Calgary election 2017: Jim Stevenson’s advice for incoming councillors is to have an ‘open mind’

Councillor Jim Stevenson said Monday he believes allegations of infighting between members of Calgary city council are overblown.

The Ward 3 councillor is not seeking re-election when Calgarians head to the polls on Oct. 16.

But he told News Talk 770’s Rob Breakenridge that he doesn’t believe infighting has prevented council from doing its work during his term in office.

LISTEN: Jim Stevenson on infighting in council and his advice to incoming council members

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“I mean, we have a lot of things that we’ve had passed and gotten through,” he said.

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“I’m from a different political stripe than Brian Pincott or Druh Farrell, because they’re quite NDP in their thinking, but that doesn’t mean we’re not good friends and we can’t get along and actually support each other.

 “It’s a good democratic process when not everyone agrees, but you have a good strong debate.”

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Political analyst Duane Bratt suggested some measures which could help trim some of the fat from council meetings, such as developing criteria for deciding on secondary suite applications or hiring an independent party to chair council meetings.

LISTEN: Political analyst Duane Bratt on the accusations of infighting on Calgary city council

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While he admitted that council meetings could be streamlined, Bratt said it is good campaign strategy for outsiders to accuse council of infighting. But he said it “presupposes that there is something fundamentally wrong with fighting on council.”

“Would we prefer a council that was in agreement all the time? That doesn’t get a whole lot of views across.”

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Stevenson said debate is a good thing on council and encouraged incoming council members to “keep an open mind.”

“I’ve entered into a debate on something pretty sure I was going to vote a certain way, but after hearing from some of my colleagues I changed my vote, because a strong argument was made,” he said.

“It’s important to get those ideas out in the open.”