Five candidates and one debate: Mayoral candidates gather to debate at Werklund Centre
Khaoula Choual, Staff Writer
The countdown is on for the municipal election, scheduled for Oct. 20. The Jack Singer Concert Hall hosted a debate on Oct. 8, featuring five out of the nine mayoral candidates: incumbent Mayor Jyoti Gondek, Jeremy Farkas, Brian Thiessen, Sonya Sharp, and Jeff Davison.
However, a debate for discourse among candidates quickly turned into pointing fingers at each other, with the main topics focusing on safety for the growing number of Calgarians.
At the beginning of the debate during the opening arguments, Gondek stated that candidates should not pick and choose between different issues. Instead, issues that Calgarians face should be a priority for the city’s residents.
“Strong cities, just like strong leaders, don’t choose between fixing what is in front of them or building what is next. We don’t choose between affordability and achievement or safety and innovation, we do both,” Gondek said.
Safety in Calgary
In Calgary, 82 per cent of citizens believe safety has declined in the downtown core area, while 71 per cent believe it has bled city-wide. For Sharp, safety is her top priority.
Sharp’s campaign calls for hiring 500 new police officers and establishing a downtown police station that operates 24/7. She also spoke about decentralising the drop-in centre.
“If you don’t have a safe city, you have nothing,” said Sharp. “If we don’t keep our downtown safe, how would we ever expect our downtown to thrive?”
For Davison, his campaign is bringing a pilot program to Calgary.
“I think we have the brightest minds in the world here,” said Davison.
Davison wants to bring all three orders of government together: municipal, provincial, and federal. He hoped to discuss mental health and addiction at a provincial and federal level through bail reform, as well as from a municipal perspective regarding policing. Davison also wanted to focus on collaboration for safety in the Calgary community, rather than just the downtown area, and aims to encompass the entire city.
For Gondek, safety means ensuring there is an integration response model. She also focuses on collaboration with peace officers and outreach teams, working closely together to address criminal issues while implementing crisis intervention, and additionally, a bylaw to ban open drug use.
“We started to see improvement in public safety downtown,” said Gondek.
Farkas wants to implement a safety plan called Built for Belonging, which merges compassion and enforcement. He also wants to reopen the downtown police station and expand social programs addressing the root causes of crime.
“If people don’t feel safe, nothing really matters,” said Farkas.
Thiessen wants a combination of safety and social support in his campaign. He wants to integrate a 24/ 7 mental health and addiction centre, housing the homeless and prioritise funding for those programs. He also wants to propose “real bylaws” against open drug use.
The rebuttal
In a rebuttal during the debate, Davison asked Gondek why she had suddenly developed plans for the city.
“Where have you been for four years?” asked Davison.
Safety was not the only concern in the debate. The question of arts and infrastructure arose in the debate concerning investments in the arts. The new arena was a concern for Farkas.
Farkas criticised Gondek’s arena deal, which, in turn, Gondek said Farkas was too fearful to make investments and not “understanding how things work” when it comes to arts and vibrancy.
According to Gondek, the arena attracted three hotel deals. She described it as a necessity for bringing tourism to Calgary.
The new arena is for the Calgary Flames. The initial cost was over $500 million, and now it has a price tag of $1.2 billion.
By the end of the event, all candidates brought their perspective with their position on taxes, small business, the tech industry and infrastructure.
With only a couple of days left. Calgarians have to make a decision on who their next mayor is on Oct. 20. For more information on where and how to vote, visit www.electionscalgary.ca/home.
