Disastrous as this current council is proving since its term began in 2021, the rot set in several years earlier.

It started with the erosion of that vital balance between those hired to carry out competent and efficient civic administration and those elected by Calgarians to provide overall direction, by expressing views on matters specific to their ward and general to the city. Such division of powers — akin to church and state — is key to the proper functioning not only of local government but democracy itself.

When things first changed it didn’t appear a big deal to most of us. It simply seemed to involve some civic big-shot deciding to switch jobs because of personal reasons.

But, when city manager Jeff Fielding called it quits in early 2019 and returned to Central Canada to rejoin his family after more than four years overseeing Calgary’s civic administration, it upended a delicate political balance: slowly but surely it would be the mayor and councillors alone who knew........

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