Happy Friday!
The news of the week is that the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association has rolled out a pledge. All municipal candidates running in Alberta are encouraged to sign this pledge, which you can read for yourself in the tweet below.
Coun. Andrew Knack, who’s a candidate in Ward Nakota Isga in Edmonton, seems to be among the first to sign this pledge. AUMA has done public pledges before, but this year there’s a particular focus on keeping elections at the local level. If you want to know why many see this as vitally important, we covered this in many posts, including, Why This Election Matters.
Troy Pavlek, the co-host of the Speaking Municipally podcast, spoke out against this campaign:
Pavlek elaborated on this in a phone call with Rage:
“At the end of the day the AUMA is a thing a couple of nerds know about so to have candidates across the board jumping on this and posting platitudes all just rings pretty dry, pretty hollow and pretty pointless overall.”
By way of argument, he refers to a few well-known public pledges that haven’t been worth the glossy poster board they were printed on.
Our take: It’s true that the pledge is a piece of paper, but if local election power is something you value it only takes a quick scroll through your favourite candidate’s social media to see if they have declared the same values publicly.
Some candidates are ‘pledging’ to disclose who donates to their campaign after the election, by March 1, 2022 — and failing to tell you that this is the base requirement of the law.
Public Art
There was an interesting podcast this week from the aforementioned Pavlek and co-host Mack Male about a recent infrastructure project that didn’t include a percentage for public art.
A few readers have asked how decisions get made at the municipal level. Groat Road provides an interesting peek into that question, and it’s something we’ll dig into in more detail in an upcoming edition of The Main.
No Chucks, No … Time
Premier Jason Kenney promised Alberta “The Best Summer Ever” and to prove it he rolled out a whole new brand identity in the COVID-19 re-opening campaign. Honestly, we can’t summarize this any better than the King of talk radio, Bob Layton, did in a limerick:
Safe Consumption Site in Calgary to Close
The Calgary Herald reported that the United Conservative Party planned to close down the only supervised consumption site in the city.
Courtney Walcott, a candidate for Ward 8 in Calgary took to Twitter to disagree with the decision:
Lit Drops and Lawn Signs Continue
Photos of flyers are replacing the usual door-knocking photos as candidates work to build name recognition during the pandemic:
I can’t wait to get back to Calgary to get my hands on these delicious cheese buns from Glamorgan bakery:
Day Drinking Photo-Op
Coun. Jon Dziadyk celebrates recent bylaw changes in Edmonton that allow for responsible alcohol consumption in public parks. He did this by cracking open a beer from a local brewery at 11 o’clock in the morning.
Some sites must be booked in advance online, while others are ‘first come, first served’. In line with provincial gathering limits, only bookings by groups of five or fewer are currently being accepted.
Previously, alcohol consumption was not allowed in any park without a festival and event licence.
Election Keeners!
If you’re reading this, I think the term probably describes you. The Edmonton Journal’s Elise Stolte writes up the results of a survey sent out last week about the public’s impression of Edmonton mayoral candidates. It is excellent weekend reading!
By the way…
Candidates: We want to hear from you We would like to invite you to take a few minutes to answer our municipal candidate 2021 questionnaire. It is based on questions our readers have for you.