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Dani Paradis and Chris Henderson join the Daveberta Podcast for a deep dive into municipal politics and a look ahead at the October 2021 elections in Edmonton. What issues will resonate with voters and what does a pandemic election campaign looks like? We cover a lot of ground, from Lucy the Elephant to equalization to centralization of 911 dispatch to the souring of relations between municipalities and the provincial government. This was a fun episode.
Dani Paradis is a Contributing Editor at Canadaland and co-editor of Rage Against the Municipal. Chris Henderson is Chief Strategist and Partner at Y-Station Communications and Research and was campaign manager for Don Iveson‘s 2007 and 2010 city council campaigns and 2013 mayoral campaign.
The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart.
The Daveberta Podcast is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network: Locally grown. Community supported. The Alberta Podcast Network includes dozens of great made-in-Alberta podcasts.
You can listen and subscribe to the Daveberta Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find podcasts online. We love feedback from our listeners, so let us know what you think of this episode and leave a review where you download.
Recommended reading/listening:
- Episode 61: Don Iveson on being a Mayor during COVID and his plan to end homelessness (Daveberta Podcast, Oct. 22, 2020)
- Episode 48: An urban big city agenda in Alberta. Municipally Speaking with Mack Male (Daveberta Podcast, Feb. 10, 2020)
- The Women of Municipal History (Dani Paradis, Rage Against the Municipal, Feb. 19, 2021)
- Help us discover the People’s Agenda in Edmonton (Taproot Publishing, Sept. 10, 2020)
- ‘Frustrating to watch’: Iveson to make formal inquiry after homeless people forced out of LRT station amid cold warning (CTV, Feb. 16, 2021)
- Wood Buffalo mayor says he stands by decision to ‘defy and resist’ Alberta’s EMS consolidation (Global, Feb. 10, 2021)
- Jane Goodall now agrees with leaving aging Lucy the elephant at Edmonton Valley Zoo (Edmonton Journal, Feb. 18, 2021)
5 replies on “Episode 69: Biting the hand that isn’t feeding you”
You & your guests discussed how political parties are not a factor in municipal politics in Alberta, and by & large that’s true. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ideological divides. In fact, there is even a left-right split, although it isn’t as clearly articulated as it is at the provincial & federal levels.
The ideology is around the appropriate role of municipal government. On the right, there’s the “paving, potholes & policing” crowd, who believe cities & towns should limit the scope of their activities — and the tax revenues needed to support them — to the most basic of municipal services. Voters & politicians with this perspective also tend to be deregulatory, and friendly to developers — but less friendly to infill developers than to those building on vacant land, and prone to NIMBYism. They also tend to be more car-centric.
On the left there are those with a more expansive perspective on the role of municipal government, one which tends to be more focused on quality of life and filling gaps in the social safety net. This perspective also tends to be more willing to jump in where the provincial or federal government fears to tread. This perspective is more transit-friendly and in favour of higher density of residential development.
So, no, we don’t have municipal parties per se. But make no mistake: there are ideological divides at the municipal level.
As usual, this blog features the left, the more left, and the radical left.
Mike Nickel for Mayor!
Troll. If you disagree so vociferously with our blogger, why read it, except to troll it?
Mike Nickel would be the worst mayor this city has ever seen, and in that way, he’d match the premier as the worst this province has ever seen. A matching set of white, middle-aged male right-wing twits, just what we need post-pandemic. Two leaders with no ideas (or just tired old ones) and no vision for the future, who think the solution to everything is to cut, cut, cut, oh and blame Ottawa for everything, unless there’s another right-wing twit in office there, in which case Ottawa is wonderful. If that was such a fantastic ideology, Alberta should be at the top of the world right now, but we aren’t, if you hadn’t noticed.
What is it that you like about Mike Nickel? My experience with him is limited to contacting on the reason he removed the bike path running on 97st north and south from 34 ave to 63 ave. When I asked him why he removed them he didn’t get back to me but had his “assistant” reply. Considering this was an email and he couldn’t give me the time of day. When I asked the assistant she said it had to do with parking on 97 street. There is no parking on that street, although the street is wide it is single lane traffic and the bikes don’t interfere with the drivers. There are many cyclists that use that road as its safer than 91 st or 97 st. Stripping the road was a waste of tax payer dollars leaves cyclists more vulnerable.