The question incumbent municipal politicians in Alberta should be asked as they rally in opposition to allowing political parties into municipal politics is: “What are you afraid of?”The case being made by Alberta's mayors, reeves and councillors in opposition to the proposed changes to the Local Authorities Election Act is that nobody wants to see parties in municipal politics. If indeed that is the case, then incumbent politicians should have nothing to worry about if the act is changed.They will easily be re-elected as independent candidates, right?The reality is that countless municipal politicians have been taking advantage of the lack of party politics at the municipal level coupled with the apathy of voters to get elected under false pretenses. With no means of vetting through a party nomination process, candidates can disguise themselves as conservative-minded people when running for office. Upon election, they tack hard-left and the frustrated electorate tends to just stay home rather than vote the pretenders out of office. Former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi is a prime example of that.Municipal politics in Alberta are a mess. Councils are fractured and at each other’s throats while frustrated voters try things such as recall initiatives to get rid of these terrible politicians. In Chestermere, the province had to step in and fire the mayor and council as they were too nutty to try and bring to a reasonable state of functional order.Would a party system cure all these ills in the municipal system? No, it wouldn’t. It sure would help though.If candidates have a party allegiance tied to them, people can quickly get an idea of where the candidate stands ideologically. Parties typically have a nomination process before endorsing candidates. If the nomination is contested, we can rest assured that closet socialists are exposed before they hit the ballot in the general election. Some of the less than mentally stable contenders for the job can be weeded out as well.Many good candidates for office lose elections because they don’t know how to run in them and don’t have an organization behind them to help them. With parties, candidates have a structure and a potential team to help them effectively contest the election. Costs in campaigning can be reduced as candidates can share costs on things such as branding, communications, printing and even campaign office space. With a party apparatus, candidates with limited campaign experience can still compete effectively for the role.Parties can hold candidates accountable between elections. Much like in other levels of government, a party can’t remove a person from their elected position, nor should they be able to. A party can refuse to endorse a candidate for the next election if the candidate deviates too far from the shared principles held by the party though.That ability does reflect one of the potential downsides of a party system. Candidates could find themselves more inclined to answer to the party than to their constituents. It is a risk that should be mitigated through party policies when municipal parties are formed. Representatives need leeway to be able to represent the needs of their individual constituencies rather than always toeing a party line. A suburban councillor will have different priorities than an inner-city urban councillor would and they should have the flexibility to represent those differences. With city and town councils having a small number of people within them, traditional party politics with things such as whipped votes won’t work. Those problems can and would be ironed out with an effective party though.We can’t pretend that parties don’t exist in municipal politics already. Alberta unions put together a war chest of an estimated $1.7 million and gave it to a political action group called Calgary’s Future. The group’s purpose was to elect a certain slate of candidates in the municipal election. Most of the candidates endorsed by the unions won their seats. That’s a party system in municipal politics by any measure. We would be better served to make the system official and make the parties transparent.Many of the municipal politicians currently howling over the advent of a party system in Alberta’s municipal elections got elected with union support. They know full well they likely couldn’t win re-election while wearing their union allegiance on their sleeves while competing with candidates running under a party banner. Their interest isn’t that of Albertans. It is in themselves.People often ask: “Why does Alberta vote conservatively federally and provincially yet elects far-left politicians at the municipal level?” The main reason is the lack of parties at the municipal level. Leftists know they can’t win through openly campaigning on their ideology so they have gravitated to a level of politics where they can hide their leanings. It has been an effective tactic on their part.Again, if Albertans truly don’t want party politics in municipal elections, then municipal politicians currently in power have nothing to worry about. Few would vote for those ghastly party endorsed politicians. So why are they so worried?
The question incumbent municipal politicians in Alberta should be asked as they rally in opposition to allowing political parties into municipal politics is: “What are you afraid of?”The case being made by Alberta's mayors, reeves and councillors in opposition to the proposed changes to the Local Authorities Election Act is that nobody wants to see parties in municipal politics. If indeed that is the case, then incumbent politicians should have nothing to worry about if the act is changed.They will easily be re-elected as independent candidates, right?The reality is that countless municipal politicians have been taking advantage of the lack of party politics at the municipal level coupled with the apathy of voters to get elected under false pretenses. With no means of vetting through a party nomination process, candidates can disguise themselves as conservative-minded people when running for office. Upon election, they tack hard-left and the frustrated electorate tends to just stay home rather than vote the pretenders out of office. Former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi is a prime example of that.Municipal politics in Alberta are a mess. Councils are fractured and at each other’s throats while frustrated voters try things such as recall initiatives to get rid of these terrible politicians. In Chestermere, the province had to step in and fire the mayor and council as they were too nutty to try and bring to a reasonable state of functional order.Would a party system cure all these ills in the municipal system? No, it wouldn’t. It sure would help though.If candidates have a party allegiance tied to them, people can quickly get an idea of where the candidate stands ideologically. Parties typically have a nomination process before endorsing candidates. If the nomination is contested, we can rest assured that closet socialists are exposed before they hit the ballot in the general election. Some of the less than mentally stable contenders for the job can be weeded out as well.Many good candidates for office lose elections because they don’t know how to run in them and don’t have an organization behind them to help them. With parties, candidates have a structure and a potential team to help them effectively contest the election. Costs in campaigning can be reduced as candidates can share costs on things such as branding, communications, printing and even campaign office space. With a party apparatus, candidates with limited campaign experience can still compete effectively for the role.Parties can hold candidates accountable between elections. Much like in other levels of government, a party can’t remove a person from their elected position, nor should they be able to. A party can refuse to endorse a candidate for the next election if the candidate deviates too far from the shared principles held by the party though.That ability does reflect one of the potential downsides of a party system. Candidates could find themselves more inclined to answer to the party than to their constituents. It is a risk that should be mitigated through party policies when municipal parties are formed. Representatives need leeway to be able to represent the needs of their individual constituencies rather than always toeing a party line. A suburban councillor will have different priorities than an inner-city urban councillor would and they should have the flexibility to represent those differences. With city and town councils having a small number of people within them, traditional party politics with things such as whipped votes won’t work. Those problems can and would be ironed out with an effective party though.We can’t pretend that parties don’t exist in municipal politics already. Alberta unions put together a war chest of an estimated $1.7 million and gave it to a political action group called Calgary’s Future. The group’s purpose was to elect a certain slate of candidates in the municipal election. Most of the candidates endorsed by the unions won their seats. That’s a party system in municipal politics by any measure. We would be better served to make the system official and make the parties transparent.Many of the municipal politicians currently howling over the advent of a party system in Alberta’s municipal elections got elected with union support. They know full well they likely couldn’t win re-election while wearing their union allegiance on their sleeves while competing with candidates running under a party banner. Their interest isn’t that of Albertans. It is in themselves.People often ask: “Why does Alberta vote conservatively federally and provincially yet elects far-left politicians at the municipal level?” The main reason is the lack of parties at the municipal level. Leftists know they can’t win through openly campaigning on their ideology so they have gravitated to a level of politics where they can hide their leanings. It has been an effective tactic on their part.Again, if Albertans truly don’t want party politics in municipal elections, then municipal politicians currently in power have nothing to worry about. Few would vote for those ghastly party endorsed politicians. So why are they so worried?
