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).”
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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.
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“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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
