Tag Archives: Diane Colley-Urquhart

Is Nenshi’s Chief of staff leaking city documents for political gain?

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On Friday the Globe and Mail did a detailed article on the City of Calgary’s negotiations with the Calgary Flames based on some documents that had found their way to them. 

The release of these documents certainly helps in the polarized campaign where Mayor Nenshi has been battling with the Calgary Flames group over reaching a possible deal on a new arena.

Now according to city councilor Diane Colley-Uquhart, only Chima Nkemdirim (Nenshi’s Chief of Staff) negotiated thus would have had access to these documents.

If Chima Nkemdirim did indeed leak these confidential documents to the Globe and Mail, it is very serious business. This underscores yet again how terrible the Mayor’s antagonistic relationship with Calgary businesses is.

Ken King rightly was less than amused with the leak.

In the interview, Mr. King said it was “inappropriate” for someone to leak the document. “Somebody was playing fast and loose with their ethics and I think that’s a damn shame,” he said.

So how did the Globe just happen to get these documents just before a civic election?

Diane Colley-Urquhart feels that it should go to the integrity commissioner at the very least but that would only happen well past the election.

Perhaps this leak came from elsewhere. The damage is done though and the city looks even more inept and untrustworthy.

With Nenshi’s campaign on the rocks he has been showing increasing desperation as he even dropped the race card in hopes of gaining some sort of sympathy vote.

Has the Mayoral desperation now hit the point where his team will even leak confidential city documents in hopes of aiding his campaign?

We likely won’t be able to find out for sure until after the election but this adds yet another shadow to Nenshi’s already bleak looking campaign.

Calgary city councillors need to learn what their mandate is

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Some members of Calgary city council have been complaining for some time now that they are overworked and that we need more city councillors to help share the burden. As is often the case, I have to call bullshit. If anything, Calgary city councillors have too much time on their hands. How else can we explain the amount of time that they dedicate to myopic pet projects that are way outside of their mandate and jurisdiction as a council?

Brian Pincott wants to ban fire pits and end the odious trend of apparent light pollution as well as banning people from cutting trees on their own property. Those all pale in comparison with the council time wasted trying to ban types of soup from restaurants however. With all those foolish initiatives, can we really believe that poor Brian doesn’t have enough time on his hands?

pinhead

Druh Farrell came up with the profoundly stupid “Bow River Flow” festival which was nothing more than an excuse to close a main road and poke a stick in the eyes of drivers. It failed terribly after a few seasons and thankfully was tossed in the dustbin.

druh

Diane Colley-Urquhart took on a pointless crusade against e-cigarettes which sadly has now been taken on by Mandel on a provincial level. I wonder if she opposes methadone treatment for addicts too or nicoderm patches?

dcu

City council now has a triumvirate of twits wasting council time trying to get rid of payday loan companies as they apparently prey on the poor. Can we assume that liquor stores, tobacconists, used car dealers and rent-to-own outfits will be targeted as well? Lower income people tend to make up a disproportionate portion of the client base of those businesses too.

What have all the idiotic, busybody initiatives above got in common?

None of the above pet projects of our supposedly overworked city councillors land within the mandate of city hall!!!!

Below I will quote directly from the Alberta Municipal Government Act. The act is hundreds of pages long but our esteemed councillors really only need to read one part. It is three simple lines and I will quote them below.

Purposes, Powers and Capacity of Municipalities
Municipal purposes
The purposes of a municipality are
(a) to provide good government,
(b) to provide services, facilities or other things that, in the opinion of council, are necessary or desirable for all or a part of the municipality, and
(c) to develop and maintain safe and viable communities.

There you have it folks. A very direct and simple mandate. Nothing about specifying which soups are legal or not. Nothing about banning things like e-cigarettes or regulating or punishing businesses that may be predominantly serving folks in the lower income bracket of society.

Every month we see at least one or two mind-blowingly foolish pet projects and initiatives from our city council in Calgary. It is galling that this collection of officials can waste so much time and money on these things and then whine about being overworked at the same time.

To Calgary city councillors: read those three lines that describe what your mandate is supposed to be. Follow those instructions! The workload will suddenly be reduced and we will get better government for it.

Sad that council will need to be directed to that act over and over again as they seem to think that they govern some sort of city state with huge, intrusive authority to govern our lifestyle or business choices. If they really want to build such a nanny state, may I suggest that our city council pursue federal seats in parliament as that is where such potential powers lie, not in city hall.

Keep gagging those MLAs Ed.

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The Stelmach caucus It is not terribly surprising. Despite having lost what would have been considered one of the PCs safest seats a couple weeks ago, Special Ed clearly has not learned a lesson from it. Ed was sent a message but the message fell on deaf ears. One of the turning points of the Calgary Glenmore by-election campaign was when Diane Colley-Urquhart stated at a forum that she would not put the interests of her constituents ahead of the interests of the party. While Diane was admirably honest in saying that, it killed her chances of winning the seat. People want representation. Is it really that confusing?

 We see now that Kyle Fawcett has been spanked for daring to speak up for his constituents.  Kyle will no doubt be hidden in the back benches for at least an entire term for his attempted show of integrity.

 It is so laughable (in a sad way) when PC candidates try to claim that the only way to get a voice in the legislature is to support the governing party. It is rather clear that the exact opposite is the reality.

 A vote for the PCs is simply a vote for the dictatorial judgement of Ed Stelmach. No PC MLA is allowed to speak for themselves or their constituents. This is pretty much a proven fact now. A vote for the PCs is nothing less than a wasted vote. One almost has to wonder why we have 83 seats? Why don’t we eliminate them and simply make one nice big throne for Ed?

 The Wildrose Alliance Party will allow MLAs to represent their constituents. It is clear that Albertans are realizing this as the party growth has been explosive.

 I do fear for how much damage Ed Stelmach will do to the province before Albertans get the next chance to replace him. I am happy though that the replacement for Ed and his tired party is well in the works.

Incapable of learning a lesson.

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 While Special Ed petulantly refuses to welcome Alberta’s latest member to the legislature, Diane Colley-Urquhart is displaying why she earned “also-ran” status and was blown away in the by-election and displaying that she has not a clue why.

 Here is one quote from Colley-Urquhart post-election:

“”I have no comment on the Wildrose Alliance party. I don’t know much about them at all,”

 OK so lets get this straight, after 28 days of campaigning you still don’t know much about the winning party. Wow, way to campaign with an informed plan. Your myopic ignorance of electoral trends served you well Diane.

 From further into the piece:

“She added she didn’t know why a majority of voters in the byelection gravitated toward the party, choosing it instead of the long-ruling Tories and the established Liberals. She suggested reporters ask voters.”

 How profound! Diane, listen to yourself. You had a month to ask the voters and clearly you did not. In your arrogance you told the voters rather than actually listened to them. Now you are essentially blaming the voters for not choosing such a great candidate as you feel you are.

 Diane you are the Queen of acclamation. I suspect that in a year from now you will not be given a free ride as you have in past municipal elections. If you continue to pout, you will not learn anything from this electoral experience and may very well find yourself completely unemployed in a little more than a year. You have no government job to hedge your electoral bets in the municipal elections, I suggest that you spend this year studying why you were so soundly defeated in what was considered a safe seat for you.

 No need to thank me for the advice Diane. 🙂

Calgary Glenmore Forum.

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 Well at least Diane came out and said it outright. Diane Colley-Urquhart will not take a stand on behalf of her constituents, she will take her orders from Ed Stelmach even if it adversely effects Calgary Glenmore.

 It is refreshing seeing a candidate being so open about her self/party interest.

 I think it can be safely concluded that it is rather pointless for the voters in Calgary Glenmore to send yet another hogtied seal from the Progressive Conservative Party to the legislature.