The municipal election is full on right now in Calgary. As a ward 8 resident, I have taken the opportunity to review the platforms of both main candidates, I have met them both, and observed them at the Killarney community run debate over the weekend, plus on the radio replay of the CJSW debate.
Unfortunately the efforts made to get to know the candidates hasn't made my decision any easier. The specific development issues I am most interested in don't get any real discussion during campaigns. The motherhood statements and mantra about the need listen to residents about development issues tends to be vague and dissatisfying.
Here is the truth about development decisions. The local councillor only has one vote, but all of the decision making authority is in the council and I believe they look to the local councillor to take the lead on contentious local applications. The local councillor does not have a lot of time to meet unengaged community members during the term in office. At a hearing where the real decisions happen may be the only time new, and now highly emotional and motivated potential voters will see their councillor do anything that is meaningful to them, and they are absolutely wanting to see 'their' councillor vote down an application from a builder.
The councillor (who wants to get re-elected) is highly aware of how the next time the voter is reaching to drop off his or her vote in the ballot box, the vote is likely going to be highly influenced by what happened during that one council meeting that the voter attended. This explains why the councillors are so influenced by the Calgary brand of NIMBY'ism that is such a prevalent force in political decisions relating to micro site land use applications.
So, what option is the builder going to use to try and get the decision to go in favour of a project? An option may be the terribly corrupt campaign finance system we have. The rules of donating to politicians in Calgary is so dismal and open to abuse that it actually provides a way to level the playing field from the rampant NIMBY'ism that impacts a lot of political decisions. The builder only has one vote in an election, which is totally insignificant. If some campaign finance cash does not help to level the odds, it wouldn't be spent.
One of the local councillors released his campaign donation list, and the other has chosen not to. I found a review of the list to be an eye opener. If this is the way to get stuff done in Calgary I need to start spending a lot more money!
Here are your ward 8 candidates. When reviewing the donor list a few of the funding sources were not exactly what I'd expected, but very insightful.