[GDT] YYC Votes 2025

[Fuzz]

I do have some great ones that are at least a decade old. I use them as much as I can, because even if the number is 200, I feel like I get to that with most of them. I see them as one little piece to polluting less.


I did used to use store bags for other things, but even then I had enough to end up needing to recycle the bags of bags. Now I try to scavenge wherever I can. Electronics are a good source if they are big enough, but bathroom bins and the like don't need huge ones.


And yes, I know this isn't making much of a difference.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

Gondek has always been about finger wagging and virtue signaling. Her cery poor performance as mayor is a reflection of someone who is more about politics than results.

Actually it's the opposite. She has a lot of skill and education in running a city. She isn't great at politics though. And with a hostile provincial government, I think we need someone who is good at politics. Which is the reason I decided to go with Farkas in the end. We'll see how he does.

[Locke]

Those cloth bags are what people use to trap kittens and throw them in the river, so people who promote those bags are blatantly promoting kitten murder.

Good luck trying to re-use it after that.

[GranteedEV]

Our mayor is a former UCP shill who was indoctrinated by the manning institute, whose only body of work on council involved never cooperating, and whose entire platform has been about using vague platitudes and anecdotes about non profit work to convince people he's turned over a new leaf despite never having shown any real evidence that anything has changed in the four years since half the city banded together to keep him out of office.


And I'm immensely thankful it wasn't the alternative option, Sonia Sharp.

Here's to hoping Farkas and this new council can be functional. Because the last time we had a conservative mayor was Bronconnier and his corrupt council was by far the worst in my lifetime. And that was at a time when the provincial government was somewhat respectable.

People in this thread are complaining about being forced to use bags that don't rip when you put a 4L jug of milk in them, and meanwhile we still don't have a train that goes to Mount Royal University because at the time when the funding for that was available, Dave Bronconnier and his developer buddies were more interested in Aspen Woods than the entire rest of Calgary.

[Fuzz]

We don't have a train that goes north because Bronconnier pushed throguh the west leg so he could make big bank on the land he owned. The north central line had always been the next route to happen based on massive ridership demands, and he went and did that. Here we are 20 years later, still getting ####ed by ####ty politicians looking out for their own interests above what is actually needed.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by The Big Chill

Jamieson is just such a turd. He’s got Craig Chandler running around the ward saying how great he is (and Craig is up to his usual antics, this time he’s picking fights with other candidates and telling them they’ll never run for anything again).

I go to read his introduction letter on his website, you know where a candidate has a few paragraphs to try and convince me what they’ll be like as a leader, and he spends most of it saying how the new parties are great so us dumb folks can easily know who to vote for without doing research. He even says our stupidity leads to vote splitting and “ allowed the extreme left wing Councillor Kourtney Penner to win” last time, and cost people like Craig Chandler the chance to win.

Him winning especially sucks when I thought there was a moderate left and moderate right candidate who both seemed pretty decent.

That Introduction letter was so ######y.

Also, something about a politician saying "I'm taking a pay cut" i their introduction letter is scummy. Proves that money is more important than anything (first thing that comes to mind for this guy?); He's hoping to parlay this into a leg. job and that sweet board/lobby money

[Firebot]

Bronconnier was only 1 vote in council...or so I hear .


And for his sake, he had 28.3%, 81.5% and 61.08% of the votes over 3 terms. He was an incredibly popular mayor.

Also unlike Gondek, he left on his own with a very high approval rating.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...lgary-1.893263

Two-thirds of Calgarians think Dave Bronconnier has led the city in the right direction during his nine years as mayor, according to a poll done exclusively for CBC News.
In the survey conducted by pollster Bruce Cameron, 67 per cent of respondents said the mayor has the city on the right track as he prepares to leave office this fall.

Of that group, 23 per cent said their approval was due to Bronconnier's handling of infrastructure issues, 15 per cent attributed it to the way he dealt with Calgary's growth, and 12 per cent said it was his economic policies they liked.

Considering that this was right out of the great recession, that's quite a feat. 67% approval rating after 10 years and end of his tenure.

Nenshi consistently stayed above 60% until 2019. Gondek's was 26% in 2024.

Also, the Peace Bridge, at the time hugely criticized by some Calgarians for being a bridge to nowhere, waste of funds and Branconnier's wet dream handout to developers, has turned into Calgary's main landmark and part of beautifying and modernizing a decrepit downtown core. The east village revitalization, taking a run down dangerous part was approved under Branconnier.

As for the West LRT route not going to Mount Royal, Branconnier was one vote and recused himself from the council to even vote on it, and routing to Mount Royal would have cost an unjustifiable $200 million more.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...-line-1.653828

John Hubble, the head of Calgary Transit, told council a route near Mount Royal would be longer and cost $200 million more yet serve fewer customers.

The 17th Avenue route will allow significantly more west-side residents to be within a 10-minute bus ride of the LRT line, Hubble said.

The mayor excused himself from Tuesday's debate and vote because he owns two properties near the new route and wanted to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest.

I think we did ok under him. It's revisionist history to say he was the worst mayor as the approval ratings don't support it.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

The best way to save the environment aside, how have y’all not figured out re-useable bags by now.

So you have two bags that you bought a couple years ago that you carry with you every time you leave the house, you’ve used them exclusively for every purchase you make of groceries, clothes, office supplies, medication and toiletries, gifts, spur-of-the-moment impulse buys, etc and not bought or received another multi-use bag?

If that’s true, then take a bow. You’re exceptional.

I’d guess most households make around 100 purchases of stuff a year, and since many are impromptu and unplanned, even if you remember to bring a reusable bag 80-90 per cent of the time, you’re still going to wind up accumulating 15-20 of them over a year.

I’m confident if I went to the homes of the people who signed off on the policy, I’d find a bag of bags hanging on a foyer hook or stuffed in a shelf, like the rest of us have.

[Fuzz]

The Peace Bridge is great now, but lets not pretend it's construction and cynical naming wasn't a complete disaster at the time. We don't need to re-write history. And it still suffers from the critical failure of not crossing Memorial that led to an additional traffic light.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Amethyst

Actually it's the opposite. She has a lot of skill and education in running a city. She isn't great at politics though. And with a hostile provincial government, I think we need someone who is good at politics. Which is the reason I decided to go with Farkas in the end. We'll see how he does.

Gondek is clearly smart and she was a good councillor. But she has poor political instincts for a role like mayor.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Soundbites don’t seem to be playing well for a certain CPC leader against a very “politics in full-sentences” PM.

People — at least, Canadians — are tired of catch-phrase clowns in office, they want an adult in the room.

True and I hope it's trending that way, but this is Calgary.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The Peace Bridge is great now, but lets not pretend it's construction and cynical naming wasn't a complete disaster at the time. We don't need to re-write history. And it still suffers from the critical failure of not crossing Memorial that led to an additional traffic light.

If Graham hadn't cheaped out and just sent a guy to Spain to inspect the welds it would have been a lot better. They totally added "the troops" after the fact. I could write a book about that thing. Still awesome having a piece of a bizarre genius in this city who will be revered as one of the best artist/architect/engineers to have ever existed in human history in this humble city.

[Jimmy Stang]

I still think that Gondek could've benefited from a bit more sass. Like Nenshi sass. She is no doubt intelligent, polite, and was often able to build consensus on council.

But when the anger machine came at her for things, which she often didn't deserve (and maybe even when she did), I would've liked to have seen a bit more a clap back.

You're not losing votes from the people who think you're a cunning water main saboteur. But the rest of us would've respected a bit more sass when things got stupid.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by fotze2

If Graham hadn't cheaped out and just sent a guy to Spain to inspect the welds it would have been a lot better. They totally added "the troops" after the fact. I could write a book about that thing. Still awesome having a piece of a bizarre genius in this city who will be revered as one of the best artist/architect/engineers to have ever existed in human history in this humble city.

Can't forget about how they used paint that wasn't cold tolerant, so had to sand blast and repaint the whole thing too.


Agreed to the bold. I'd like it to have lasers that blast people milling about in the bike lane part of it though. Particularly new grads.

[Bigtime]

Super fancy hotel right at the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome, big Calatrava book sitting in the lobby seating area. What's the cover shot? The Peace bridge.

Rick Bell can suck it.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The Peace Bridge is great now, but lets not pretend it's construction and cynical naming wasn't a complete disaster at the time. We don't need to re-write history. And it still suffers from the critical failure of not crossing Memorial that led to an additional traffic light.

I'm still amused that Druh Farrell pissed off all the rightwingers by shutting down Memorial for the Bow Flow!

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Super fancy hotel right at the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome, big Calatrava book sitting in the lobby seating area. What's the cover shot? The Peace bridge.

Rick Bell can suck it.

How the eff is the Dinger still employed? hahaha

wait.

Let me type this.

In his writing style.

So his deplorables. Can

Understand what I'm saying.

[The Fisher Account]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

I still think that Gondek could've benefited from a bit more sass. Like Nenshi sass. She is no doubt intelligent, polite, and was often able to build consensus on council.

But when the anger machine came at her for things, which she often didn't deserve (and maybe even when she did), I would've liked to have seen a bit more a clap back.

You're not losing votes from the people who think you're a cunning water main saboteur. But the rest of us would've respected a bit more sass when things got stupid.

Gondek unfortunately, tried to be a politician that took the high road. She was better suited for a time when we regarded our politicians much higher.

Look at today's political environment - slogans, sound bites and lowest common denominator resonates extremely high amongst the electorate.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

I'm still amused that Druh Farrell pissed off all the rightwingers by shutting down Memorial for the Bow Flow!

Meanwhile it has been half-closed for months for flood barrier work and the world hasn't ended. But half-close it for one day on a weekend and holy smokes. Gotta keep people simple and angry.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Meanwhile it has been half-closed for months for flood barrier work and the world hasn't ended. But half-close it for one day on a weekend and holy smokes. Gotta keep people simple and angry.

Estrada is still recovering from that to this day.