🎪 Danielle Smith's puppet municipal political party has launched in Calgary

Danielle Smith and the UCP's goal of electing a puppet city council in Calgary became a step closer to reality yesterday with the launch of the "Communities First" municipal political party led by current Danielle Smith besties: city councillors Sonya Sharp and Dan McLean. The party's ranks so far also include current councillors Terry Wong, Andre Chabot, and former suburban developer and alderman John Mar.

🐏 Expanding rural control over the daily lives of Calgarians

Danielle Smith and the UCP's targeted introduction of municipal political parties in Calgary and Edmonton is an obvious attempt to stack the two city councils with pliant politicians and give the rural Take Back Alberta-controlled UCP and Danielle Smith even more control over the daily lives of Calgarians and our tax dollars. It is a blow to local democracy and was solidly rejected by Albertans.

💬 Hypocrisy and the city

In November 2023, Councillor Sharp claimed she was opposed to municipal parties: "You should be running grassroots campaigns to serve your constituents in your ward or serve Calgarians as a whole."

While Dan McLean ran in the last election on a platform championing municipal politics with "no political parties involved" today he parrots the UCP's anti-democratic agenda in Calgary.

🛩️ Councillors have track record of putting billionaires first and pushing austerity on the rest of us

💸Subsidizing a new arena for billionaires

The two sitting city councillors most likely to lead this party, Sonya Sharp and Dan McLean, infamously spearheaded the $831-million public subsidy to build a new arena for the billionaire Flames owners, including one of the richest billionaires in Canada.

The two later led a group of councillors in a failed push for harsh austerity cuts to funding for the most vulnerable Calgarians struggling with affordability, mental health and addictions to help pay for the proposed subsidies to fund unnecessary new sprawl developments in the 2024 and 2025 budgets.

Cllr Dan McLean and Premier Danielle Smith celebrate the announcement of the $1.2-billion subsidy to build a new arena for the billionaire Flames owners.

💸Subsidizing sprawl and gatekeeping new housing

Image source: Government of Alberta

Despite the clear case for requiring developers to pay their fair share of new infrastructure,  Sharp and McLean have voted to prioritize the profits of wealthy suburban developers over improving affordability for Calgarians living in existing communities. All of the sitting councillors in this party continue to oppose investment in more housing in existing neighbourhoods in favour of more costly sprawl developments. At a time when the city is struggling to maintain existing infrastructure, they are quietly pushing to spread city resources even thinner.

💸Gutting the Green Line

Green Line opponents address City Council, June 26, 2019 (Image source: Sprawl Calgary).

On the Green Line, Sharp and McLean have echoed those of an affluent special interest group's attacks on the project's plans created through years of public engagement with Calgarians and designed by hundreds of transit experts working with the City of Calgary. They have stood silently while Alberta's Minister of Drinking at Work mangles the Green Line and reduces it to an expensive stub.

🏛️Local democracy is under attack

Image source: City of Calgary

In the coming four years, an independent local government in Calgary will be crucial to saving our public funds from being diverted to elitist millionaires and billionaires, and to ensure the city becomes more livable for everyone.

The next city council will decide whether to:

• sell off land adjacent the new arena to the billionaire Calgary Flames owners at potentially discounted below-market prices;
• approve and subsidize even more new sprawl developments to the tune of $100's of millions on the edge of the city while infrastructure in existing communities deteriorates;
• gatekeep building of more housing in Calgary or allow re-investment and growth within existing communities;
• stand up to Danielle Smith and push back against the UCP's government overreach and increasing attacks on local democracy.

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