Former Conservative MP Stella Ambler will serve as president of Municipal Watch, a new grassroots watchdog organization which will fight back against wasteful and bad policies in towns and cities. .“We’re seeing an increasing amount of waste, inefficiency and nonsensical policies coming from municipal governments across Canada,” said Ambler, former MP for Mississauga-South, in a Monday press release. .“Our goal will be to persuade cities and towns to focus on efficient service, to deliver better quality of life for everyday working taxpayers.” .The release said municipal governments make significant policy decisions every day which have an impact on all Canadians. It said Municipal Watch will work to amplify people’s voices and hold municipal governments to account. .Municipal Watch will be speaking out on issues affecting people at the local level such as increasing municipal taxes, the growing number of government workers, and expensive policies which do not work. .Ambler said it is time to push back on municipal governments who overtax, overspend and over-regulate people. She added Municipal Watch is “going to stand up and make sure that the voices of concerned citizens are heard loudly and clearly.” .Municipal Watch encourages Canadians to highlight examples of municipal madness occurring in their towns and cities. It has begun engaging people through its website, municipalwatch.ca. .Ambler concluded by saying it will “take a joint effort for this initiative to succeed.”.“We need watchdogs everywhere to call out waste, inefficiency and nonsense so that we can work to change it,” she said. .The launch comes after a survey done by ThinkHQ Public Affairs in November suggested Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s approval rating sits at 35%, with 55% disapproving of her performance to date..READ MORE: Gondek's approval in record low territory.People rating Calgary city council gave it 50% thumbs down, compared to 35% thumbs up..“In fact, we’ve never seen public sentiment towards mayor and councillors at these levels in Calgary before,” said ThinkHQ President Marc Henry.
