Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
Chabot has been trying to get back on Council for years. He is a former three-term Councillor and a mayoral candidate. This guy is trending to try and be at City Hall until his last breath. He's also tried running for the UCP and failed.
Based on his past politics and track record on Council, he is your classic curmudgeony non-progressive "defender of the public purse" type of politician, who is happy to say populist things and then take all the advantages of being on Council with a nice salary and pension.
I honestly don't see what this guy brings to the table except obstructionism and contrarianism.
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Chabot appeared as a representative to the community for one of my neighbour's development permit last year when they were trying to get a relaxation to the bylaws. It was quite clear that his role was to help push the development through city hall, even though the community was firmly against it.
It was basically an expansion on an existing McMansion that would have taken it from 2 stories to a 5-story eyesore but they pitched it as "multi generational", "age in place", "transit oriented" and used the nearest condo buildings as precedent while ignoring the neighbouring century homes on the same block. Chabot was there to provide the pitch tailored for city hall and a mind-boggling argument that the top 2 stories didn't count so really it was just a single story development.
Then I did some more googling (because the home-owners he was representing have a checkered legal history that is in the public record -- they have previously sued Nenshi, Farrel and the community association when development applications got heated). It was surprisingly easy to find records of various business dealings all supported by Chabot, Chu and Magliocca. These are also the owners of the restaurant that was the home of Magliocca's first expense scandal. So to see Chabot now supporting Chu comes as no surprise seeing as they seem to run in the same circles.
I know he has a good reputation in some city planning offices and many spoke positively of him when he ran for Mayor but personally I think it's upsetting he got back in. He's not there to represent his ward, he's there to represent certain business interests. I'm hopeful that his first vote on council just made that clear to everyone.