380management and so on. It's the put it out. We'll apologize later. Well, let's make that apology
00:59:45.600with a fine, perhaps, because we've got a long campaign ahead of us. So let's try and keep on
00:59:50.120on equal ground uh cheryl's saying yeah the premier said the masks will be gone once we hit
00:59:54.040stage three that is true provincially and i'm really looking forward to it but municipally
01:00:01.800it's a separate bylaw so you see there could be some battles and there's been some articles i
01:00:06.200believe the western standard i think dave wrote something on that already dave nailer
01:00:09.400on western standard online um there's very possibly going to be some municipal
01:00:14.680provincial fights as we get citizens standing up saying hey the mask law is gone i want it gone
01:00:20.120ninchy get rid of that stupid bloody law let me go to a business but a business again you can't
01:00:24.440expect them to sacrifice themselves because you get your license pulled you get fined and right
01:00:29.320now businesses are hurting badly enough they're not going to play martyrs for this we got to stand
01:00:33.240up and tell goofballs like head ninchy back off on that stupid control freak law rescind it now
01:00:39.800it's done and all those counselors who stood up for it um what else do we got here so miranda