Canada's Mayors and Councils

[Echoes]

Tell us about the Mayor and City Council in your community.

Municipal elections were held across Saskatchewan last night, and I understand they were held in Nova Scotia earlier this month, and New Brunswick back in the spring of this year. A number of provinces go to the polls next year.

So, this may be a good time to discuss the faces, new and old, past, present (and future?) that lead our municipalities.

• Your city's greatest mayor? Worst mayor?
• Current and past Councils' greatest accomplishments?
• Biggest gaffes and controversies? (I know, I know - Rob Ford)
• The quirkiest, most unique, and interesting people leading your city?
• The most inspiring? Visionary?
• Biggest crimes against urbanity committed?
• Greatest triumphs for urbanism?
• Rising stars and prospects for the future?

....and literally anything else.

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I'll start, because I'm so freaking excited for my city right now. There's something going on with Canada's prairie cities electing urban, progressive mayors as of late. First there was Nenshi, then Iveson, and Bowman...

Last night, Saskatoon elected a 42 year old inner-city dwelling, bicycle riding, urban progressive named Charlie Clark. Tagged by SK right-wing radio as "Bike Lane Charlie", he brought down four term incumbent, chronic Pride Parade skipper, and King of the Old White Boys Club (and Saskatoon's longest serving Mayor), Don Atchison, known colloquially as "Atch". Final votes tallied, he won with a lead of just 3000 votes.

Clark ran on a platform of curbing urban sprawl, building up the downtown and inner city, and introducing bus rapid transit, among other things.

His was a campaign that caught fire on social media like no municipal campaign in Saskatoon ever has. It was an election that mobilized young voters like never before, and results were delayed until long after polls had closed due to reported lineups of up to an hour (even in impoverished inner city areas with notoriously low voter turnout). The overall turnout was still only about 40% in a bit of a WTF?!

In a video released last-minute yesterday that broke Saskatoon's internet, Zach Galifianakis endorsed Clark in a hilarious and grainy self-shot video from a California roadside (he's married to Clark's cousin).

Fittingly, Clark's victory party was held at Saskatoon's famed indie rock bar, Amigo's. It's a good thing that the fire inspector didn't show, because no concert has ever filled that place like this party did. The roof blew off when it was announced that Atch had conceded defeat, and then the roof blew off again when Charlie showed to make his victory speech. Complete strangers sharing toasts, hugs, and tears. Then a DJ spun tunes and people danced into the night. It was incredible.

Mayor-Elect Charlie Clark


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Don Atchison


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Another freaking exciting thing. For the first time, Saskatoon City Council now consists of a majority of women! (But it's still far too white.)


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I'm excited for my city's future.

[Marshal]

I can't say too much, but across the Lower Mainland, and especially in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and the Tri-Cities our municipal governments are currently struggling to be competent.

On the bureaucratic side, they function well enough, though mistakes and procedural screw-ups are common. Their biggest problem is that they spend too much energy figuring out new ways to overextend their jurisdictional reach.

Mayors and councils are way too full of incompetence . . . people without the tools, information or education required to tackle large scale issues. Its definitely a C+ world here. The politics gets in the way, even when formulating and deciding upon completely nonpolitical issues. They also most often show an inability to think and prioritize across the region, and then work together to the benefit of the region. They also spend too much of their time trying to expand the range of the scope of what they control, making numerous bylaws which are not within their legal pervue.

I won't even speak of the incompetence of local school boards, and to a lesser extent park boards.

I have to work with these people all the time. It is often a challenge. If this seems like a bitch session, its isn't. It is a statement of what is a difficult state of affairs. It is a statement of complaint. But, I am a professional serving my clients, and that means working with these governments in the best most productive way possible. Experience and skill, along with personal relationships, helps us navigate the regulatory process, and the stupidities that sometimes accompany it. "You can't fight City Hall." Well, I think you can, but no one has the time or desire. So, we all get what we allow . . . and so we work with them in as pleasant a way as possible.

There are two things that anger me. First is the endless over-extension. Second, is that municipal government is the least democratic level of government existing. This I will have to just leave at that. Beyond that, it is what it is. Thankfully there is a big enough, and robust enough, complex of established law (by-law) and procedure that even Mayor Moonbeam can't stop Vancouver from progressing along well enough.

[A little example of things: New Westminster has a relatively new Mayor. As a Councillor, he accomplished his Masters in Planning at SFU. Congrats. That should have put him in a good position to get an entry level job, or to go on to his PhD. But he became Mayor. In short order, he sold himself as some kind of expert in planning. And the bill of goods was bought by the media, the public, and other municipal politicians. He is now a 'powerful' respected voice of planning expertise in the region. From the views and opinions he puts forth, I am guessing his Master's Thesis earned something in the C+ range.]

[1overcosc]

Kingston has this odd tendency of electing great councillors and shitty mayors.