The Bulletin — April 14: Can You Be Removed From a Municipal Ballot?
This and other local election questions answered
We’re starting a new series here at Rage that will see us explore the basics in municipal elections in Alberta by sifting through legislation and history.
This week, our inspiration is the recent buffoonery at GraceLife Church. Among the madness was Calgary mayoral candidate (and owner of “Wasted Native Coffee,” a name that’s a whole lotta racist) Kevin J Johnston. He was one of many, many people who gathered to protest the fences that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police erected around the church after Alberta Health Services received more than 100 complaints about the gatherings there and finally did something about it.
The gathering was, at the very least, in contravention of the outdoor gathering restrictions. I found myself wondering if that or other actions could see a person be removed from the ballot during an election season. So, I went to the rules — the Local Authorities Elections Act.
As it turns out, ‘committing crimes’ isn’t on the list of things that can get you removed from a ballot — unless they’re convictions under election legislation. Generally speaking, as long as you haven’t been convicted of election crimes, failed to disclose financial information, or broken other campaign finance rules at any other level of government in Canada, you’re good to go.
According to the Act, you’re ineligible to run if you:
Are the auditor of a municipality;
Owe more than $50 in taxes in the municipality;
Owe the municipality more than $500 for any other reason, or;
If within the previous 10 years you have been convicted of an offence under the Local Authorities Election Act, the Election Act, Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act, or the Canada Elections Act.
This will be interesting to keep in mind as the Alberta municipal election heats up.
Has Anyone Been Kicked Off the Ballot in Calgary Before?
Has anyone been kicked off a ballot before in Alberta for crimes? To answer this question, let’s look back to the 1880s in Calgary.
First, a bit of wisdom from Grant MacEwan, former mayor of Calgary (among other things), turned historian.
“Calgary’s city council was never noted for tranquility”, MacEwan wrote in his book, Calgary Cavalcade: From Fort to Fortune.
Indeed. In 1886, Judge Thomas Wardlaw Taylor filed a precis that Jeremiah Travis, the local Stipendiary Magistrate (a term Canada imported from Scots law — basically it was a judge), had overstepped his bounds by kicking out elected members of Calgary’s Town Council and barring them from holding office.
Calgary was incorporated as a town in 1875. In 1884, Calgarians elected George Murdoch as their first mayor. The first municipal council for the Town of Calgary was then to be installed for the term of December 1884 to January 1886.
Murdoch was a Scottish harness maker who had fought for the town to be established. Alberta still did not exist back then, of course. Calgary was part of the North-West Territories (later renamed the Northwest Territories).
In 1886, a fear of violence hung over the town but never materialized. Calgarians were plagued with concerns over the Red River Rebellion of 1885 and the fact that Métis leader Louis Riel was back among his people. They feared an uprising of the nearby Siksika, Sacree, or Stony-Nakoda tribes would follow.
In Calgary Cavalcades, MacEwan referred to the period in 1885-’86 as “a lively election with more election fights than elections speeches.”
When the magistrate, a supporter of prohibition which outlawed alcohol in much of Canada and the United States, arrived in Calgary, he was displeased to note that the town was filled with all manner of hedonism.
Mayor Murdoch was re-elected on January 5, 1886, but was soon suspected of being a moonshiner (or whisky-ring operator, as the Scottish immigrants called it), in addition to the suspicions he and the chief of police, James Ingram, received kickbacks from bar owners and brothels.
You have to feel for Travis, a man who didn’t drink, as he dealt with tale after tale of drunken escapades in Calgary.
Still another councillor, Simon John Clarke, was charged with assault of a Mountie and with resisting arrest while trying to prevent a search of his saloon.
Travis’ own Clerk of the Court (and editor of the Calgary Herald), Hugh S. Cayley, was spotted out drinking when he was supposed to be drawing up a jury list.
Travis fired him as well, and incensed by his coverage in the Herald, attempted to keep him in prison.
Murdoch and one of his fellow candidates also added 73 names to the voter list. Travis considered the lateness of the addition unusual, although there’s no indication that Murdoch was doing anything more nefarious than attempting to identify people who were eligible to vote.
Although the claims were not substantiated, Travis decided that the late addition of the names was a sign of corruption. He disqualified Murdoch and three councillors, and barred them from holding office for two years.
But the nominations officer, who supported Murdoch, left his name and the two other banned candidates on the ballot — and the 73 additions on the voters’ list, too.
Murdoch and his colleagues won, but Travis overturned the result and installed James Reilly as mayor.
Both Murdoch and Reilly claimed the mayoralty, and each set up his own set of councillors. Factions sprang up in support of both groups but no clear winner emerged.
After nearly a year without a council, the town voted again. Calgarians elected George Clift King as mayor on November 3, 1886.