Calgary Civic Election 2017 - Early Morning Post Election Thoughts

[jamesq]

I'm happy we dodged a bullet this morning and elected a progressive mayor and mostly progressive city council.  Still it bothers me that it was a tight race.  Nenshi was literally named the best mayor on Earth, and a guy with no platform and a questionable past *still* got 43% of the vote. Hell, Smith got more votes in wards 13 and 14 (though they are the bluest of the wards in this city, so if he was going to win anywhere, it was there).

 

They changed the ward boundaries on me, so I moved from ward 7 to ward 4.  I used to have the city's most progressive councillor (Farrell), and now I have the guy (Chu) who votes for everything wrong with this city, and votes against everything that makes it nicer.  At least I had an opportunity to vote against him, though he kept his seat.

 

Mostly I'm annoyed that the provincial Conservative party did their damndest to run a stealth campaign, aided by a group of businesses that want urban sprawl to continue, *and they almost succeeded*.  It's not like they're going to give up next time - they're just going to try to be sneakier.

 

Seriously, Nenshi is still mayor - I should be happy about that, and yet I'm pissed that a zero like Smith came so close.