Last week, the Calgary and District Labour Council – an umbrella group representing 60 local unions – issued its endorsements for the upcoming local elections.
Why would they do that, you may ask? I can imagine a few reasons why they might be interested in getting union-friendly candidates elected. The biggest ticket item of every government operating budget is pay and benefits for public sector union workers.
READ MORE: Calgary election 2017: Nenshi releases campaign donor list
The City of Calgary faces a $170 million shortfall. The notion is that if enough union-friendly candidates get elected it will stave off any discussion of privatizing, contracting out, instituting hiring freezes, wage freezes, pension reform, and so forth. The way to have revenues keep up with growth is simply to raise taxes and fees.
Some are fond of saying that partisan politics have no place in municipal politics. But candidates who put the interests of unions first are going to vote differently on issues than candidates who put the interests of taxpayers first. That’s how I see this election shaping up.
READ MORE: Calgary election 2017: What would it take to unseat a sitting councillor or mayor?
The pro-union, or progressive candidates for Calgary city council have been identified by the Calgary and District Labour Council. I asked my listeners to crowdsource the pro-taxpayer, or conservative candidates. Below are both lists:
Get daily National news
Pro-union, progressive candidates identified by the Calgary District and Labour Council:
Ward 1 – Christopher Blatch
Ward 3 – Ian McAnerin
Ward 4 – Greg Miller
Ward 6 – Esmahan Razavi
Ward 7 – Druh Farrell
Ward 8 – Evan Wooley
Ward 9 – Gian-Carlo Carra
Ward 10 – Salimah Kassam
Ward 11 – Janet Eremenko
Mayor – Naheed Nenshi
*No candidates identified as yet by the CDLC in Wards 2, 5, 12, 13 or 14
Pro-taxpayer, conservative candidates identified by listeners:
Ward 1 – Ward Sutherland
Ward 2 – Joe Magliocca
Ward 3 – Jyoti Gondek
Ward 4 – Sean Chu
Ward 5 – *George Chahal and Preet Baidwan
Ward 6 – *Jeff Davidson and Sean Yost
Ward 7 – *Dean Brawn and Margot Aftergood
Ward 8 – Chris Davis
Ward 9 – Cheryl Link
Ward 10 – Ray Jones (no website)
Ward 11 – *Jeromy Farkus and Linda Johnson
Ward 12 – Shane Keating
Ward 13 – *Diane Colley-Urquhart, Mark Dyrholm, Art Johnson
Ward 14 – Peter Demong
Mayor – *Bill Smith and Andre Chabot
I’ll try to narrow down this list to a single candidate after the Canadian Taxpayer Federation issues their survey of candidates closer to the election. If you have any feedback or anyone I’ve missed, send me at note at danielle@newstalk770.com.
You can find a list of all other candidates here.
The choice is yours!
Comments