Politicians across Alberta are speaking out against the idea of party politics infiltrating the municipal level, saying it is neither wanted by voters nor needed.
“Alberta Municipalities‘ members are deeply troubled by the idea that local elected officials might put the interests of their political parties ahead of those of the group that matters most: their constituents,” Tyler Gandam, mayor of Wetaskiwin and current president of Alberta Municipalities, said at a news conference Thursday.
The group represents communities where over 85 per cent of Albertans live: summer villages, villages, cities, towns and specialized municipalities.
Gandam said for the past six month or so, Albertans have heard rumours the provincial government is thinking about introducing political parties to local elections.
“These rumblings became louder and more frequent in November of 2023, when the government of Alberta conducted two surveys into proposed changes to the Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA) and the Municipal Government Act (MGA).”
The surveys closed in December and the results have not been shared publicly, however a freedom of information request by the Edmonton Journal revealed more than 70 per cent of respondents expressed opposition.
Those results aligned with polling Janet Brown Opinion Research conducted on behalf of Alberta Municipalities last summer, which found more than two out of three Albertans (68 per cent) would prefer to see municipal candidates run as individuals. One in four (24 per cent) would prefer to see them run as members of a political party, and nine per cent were unsure.
Gandam said a resolution expressing opposition to the idea also received 95 per cent of the vote at Alberta Municipalities annual convention last September.
“There’s clearly little support for the provincial government’s plan to introduce divisiveness into local governments,” Gandam said.
“Local mayors and councillors are elected officials closest to the voters. They live and work shoulder to shoulder with their constituents. They are committed to building their communities to make them better places for everyone.
“Local governments should be safe spaces for conversation and dialogue among neighbours without the divisiveness or vitriol we are seeing at the provincial and federal levels.”
Edmonton city councillor Andrew Knack, who is an Alberta Municipalities vice president and a director of the cities over 500,000 committee, agreed it’s a terrible idea.
“It’s something that nobody’s been asking for,” Knack said. “Every time Albertans have been surveyed from across the province, from big cities to the smallest villages, Albertans have said loud and clear: this is not something that’s going to add value, it’s not going to help make local democracy better.”
Knack says not being officially affiliated with a party gives municipal politicians more flexibility to present what constituents want instead of pigeonholing them to follow the party line.
“Municipally, the beauty of it is it operates like our community league system, it operates like what people do on a day-to-day basis: which is they come into a room, they listen to one another, they try to understand people’s perspectives and make the decision — what’s the best way to help as many people as possible?”
No one at the province has clearly explained what real or perceived problems the introduction of political parties to municipal elections would fix, Alberta Municipalities said, adding the proponents of the idea have suggested introducing political parties could improve voter turnout in local elections.
Both Vancouver and Montreal allow political parties at the local level and Alberta Municipalities says that hasn’t brought more people to the polls.
“They don’t have higher voter turnouts than we have in Edmonton, than in Calgary, than in small villages, than in mid-sized cities,” Knack said.
“There’s no measurable difference in voter turnout. So if that’s the problem they’re trying to solve — which again, they still haven’t actually said — that’s not the way to solve it.”
Hamish Telford, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia, said when it comes to voter turnout in Canada, it generally correlates with the level of government: highest for a federal election and lowest for municipal.
“Not necessarily connected to partisanship, though. It’s really connected to a variety of other issues. First of all, is the election contested? So in smaller municipalities, when only one candidate is running for mayor, you typically see a very low turnout,” Telford said.
“But when you see a competitive election, between strong candidates running for mayor, then turnout tends to to go up.
“Turnout also goes up if there’s perceived to be an important issue at stake.”
He also said voters are savvy enough to figure out where a candidate stands politically without the need for a party affiliation.
“People have a sense of where the candidates are already.”
Take Back Alberta, a third-party advertiser, has been working to get more social conservatives elected.
Both Knack and Town of Calmar Councillor Krista Gardner, who is also an Alberta Municipalities director, said while all councils are made up of people who fall on all sides of the political spectrum, there isn’t a benefit to having defined party lines or strong social conservative values at the table.
“It doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum you align on, potholes need to be filled, arenas need to be built, maintained, constructed,” Gardner said.
“I don’t entirely see how having that (right-wing) viewpoint actually really helps or influences the way that you’re making those decisions, because it’s not about a lot of that kind of stuff.
“It’s about creating these communities that are healthy and sustainable and provide that quality of life to our residents.”
Despite having the lowest statistical turnout, municipal politicians often make decisions that most directly impact people’s day-to-day lives, Gardner pointed out.
“Do you have water? Do you have sewer? Do you have recreational facilities? I think if you can get people fired up about how we actually improve your quality of life, we will see higher voter turnout.”
Knack said the political grandstanding and partisan agendas that dominate provincial and federal politics have no place in the local level.
“Who looks at that right now across the country and across this province and says: ‘That’s working well right now’? No one.
“Like, it is so broken. Why would you want to introduce that in a municipal sense?”
Alberta Municipalities said the message it’s sending to the province and special interest groups that are eager to see partisan politics introduced at the local level is clear, unwavering and unequivocal: “listen to regular Albertans who have repeatedly said they simply aren’t interested.”
The Alberta government said the ministry of Municipal Affairs is currently reviewing the overall results of the engagement collected in the fall of 2023.
“We will take all the feedback we received into account as we consider options for updating the Local Authorities Election Act,” said a statement from Minister Ric McIver.
“Alberta’s government reviews local election laws regularly to make sure the rules continue to strengthen transparency and accountability in our local elections and election officials.”
Alberta is scheduled to hold its next municipal elections in October 2025.