Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says she faces animosity when being in public and warns that making her afraid does not help her do her job.Gondek faces a recall petition, for which organizers have fewer than 60 days to collect more than 500,000 signatures. The mayor has a 30% approval rating and faces criticism for a 7.8% property tax increase and a densification bylaw designed to address the city's housing crunch. In a discussion with Ryan Jespersen on his Real Talk channel, Gondek gets into the recall petition, her public squabble with Councillor Dan McLean, her low approval rating, the quick repeal of Calgary's single-use items bylaw, transit safety, and an apparent looming wildfire season.In a revealing segment posted to Instagram, Gondek said she is concerned for herself and her family and regrets the polarization in her city.."I've had experiences over the last week where people are emboldened to come up right in my face to tell me what they think of me. I've had people send their bill over to me in a restaurant to say the mayor can pay this. People just feel like they can do and say anything they want to. It can be unnerving.""I've said it before. I'll say it again: When you strike fear into elected officials, you're not doing anybody any favours. What you're doing is making their job that much more difficult.""And we don't talk about fear because we're trying to say, 'Yeah, it didn't bother me.' You do feel it. Never mind the individual — the whole family sits at home and wonders, 'Are you going to be okay? Are you going to make it home?'""It's considerably more intense and it's just ratcheted up over time.""My optimism when I came in that we would get past polarization and back to balance — that hasn't happened. And that continues to concern me. In fact, I'm seeing us getting more and more polarized as a society."The full episode follows below, of which the first forty minutes concerns Gondek.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says she faces animosity when being in public and warns that making her afraid does not help her do her job.Gondek faces a recall petition, for which organizers have fewer than 60 days to collect more than 500,000 signatures. The mayor has a 30% approval rating and faces criticism for a 7.8% property tax increase and a densification bylaw designed to address the city's housing crunch. In a discussion with Ryan Jespersen on his Real Talk channel, Gondek gets into the recall petition, her public squabble with Councillor Dan McLean, her low approval rating, the quick repeal of Calgary's single-use items bylaw, transit safety, and an apparent looming wildfire season.In a revealing segment posted to Instagram, Gondek said she is concerned for herself and her family and regrets the polarization in her city.."I've had experiences over the last week where people are emboldened to come up right in my face to tell me what they think of me. I've had people send their bill over to me in a restaurant to say the mayor can pay this. People just feel like they can do and say anything they want to. It can be unnerving.""I've said it before. I'll say it again: When you strike fear into elected officials, you're not doing anybody any favours. What you're doing is making their job that much more difficult.""And we don't talk about fear because we're trying to say, 'Yeah, it didn't bother me.' You do feel it. Never mind the individual — the whole family sits at home and wonders, 'Are you going to be okay? Are you going to make it home?'""It's considerably more intense and it's just ratcheted up over time.""My optimism when I came in that we would get past polarization and back to balance — that hasn't happened. And that continues to concern me. In fact, I'm seeing us getting more and more polarized as a society."The full episode follows below, of which the first forty minutes concerns Gondek.
