MF YYC Politics - there, I mega did it

[Slava]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Our councilor in Ward 11 is no bueno, was so disappointed when she won over Ward. Gondek, yeah, underwhelmed is a good way to put it.

When I saw her on the news campaigning for which bird the city should have as our official bird (a discussion which never quite made it to this board...and we discuss a lot of inane topics!), I knew we were in trouble. Sure, we could discuss the issues regarding the hollowing out of downtown, the event centre, crime, all kinds of topics. But no...let's spend time discussing whether we should be choosing a Chickadee or Magpie as the city bird.

(And btw, Northern Flicker ftw)

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Gondek seems to be astute when it comes to municipal policy, but have poor judgement about public statements and what the general public wants from their leaders at this level of government. Her communications team need to explain to her that Joe Q public don’t want mayors wading into every issue under the sun the way federal politicians riling up their base do.

I get the sense that the mayor's job is just resume material for her and the real goal is provincial or federal politics

[Johnny Makarov]

Still light years better than Farkas..

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Slava

When I saw her on the news campaigning for which bird the city should have as our official bird (a discussion which never quite made it to this board...and we discuss a lot of inane topics!), I knew we were in trouble. Sure, we could discuss the issues regarding the hollowing out of downtown, the event centre, crime, all kinds of topics. But no...let's spend time discussing whether we should be choosing a Chickadee or Magpie as the city bird.

(And btw, Northern Flicker ftw)

Meh, most of them can walk and chew gum at the same time so the bird thing didn't bug me.

(Magpie ftw).

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Jbo

Not surprising in the least. Most people I know absolutely seem to hate her.

I'll admit that I did not follow the platforms that closely, but in discussions I have had, most feel that she did indicate things like declaring a climate emergency, or reevaluating the new event center project. Besides that, I couldn't even tell you one thing she has been doing the last few months.

Don't forget Gondek wanting to spend 100K of Calgarian taxpayer money to fund a legal challenge at a Quebec provincial law.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1471239427636690944

And once that was met with utter anger, the city chose to fund a city task force on how to still publicly fund this legal challenge in other ways.

The city task force heavily recommended against using public funds

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...-21-task-force

So what has the city done under mayor Gondek?

- Declared climate change emergency
- Pledged 100K of taxpayer money to fund legal battle against Quebec
- Played a part in the torpedoing of the arena deal and resorted to air the dirty laundry on twitter
- Added street harassment bylaw


Meanwhile, a woman was attacked with a knife in Prince's Island Park in the morning, we have an epidemic of catalyst converter thefts, the beltline is held hostage every week by freedumb fighters, the C-train is overrun by aggressive meth heads where the half assed solution was to close the station shelters, east village has become a dangerous tent city.

She needs to manage city issues that matter to Calgarians but she seems to be campaigning for a federal job and seems more interested in Twitter flashiness. Her approval rating should come as no surprise.

Hopefully we get some actions from her that matter more to everyday Calgarian lives (which is what people who voted for her felt she was going to do).

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Still light years better than Farkas..

That's why she won, because Farkas is an incomparable tool and she was the other choice.

But being "not Farkas" isn't a governing strategy, and there isn't much evidence that she is doing a good job at that.

[Amethyst]

I think part of the issue is timing. Things are pretty stressful with the protests and other pandemic-related things. Whoever was in charge at this time would have pissed off a certain number of voters, whatever they did. I also think there was a strong anti-Gondek voter base. People who supported Farkas are not going to like Gondek, no matter what she does.

I voted for her because I thought she was the best serious option, but I was never excited about voting for her, like I originally was for Nenshi.

I feel like she's trying for a "big moment" that can define her term, rather than just doing her job and letting the big moment develop organically (if at all).

[Locke]

I'll echo the sentiment of 'underwhelmed.'

Obviously she still needs time, but she has been the opposite of what I'd expected so there is definitely some resentment about being sold a bill of goods.

Further, her focus seems to be on everything but Calgary.

She should cut that other stuff out and start focusing on doing the job she was elected to do.

[marsplasticeraser]

I'm on board with underwhelmed.

But in thinking of this, we had a great mayor (IMO) in Nenshi that did a tremendous amount of good for Calgary, pushing hard to make the city a much better place to live.

It seems to me that Gondak doesn't have a vision for what she wants to accomplish to make Calgary better. Even worse, she seems focused on solving issues that are somewhat outside municipal politics.

I was at a tech event where she talked about the tech sector. There are real problems and the topic could have been a homerun for her with any sort of thought or planning. Instead it was 100% politics, with no depth and a lot of motherhood statements.

[TorqueDog]

@Amethyst: Oh yeah, I lamented from the start that there was no 'Nenshi' amongst the slate of mayoral candidates we had to pick from. Even in his third term where his support was lowest, I always felt like my vote for Nenshi was for Nenshi and not against someone else, and that he was best possible choice, head and shoulders above anyone else.

My vote for Gondek wasn't because she really resonated with me as a candidate. My vote was very much against Farkas, and she was the best possible choice specifically with a shot at winning. In a different electoral system with a ranked ballot, I would probably have entertained someone like Jan Damery as a first ballot, with the second going to Gondek as a safety net.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

My vote for Gondek wasn't because she really resonated with me as a candidate. My vote was very much against Farkas, and she was the best possible choice specifically with a shot at winning. In a different electoral system with a ranked ballot, I would probably have entertained someone like Jan Damery as a first ballot, with the second going to Gondek as a safety net.

Yeah, this was my logic as well. I have talked to plenty of people who said they voted for her to beat Farkas, and nobody who said they voted for her because they evaluated all the candidates and she had the best ideas.

[tvp2003]

I agree that she had some pretty big shoes to fill. I know a lot of people didn’t like Nenshi, but he was very good during his time in the Mayor’s seat. Dare I say — we’ve been a bit spoiled in that sense.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

@Amethyst: Oh yeah, I lamented from the start that there was no 'Nenshi' amongst the slate of mayoral candidates we had to pick from. Even in his third term where his support was lowest, I always felt like my vote for Nenshi was for Nenshi and not against someone else, and that he was best possible choice, head and shoulders above anyone else.

It's a sad state of affairs that every election at every level has become about avoiding who you don't want. The Nenshi elections were an exception, though even the last one felt as much about avoiding Bill Smith (especially with the ludicrous polling at the end).

[btimbit]

I'm willing to cut this council some slack just because we knew ahead of time that this was going to be a very tough stretch for the city. Not a coincidence a lot of the former council left when they did

[WhiteTiger]

Gondek needs to sort her Twitter 'game' out. She's not a Councilor anymore, and has to stop acting like one. She's the Mayor, and represents the City. She doesn't need to rush to Twitter and be 'first' with a hot take. She's got to be the voice of the City.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by btimbit

I'm willing to cut this council some slack just because we knew ahead of time that this was going to be a very tough stretch for the city. Not a coincidence a lot of the former council left when they did

Has that stretch really started though? Doesn’t really feel like it. Have they made any tough decisions?

[timun]

Originally Posted by btimbit

I'm willing to cut this council some slack just because we knew ahead of time that this was going to be a very tough stretch for the city. Not a coincidence a lot of the former council left when they did

Yeah, the previous councillors who didn't run for re-election saw the writing on the wall: they knew this council was in for a rough ride and they got out while the going was good.

I also voted for Gondek not because I really want to vote for her, but because she was the least objectionable candidate. I did the same with Nenshi vs. Smith in the previous election, and while I was deeply disappointed with Nenshi's last term I'm still confident a Smith mayorship would have been a disaster.

I wouldn't say I'm underwhelmed by Gondek, but I didn't have particularly high hopes anyway. I'm just... "whelmed". I don't give a lot of the complaints about her performance so far a lot of credence:

• The "climate emergency" declaration is just empty "virtue signalling", and I don't really have a problem with it. It's not really fundamentally shifting City policy, they were already trying to take a lead on environmental "friendliness" beforehand anyway. So what if the City "declares a climate emergency"? They're trying to buy themselves some "green" cred and shed the backwoods O&G roughneck hillbilly image that Calgary has.
  
• The "event centre" deal collapsing was entirely on CSEC as far as I'm concerned. I don't really know precisely why CSEC took on the immense risk of all the cost overruns, other than I suspect they were tired of what they saw as meddlesome CoC/CMLC management. If left completely up to CSEC there's no doubt in my mind the final product was going to be a complete piece of #### anyway; I was shocked and appalled at how crappy the design as presented in the DP application was.
  
• "Doing something" about the theft of catalytic converters, homeless tent city by the DI, the C-Train having become the meth-head express, the freedumb marches on the weekends, etc. is not something the mayor alone has the power to do. Every other city in developed countries on the planet is facing these issues, and not a single one has solved them. Most of these are the culmination of years and years and years of pleas for drug treatment programs and reformed social safety net policies going almost completely ignored. The freedumb marches are a greater overall societal problem that our council, any council, is not in a position to simply "deal with". If Gondek really had the power to dictate police action against these protestors then they would be right about how we live under a "dictatorship". But, being that she doesn't, they get to protest their twisted little hearts out.
  
• The 3.87% property tax increase is a relatively modest one, and doesn't even keep up with inflation and growth. As I've written on this forum before, there are a great many spoiled brats in our electorate who expect everything for nothing. They expect better service levels, and get apoplectic when they're given the bill for it. As I've also said before: any of the candidates in the last election who promised to cut taxes and keep service levels constant was either a liar or an idiot, or both. People also conveniently forget that part of the property tax increase was a backdoor increase from the provincial government.

I will say she needs better communications staff, and the $100,000 pledge to fight Quebec's religious "neutrality" law was incredibly stupid.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Has that stretch really started though? Doesn’t really feel like it. Have they made any tough decisions?

Maybe not decisions but definitely a tough stretch with the city's economy, pandemic restrictions / protests, working with an idiotic provincial government, trying to build an arena with the supply chain/cost issues, etc.

Everything they are currently dealing with is kind of in a lousy place right now. I don't think anyone was going to look good at this point.

[powderjunkie]

I hate whataboutism arguments, but anyone annoyed by the dumb $100k against Quebec idea should be at least 300 times more outraged by the continued existence of PEAS - the Provincial Embezzlement Agency, Sasquatch!

[MoneyGuy]

Speaking of Nenshi, what is doing these days for employment or do we know what he’s going to do? I imagine he has opportunities.