Election Handbook “oops”
By now every potential Calgary Municipal Election candidate who has picked up a nomination package from the City should have received the following letter. The letter informs candidates of an error in the handbook that was part of their nomination package.
An “oops” to be sure, but no harm, no foul, right? I’ll give you one guess as to what Sections 147.3(1) (a), (b) and (c) of the Local Authorities Election Act deals with. If you have been following the relationship between the municipalities and the Province at all for the past three years you probably guessed right away: campaign finances.
Here is specifically what that section of the act says:
So what does this little “oops” mean?
At first glance it looks like it means that all bets are off and there are no campaign contribution limits. This is however not the case. Section 147.2 of the Act deals with limitations and it is in full effect still.
All this mistake means is that you don’t need to keep your campaign monies in a bank account. Sock it away under your mattress for all the Provincial Government cares.
Presumably these clauses have not been proclaimed because incumbents (and potentially others) who were fundraising for a run before April 22, 2010 would find it difficult to undertake the full letter of the law if they had already been spending funds prior to that date. 147.3(1) (c) being the hardest to do if you’ve already spent money on non-campaign related expenses prior to that date.
I expect the Premier to ask the Lieutenant Governor to proclaim these clauses within days of the October 18, 2010 municipal elections so as to ensure no more ‘gray periods’ can exist.
Read the entire Local Authorities Election Act visit the Queen’s Printer here: http://www.qp.alberta.ca/574.cfm?page=L21.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=9780779747795
Learn more about the process/history of 2010 Bill 9 including reading dates and Hansard links here: http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=bills_status&selectbill=009
Cross-posted to CalgaryPolitics.com
CBC Radio column: Rough Landing
In this alberta@noon column on CBC Radio One with host Donna McElligott I talk about Steven Slater’s JetBlue outburst following an encounter with a rude customer and the online fallout, including how quickly news spread, the reactions, and how the media used social media such as Myspace, Facebook and LinkedIn in their reporting.
Original: http://www.cbc.ca/albertaatnoon/columnists/techguy/2010/08/10/rough-landing/
Metro column: No more excuses for being uninformed
Filed under: Calgary, Metro Column, Politics, Technology
Starting today, I’ll be writing a weekly column aimed at giving you more of the story-behind-the-story around the issues and the candidates.
I hope you’ll read this section each Friday as I try to break down more barriers to voter participation. Goal: Engage Calgary voters.
In 1998 voter turnout for the Calgary municipal election was 46 per cent. In 2001, the last time we had an open mayoral race in Calgary, it dropped to 38 per cent before plummeting to 19 per cent in 2004.
In 2007 we saw a rebound with a turnout of 33 per cent. Most analysts and pundits are suggesting the turnout for this October’s election will increase again to above 40 per cent.
What is causing this increase? The simple answer is: You are.
There are many excuses for not voting, many of them easy to overcome. The number 1 excuse on this list: The voter feels ill-informed — not knowing who to vote for on election day.
It’s tough in an election for any media outlet to dedicate as much time as is necessary to cover all the races in Calgary. Leading up to Oct. 18 you will see them dissect the mayoral race, but there just aren’t enough pages in a paper to cover all 14 aldermanic races in the same way. And forget about the 14 school board trustee elections.
I don’t buy the rationale put forward by some that people aren’t engaged or interested in these races, too. Maybe we just haven’t been given proper access to the information we need to feel engaged.
Some great resources are already popping up online to tell you everything you need to know about a candidate. CalgaryDemocracy.ca is a one-stop shop to find more info on who is running in your area, their platform and contact information.
For the first election in Calgary’s history, it’s fair to say that if a candidate doesn’t have a website, they won’t win a seat. In 2010 it’s become so easy to Google someone’s name that if you can’t find info about them, then they’re not getting your vote. The majority of candidates also have Facebook and Twitter accounts to make your information search much easier.
Let’s not forget about the bloggers, picking up where mainstream media leave off. A team of seven local political bloggers — of which I am one — are promising to delve deeper into the races providing more insight at CalgaryPolitics.com.
Metro is also looking to help you make your decision, too.
The excuses for not voting are starting to disappear. Break down the information barrier so you, too, are an informed voter.
Original: http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/local/article/596371–no-more-excuses-for-being-uninformed
What most needs doing?
What most needs doing?
This is the big question I learned to ask myself as a result of my time in Leadership Calgary. I find the question helps zero your efforts in on the most important aspects of whatever project you are working on and has the added benefit of stripping away the seeming importance of anything extraneous. Those who spend a lot of time with me have probably heard me ask myself, and others, this many times over the last few months.
It is also the question I had to ask myself following my “If you want me to run for alderman…” blog post.
The response to the post was incredible. We had about 100 people sign up telling me exactly what it was that they were willing to do to help out, others responded via email and phone willing to lend their time and services to the campaign (including a few people I’ve never even met before) and we had many offers of donations. With this kind of outpouring from nothing more than a blog post and an email, I’m confident we have enough volunteers and funds to run the kind of campaign my team wants to.
But I have to ask myself “What most needs doing?” Is the answer: DJ on city council?
The more I examined this question over the past month, the more I realized that what most needs doing is not only having people who believe in the kind of public engagement I believe in sitting in City Hall, but also having people who believe in the kind of public engagement I believe in helping create more people who want to, and know how to, become engaged. Politicians will try to tell you this is their job, but even a tertiary look will tell you they are forced to spend the majority of their time managing expectations and making decisions. Meaningful public engagement may be something they want to do, but it rarely is something they have time to do at the level I believe we need.
After thinking about it long and hard for the past month, I believe I don’t need to be on council to help improve Calgary in a meaningful way. I believe I may be able to do more good for the City of Calgary and Calgarians by filling the role of community leader and engaged citizen.
You’ll be hearing more from me following the election about what kinds of public engagement activities I plan to undertake in the future, but I imagine what most people want to know right now is “if you are not running for alderman, then what will you be doing?”
It’s an excellent question. I plan on leaving my job this month as originally planned, and I will be dedicating the next two and a half months to raising awareness around issues I think are important and holding candidates to task by helping raise the level of discourse around the election. I have had a number of very interesting opportunities present themselves and I am eager for what lies ahead.
Some of the details of the projects I’ll be working on are stilling being ironed out, but here is a sneak peek:
- I have accepted an offer to write a weekly column about the municipal election with Metro Calgary. Look for the first one in this Friday’s edition. In my column I’ll try to take a slightly different angle on informing voters than you might have come to expect from traditional media.
- CalgaryPolitics.com is taking off with considerable force and becoming a premier site for insight and thoughtful commentary and critique on the election. We are getting multiple requests for interviews each week and the importance of the type of detailed investigation we hope to do on this site can’t be replicated elsewhere. I’ll be building out CalgaryPolitics.com into a major information source leading to Election Day. We have all kinds of great plans for this group, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
- I have returned to the CivicCamp Governance group where I plan on helping lead the organization of one mayoral and 14 aldermanic forums. This is a massive undertaking and I can’t think of another group who has tried to do such a thing in the past; nor a group that is better suited to do it.
I am excited about the future and new opportunities, and want to thank everyone who encouraged me to run for Alderman. I would have loved the challenge of a campaign, engaging one-on-one with voters and most importantly bring a new type of civic engagement to city council. I certainly am not ruling out a future campaign; however I believe that at this point in time, we need this high level of engagement across Calgary and not only within a single Ward. I look forward to working with and for Calgarians, increasing public engagement and putting my passion towards these and other projects.
For those of you that were interested in being involved in my campaign, I urge you to get involved in the election, stay engaged and informed on the issues, and most importantly get out to vote on Election Day. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you in making Calgary a great place, to live, work, play, and be a citizen of.
Here we go…
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