Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarygeologist
If this was the case do you think that the council vote would be 15-0? Wouldn't some of our more savvy councillors vote against a bad deal that is being pressured on them by the province? I don't believe for a second that Smith bamboozled or was able to coerce the entire council in Calgary.
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I hate this deal, but putting myself in a councillor's shoes [albeit with the limited info we have], I'd probably be a very reluctant yes vote. Unfortunately, unlike previous arena votes, this one was in camera, so we don't know how many councillors were plugging their nose when they voted yes. There isn't much political upside to a no vote if you can't even explain your reasoning since your colleagues essentially agreed to a gag order.
I think the city played its hand poorly going back to the initial vote in 2019. Without a time machine, there isn't much chance of undoing that. I don't think the city could realistically do any better here, unless the provincial money fairy was coming in with the goal of making a deal in the best possible public interest
FWIW 2019 no voters are all gone (Evan Woolley, Druh Farrell, Jeromy Farkas and George Chahal). The 2021 revision involved a bunch of motions with different voting patterns that I'm too lazy to check.