City councillors on the hustings? What your local officials are up to during the election

Sean Chu believes being loyal to your friends is important.

The Calgary city councillor didn’t hesitate to respond to the calls of political allies when the provincial election was called earlier this month. When he’s not tied up with city business, Chu will spend the next few weeks door-knocking with United Conservative Party candidates.

He says it’s better for councillors to be transparent about where their loyalties lie. “I’m a conservative and so aligned with the UCP. I have always said that, I am who I am,” Chu says.

“Something I’ve learned: if everybody knows that you’re this kind of person, admit it. Some people don’t like it, but at least I can sleep at night.”

For most councillors, a provincial election campaign is a welcome chance to escape the spotlight temporarily focused on the fight for power among organized parties. But council has also never been immune to partisan politics.

Since the campaign kicked off on March 19, several councillors have waded into the fray to defend political allies or to bolster projects and issues.

Some have been vocal about their loyalties, including councillors Chu, Joe Magliocca and Jeromy Farkas who have openly endorsed the UCP’s Jason Kenney.

On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Coun. Druh Farrell says she’s tried to avoid explicitly partisan positions in past elections, but not this time. On Twitter, she has publicly praised the NDP’s platform on flood mitigation for the Bow River and universal childcare, stopping short of explicitly endorsing the party — though she has donated to them in the past.

The inner-city councillor has also been strident in her social media criticism of the UCP, particularly after it was revealed that two high profile UCP candidates, who have since quit, had made racist, homophobic and transphobic comments online.

“There are so many issues that impact the city that it’s impossible to sit this one out,” Farrell says. “I can’t be neutral with this particular election, there’s too much at stake.”

A handful of the current crop of council members have past partisan experience or connections at the provincial level. Chu and Diane Colley-Urquhart have both run unsuccessfully for elected office under the former Progressive Conservative party banner.

A card-carrying member of the UCP and the federal Conservative party, Farkas formerly served as president of the Wildrose constituency in Calgary-Elbow. He says he feels strongly about municipal politicians being “up front” about their views.

“Every single politician has these leanings, some people just prefer to be more transparent about it than others,” he said.

Farkas, who is openly bisexual, also made the biggest splash of any councillor in the campaign so far by defending the UCP leader this week on Twitter after Kenney’s record on LGTBQ issues came under fire.

“The issue just kind of touched a nerve for me,” he said. “I hate when conservatives are cast as bigots when we aren’t.”

Farkas, who suffered bullying as a youth, has defended Kenney’s proposal which would roll back privacy protections for kids who join gay-straight alliances (GSAs). He says the UCP policy will ultimately be in line with similar protections in jurisdictions like Ontario and B.C.

“I take this very seriously and I think we should leave that decision in the hands of very highly trained professionals — the teachers who would do nothing besides (what is in) the best interests of the kids involved,” Farkas said. “I think a balance needs to be struck.”

Other councillors have donated money and time to candidates running in the provincial election. As recorded by Elections Alberta, councillors Magliocca, Chu and Peter Demong have donated to the former PC party. Farrell is a past contributor to the NDP and George Chahal was a contributor to the now-defunct Wildrose party.

Most councillors have assiduously avoided making their partisan preference publicly known on the grounds that it complicates things once the election is over.

Councillors like Shane Keating, Jyoti Gondek and Demong have, instead, raised the public profile of specific projects or issues, including funding for the Green Line and the Springbank dry dam, or pushing for modernization of rules on waste and recycling.

Gondek has been advocating for provincial candidates to consult municipalities on where future schools should be built. She says she scrutinizes candidates based on their knowledge of the riding and neighbourhoods they’re hoping to represent.

“I’m spoiled. I had a very good experience with my elected representative pushing for things that we needed,” Gondek said, praising outgoing Calgary-Northern Hills NDP MLA Jamie Kleinsteuber.

“I don’t know what that’s going to look like after April 16. I’m hoping it’s someone that’s from the community, (who) understand it and is passionate — but I don’t know.”

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra says he tries to be non-partisan but admits there is a “Re-elect Joe Ceci” lawn sign in front of his home in southeast Calgary.

“My wife’s passionate and I’m not going to stand in her way. I can’t stand in her way and I wouldn’t stand in the way (of) her expressing her political opinions,” Carra says.

The three-term councillor says he’s grateful that partisan politics don’t dictate decisions at the municipal level.

“I think that partisanship is killing us,” Carra says, referring to persistent political divisions at the provincial and federal levels of government that interfere with practical decision-making.

When it’s come up in the past, Carra says, city council has resisted calls to increase the number of wards — despite the fact that Calgary currently has the same number of city councillors that it had in the 70s when the population was around 600,000 — largely in order to avoid the influence of slates and party politics on city hall.

“I relish the fact that city council is a non-partisan place. We might get feisty from time to time in our disagreements about specific things. But I relish the fact that our votes are generally all over the place. I think that that’s very healthy governance.”

mpotkins@postmedia.com
Twitter: @mpotkins