Not again! Yes, again.
But what makes you think any differently.
There’s the heavy hand of Mayor Jyoti Gondek and a city council majority, nicknamed the Hateful Eight by their detractors, the most unpopular mayor coupled with the most unpopular council, both unpopularities the lowest ever seen in Calgary according to one well-respected pollster.
Fresh from the bogus bag bylaw goat rodeo, the latest brainwave is rezoning in the city to allow townhouses, row houses and the like to be built in neighbourhoods zoned for single-family homes without having to first apply to the city for a land-use change.
In other words, without others in the affected community having the opportunity to say what they think.
Dan McLean, the south Calgary pull-no-punches councillor, and five other members of the city council minority want Calgarians to vote in a plebiscite on such a big change.
The vote would take place at the same time as the October 2025 city election.
Well, on Wednesday, that idea hit the city council chamber where good ideas and your tax dollars go to die.
Before that debate, Mayor Gondek wondered what McLean and the others were trying to do.
For Gondek, tying the rezoning idea to the election meant the plebiscite vote supporters were interested in making it an election issue.
Gondek wondered if people were this focused on an election how closely were they paying attention to their job at hand.
Gondek had some hearing difficulties when I tried to ask questions.
Before the debate, Sonya Sharp, a councillor not on Team Gondek, spoke of a meeting this week in her neck of the woods where there was a lot of opposition and many feeling the rezoning was being shoved down their throats.
Sharp saw it as stripping citizens of their democratic right to speak to council and give their five minutes for or against a housing development.
Before the debate on the plebiscite, McLean said city council needed a mandate from the people.
After all, we remember when the provincial government forced council to hold a plebiscite vote on Calgary’s 2026 Olympic bid if they wanted to score cash from the Alberta taxpayer.
If council had its way, it would have been a Yes to the bid, bread and circuses for the bigwigs with the fine print of the Olympic plans contained in blacked-out pages.
But a vote of Calgarians was No, in 13 of 14 city wards.
Finally, on Wednesday, city council voted on whether Calgarians would have a vote on rezoning.
The smart money took the safe bet. There would be no plebiscite.
Six voted Yes. The Sensible Six could not beat the Hateful Eight.
Instead, Calgarians can come to a public hearing before city council April 22 and get up and throw themselves on the mercy of the council majority.
But the odds now say the rezoning desired by the council majority will go through.
The writing is on the wall even if you don’t like what you read.
If it does go through, it will be an election issue next year.
Sharp, the councillor with the guts a while back to tell Mayor Gondek to park her ego, spoke out again on Thursday.
“If the mayor wants to talk election issues, let’s talk election issues,” says Sharp.
“There’s going to be a running list.”
We’ll hear from Sharp again.
Back to McLean.
What did it look like when the city council majority gave the thumbs-down to a vote of Calgarians on rezoning?
McLean did not water down his remarks.
“The other side was very happy. They were very happy to see people didn’t have a chance to have their say on this issue in the next municipal election.”
Of course, Calgarians still have a vote for mayor and councillors in that election. That can’t be taken away.
“It’s not surprising,” says McLean, of having a vote of Calgarians on rezoning shot down by Gondek and company.
“This is par for the course. What the public wants, they do the opposite.”
McLean figures the council majority want to move fast on rezoning to get it done before the next election because after the election their agenda could be stalled if Calgarians actually go to the polls and shake things up.
“The more they try and push this through, the more they try to silence people, the more people are waking up.”
Are Calgarians waking up? That would be headline news.
Sharp is back.
“I think they’d be afraid of what the outcome of a plebiscite would be,” says the councillor.
“Calgarians have lost trust and confidence in this council. Do you blame them? I don’t.”
And to those on the Gondek-led majority …
“Good luck and see you next election, you better be ready to justify all the decisions you’re making.”
rbell@postmedia.com
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