While the lower half of his face remained hidden under his trademark purple mask, you could still see the fury and frustration in Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s eyes last Friday..Nenshi and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson were confident they were going to be able to stick it to Premier Jason Kenney. While the premier invested political capital into Alberta’s July 1st reopening by declaring it would be “the best summer ever,” the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton wanted to make sure that it was anything but. They felt if municipalities refused to play ball with the provincial reopening they would look like heroes in standing up to a premier who wanted to put us all at risk through his lifting of pandemic restrictions..The big city mayors assumed they would be able to keep municipal mask bylaws active despite all provincial restrictions having been lifted. Albertans sweltering under face masks through the hottest months would be having anything but the best summer ever. The mayors were counting on Albertans taking out their ire on the premier for what they surely would frame as being an irresponsible man who is putting us all at risk in trying to open us up “early,” despite reopening nearly half-a-year after Texas and Florida did so without mass deaths..Then due to an unanticipated vote by the Edmonton city council, the plan fell apart..While Nenshi managed to squeak out a 7-7 tie vote from the city council that managed to maintain Calgary’s mask bylaw, Edmonton’s city council rose up and finally quashed their local bylaw. One by one, other major municipalities voted to drop their mask bylaws once Edmonton broke ranks with Nenshi. Even Banff – that had been forcing people to wear masks outdoors – rescinded its mask bylaw, albeit grudgingly. Now, rather than having more than half Alberta’s citizens bound by municipal mask mandates, Calgary stands alone. And from the sounds of it, most Calgarians are not going to be happy with it..By every measure, COVID-19 is in full retreat in Alberta, even more so than when temperatures rose last summer. Daily infection rates are in the dozens while hospitals and ICUs are emptying of COVID-19 patients. Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced that she will no longer need to provide updates as we are no longer in a state of emergency. Dr. Hinshaw made a point of noting in her final speech that we can put people at risk of harm with extended restrictions and they do indeed come at a cost. The doomsayers who predicted massive spikes in infections when Alberta reached stage two of the reopening were wrong. Still, there are no signs that Calgary plans to lift its mask mandate any time soon..Nenshi isn’t running for re-election as mayor. His sights are likely set towards Ottawa (perhaps a comfy Senate appointment) and he isn’t afraid of sacrificing his own city’s well-being and comfort in hopes of scoring political points against Kenney and the UCP. This political play appears to be backfiring, but Nenshi is in full stubborn form with this issue. He’s a dog with a bone and he won’t back down until forced to do so. Luckily, the choice may be taken out of Nenshi’s hands soon..Calgary’s mask bylaw is technically in effect until the end of 2021. Calgary’s city council is meeting July 5th in order to revisit the mask bylaw. While city administration and Mayor Nenshi want the mask mandate extended until at least the end of July, councilors who are facing the electorate this fall may not want this issue hanging over their heads any longer..While councilors Jyoti Gondek, Diane Colley-Urquhart, George Chahal and Giancarlo Carra all recently supported Nenshi’s push to keep the city mask bylaw, they may be reconsidering that stance now. All of those aforementioned councillors are running for re-election (or promotion to mayor) soon and antagonizing the electorate right now isn’t good politics. Nenshi only needs to lose one supporter on council on the 5th of July and Calgary will finally be mask free, albeit nearly a week after the rest of the province..And even if no councillor flips, the continued mask mandate will likely be about as meaningful as old laws still on the books against witchcraft. In many businesses across Calgary, patrons have stopped wearing masks, and many owners and employees are not enforcing them. As Calgary becomes the only jurisdiction in Alberta to continue forcing the issue, Calgarians will increasingly refuse to comply..While Banff’s mayor clearly was not happy with ending mask mandates, she understood the law was simply not enforceable once the rest of the province is mask-free. Calgary will be no better on July 1st. It has been difficult to get convictions on mask bylaw violations as it is. It will be nearly impossible to get convictions on those violations when it’s legal to be unmasked everywhere else in the province. Citizens are going to ignore the mask bylaw and I suspect police and bylaw officers will not be eager to waste time on enforcement. Calgary has an addiction epidemic our law enforcement professionals would rather dedicate time and resources towards..Masks have become a symbol of the pandemic. They represent the state’s control over our actions and even our appearance. Masks are uncomfortable and dehumanizing. They shield us from communicating with each other effectively whether through speech or facial expression. Mask laws are not a minor infringement upon our rights though some authoritarians try to paint them that way. People can choose to wear masks voluntarily for decades if they like. Using the force of law to make us wear them has to end now though..It’s time to formally unmask Calgary, even if it involves dragging Mayor Nenshi back into city hall to get it done..Cory Morgan is the Alberta Political Columnist for the Western Standard and Host of the Cory Morgan Show
