Mayor of Bowden Speaks Out About Protest Rodeo
In flagrant violation of Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions, some cowboys and cowgirls decided they do what they want and held a rodeo that had a reported 2000 people in attendance (4000-5000 if you believe the Western Standard, which we do not).
The mayor of Bowden, Robb Stuart, told City News that he had reached out to the province for help.
“I actually left a message at the premier’s office, I got our MLA and they just said Alberta Health Services had to deal with it and amazingly enough it went ahead. I just don’t understand,” Stuart said.
The Re-Emergence of No F***s Nenshi
According to Darren Krause of LiveWire Calgary, Mayor Nenshi outmaneuvered a group opposed to the Guide for Local Area Planning by making the document for ‘information’ to city administration when they are considering land use.
You can catch the Mayor of Twitter in the two-minute clip below:
He prefaced the discussion by saying that for months we have been hearing that the problem with the guidebook is that it is too rigid, but that the actual aim of malcontents is to rile people up about something they don’t understand.
“I’ve been hearing over and over again that the guidebook is just a list of best practices and in fact, Council shouldn’t be voting on best practices because what do we know?” Nenshi says.
This clever bit of maneuvering is what makes Nenshi such a formidable opponent. He’s effectively cut off the opposition to the document at the knees and deprived incumbent councillors of an election wedge issue.
As you might imagine, this was not well received:
And after the council meeting, the usual suspects chimed in.
As always the inimitable Paul Fairie wins the discussion:
Policing the Spanish Flu
And how do the people feel about that?
In Edmonton, Mayor Don Iveson and City Manager Andre Corbould held a press conference on May 6 about COVID-19 and the rising number of cases and hospitalizations. He then passed the mic to Corbould to discuss enforcing the health restrictions. The city will be acting on a “trust and verify” model.
But what are citizens saying? Across the province, people have been expressing disappointment about the lack of enforcement from municipal police forces and the RCMP.
The Province is Out, The Feds Are In
As we have talked about before, here’s further proof that the cities are working directly with the federal government, because the province is not fully meeting its responsibilities to them:
Mayoral Races
The Edmonton mayoral race is heating up with the announcement that former federal cabinet minister (and Edmonton councillor), Amarjeet Sohi, is entering the race.
This was the city’s worst kept secret.
Because of the federal ties, the news made it to our media overlords out East (no, no we’re not bitter), and The Hill Times for some reason reported that, “If Mr. Sohi wins the mayoral election of Alberta’s second largest city and the fifth largest in Canada, he would get an annual salary of $206,511.”
It’s so nice when the East comes in to report on the colonies! By comparison, Toronto Mayor John Tory makes $197,316.08 a year.
There are six declared mayoral candidates for Edmonton: Cheryll Watson, Mike Nickel, Kim Krushell, Brian Gregg, Diana Steele, and Michael Oshry.
Meanwhile, in Calgary there are 14 people running for mayor. This week Jan Damery was added to the list:
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