Achi news desk-
A few days after the Alberta government announced that it would allow political parties at the municipal level in Edmonton and Calgary, one has already been formed, announcing that they will run candidates in the next election.
Transparent and Active Partnerships Edmonton, known as TAPYeg, announced its intention after the provincial government introduced Bill 20 last week.
The proposed law by Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government would give the cabinet broad authority to fire councillors, overturn local bylaws and allow political parties to run in municipal elections – for now in Calgary and Edmonton, the two largest cities Alberta.
Those who oppose Bill 20 say that it could lead to provincial intervention and politicians following a party line instead of representing the views of the area of the city they have been elected to serve.
“I think those are all fair comments, but we accept parties as a really important part of democracy, both provincially and federally,” said local businessman Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson, president of TAPYeg. “The fact that it doesn’t somehow contribute to the exercise of democracy is civic, I can’t reconcile those things.”
“I think this is a healthy democratic experiment.”
Originally from Vancouver, which along with Montreal has been one of only two cities in Canada to have municipal political parties for decades, Hansen-Carlson has experience of seeing how they work at the local level and after moved to Edmonton 14 years ago, he has wondered why local parties aren’t a thing here.
Hansen-Carlson has a background in politics and business and project development in companies such as EllisDon. He has also spent time serving on the board of the Downtown Recovery Task Force and is vice chair of the Parkland County economic development committee.
Hansen-Carlson was the president and CEO of the closed Prairie Sky gondola project. About a year ago, he decided to bring together like-minded friends and started building the political party.
The province’s move last week gave TAPYeg more legitimacy.
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“We had no idea this bill was coming,” said Hansen-Carlson, adding that although TAPYeg had notified the ministry of civic affairs of its activities out of respect, it did not know the bill would come to fruition. . “We were not involved in this. It was serendipitous.”
TAPYeg calls itself a “party of city builders” that does not sit on one defined part of the political spectrum.
“We don’t want to define ourselves as right or left or centre. We have a big tent in the middle for people who are excited by their ideas and really want to go out and make them.”
TAPYeg wants to elect seven of its candidates to the 13 spots (12 councilors and mayor) on Edmonton city council during the next municipal election in 2025.
Hansen-Carlson said the platform will evolve and grow as more people join the party, but currently has four focus areas: value for your tax investment, peace and order in communities, restarting the relationship of the city with the state, and a concept called “the Department of Ideas.”
“My favorite idea for a platform is the ‘Ideas Section’ because one of the things about TAP is that it is an ideas-driven and action-oriented organisation. We thought like, let’s formalize this, right? Let’s start a team in the city whose sole purpose is to enable good ideas,” said Hansen-Carlson.
The party is building a platform for candidates to run on if Bill 20 is passed, which will not happen all but in the UCP majority-controlled Alberta legislature.
“I think people are hard-wired to want to be a part of something,” Hansen-Carlson said. “That is absent in political politics in this city and I think this is one of the main reasons why we are so generally ineffective.”
Hansen-Carlson believes that having more people unite behind a common platform would make local government more efficient.
“I think the power, the influence, the structure and the predictability that comes with a party – and people being able to be part of it – is going to help the city move forward.”
Political analyst John Brennan said that the idea of local political parties has been discussed for some time now in the province, although it is not a popular idea: Alberta Municipalities conducted a survey of its members and accepted that it was not nearly unanimous, while that the province itself also conducted a survey survey which found that 70 per cent of Albertans do not want political parties at the municipal level.
Brennan said introducing them only in Edmonton and Calgary was a political move.
“You know, it’s no secret that there’s been a lot of friction between Danielle Smith and the two big cities in Alberta,” he said, adding that he believed the UCP wanted more conservative candidates pushing for city councils .
“That will give them the opportunity to get rid of the progressive left-of-centre mayors in Edmonton and Calgary and perhaps change the composition of the two city councils.”
Although TAPYeg is the first out, Brennan believes that other parties from all parts of the political spectrum will soon emerge.
“We are probably going to see several political parties being formed and they are going to find a platform that all the people who organized these political parties can agree on.”
The idea is not entirely new in Edmonton. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brennan said like-minded candidates ran for mayor in Edmonton. Brennan expects that any future parties would follow a similar model.
“They ran a slate of candidates across all the wards and said, ‘These are all the policy platforms we all support and we all stand behind.’
Brennan said civic parties could change how a councilor represents his constituents and won’t necessarily lead to more civilized politics.
“It’s definitely going to take away from a councillor’s focus on their ward and for better or worse, the focus will be more on a series of policies and a platform that all these people can agree on, and so they will have more city-wide focus on general issues.”
“But it might make things easier for some Edmontonians when they’re deciding who to support.”
Bill 20 came more than two weeks after the Smith government introduced other legislation that would give it the power to veto any agreement between the federal government and provincial entities, including municipalities and post-secondary schools.
The next municipal election will be held in 2025.
— With files from The Canadian Press
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
