A Better Calgary Party

New Municipal Party

I made it out to somewhat of an exclusive event last evening to check out A Better Calgary Party.

ABC is, to my knowledge, Calgary’s first official municipal party. This follows in line with Bill 20 that was passed by the UCP back in May of this year and so far, from what I’ve seen…I like it!

There were quite a few in attendance, standing room only, if you’d failed to claim a seat early and I wholeheartedly believe that this is a good sign. I knew or had at least previously met with several that were in attendance but really had no idea what to expect when I went.

While I do focus on a number of political issues, municipally, provincially and federally…I haven’t actually attended any political party rallies, until yesterday.

For the most part, the event only had an introductory video and a few speakers. There were no rally or war cries. There were just some ideas about what the party is and some of the principles that they seemingly stand behind.

The troubling part I find about these principles is that we actually require a Municipal Party that has to even state that their only intent is to be representative of Calgary and Calgarians at heart. How’d we devolve into such a politically rife arena, where city council has been so focused on vanity projects that it’s allowed our services to worsen, infrastructure to crumble, while completely ignoring the voices of Calgarians?

The meeting was shortish, but a lot had remained for a beverage, snack and some amazing conversation. Yes, there was a lot of focus on what we are currently seeing with Water Restrictions, Busted Pipes, the $5 Million spent on a 3 word rebranding of the city and of course Blanket Rezoning…but didn’t seem to have a political hardcore leaning.

This is ALSO a very good thing, in my opinion.

Calgary has become a lot more diverse and if we adopt this party strategy into our municipal elections, we need their candidates to be on a more Moderate Side of things.

We need council who is representative of their communities…not of themselves and not of the tribalistic extent that we see provincially and federally.

We also need to narrow down the number of people on the ballots to properly narrow the candidates that even make it onto the ballots. In 2021, there were 27 people who auditioned for Mayor of Calgary.

Honestly…look at the lineup:

And what this does is dilute the pool to an extent that it causes voter apathy or voter ignorance. How can you possibly distinguish or even remember what 27 people said would be their focus?

To be perfectly honest…I fully expect there to be some issues with the new Municipal Party System in Alberta. It will take a lot of time, energy and commitment to get this worked out properly, but with that said and with the reaction of those who took time out of their evenings for the event…a general consensus seemed to be present.

We need more people focused on our democracy, what has made Calgary a World Class City…and how to get back on this track.

Is A Better Calgary Party the right choice for you?

They’ll be holding a Stampede Barbeque on July 12th at Bowness Park…you may want to see if you can make it down to, to find out.

Additionally…visit their website →ABetterCalgaryParty.ca, or on Twitter/X →Here

Feel free to even click the image below to take them up on their invite to ask some questions.

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