CalgaryLiberal

Again, again, and again candidates give the same spiel about accountability, experience, and transparency. So much so that, for a constant listener, those buzzwords lose their original meaning. Then, when a mayoral candidate actually comes out with a solution to back door deals and what is currently tantamount to corruption in other areas of the country I myself cannot help but listen and pay attention.

Kent Hehr (website), the anti-crime, pro-police, and smart-growth candidate, has promised to set up a lobbyist registry and push the details of who is meeting who at city hall online.

And why should Calgarians pay attention?

Remember rhat “Peace” Bridge? Back room dealing all the way and council attempting to spend “free” cash from the province that they hadn’t thought of where to spend it yet. As Rick Bell has a lot of poignant points about this bridge here.

Or, perhaps, the $30 million purchase of a $10 million golf course for housing… that cannot be developed for housing because of zoning issues? Almost twenty million is riding on the changing of zoning of the Shawnee Slopes Golf Course and the unwatched and hidden lobbying going on behind the scenes right now is enough to make a mafia boss blush.

Kent Hehr today has come out pledging to set up a lobbyist registry so that Calgarians know who is influencing who. Hehr notes that Ric McIver’s 2007 campaign was halfway covered by the development lobby and that Calgary’s growth has been mismanaged to the extreme. Personally, I’d like to make the connection between mismanaged growth and the zilch transparency, with the relations between public officials and companies be just one instance of such inadequacy, seeing that if there isn’t accountability for decisions, accountability for politicians who have been bought and sold, and accountability that’s just at citizens’ finger tips in an online database.

“That’s why, if elected, I’ll immediately take steps to set up a lobbyist registry, post information online and introduce a more open, honest and accountable government to the citizens of Calgary.”

• The Hehr For Mayor Campaign’s Press Release [PDF]

If Mr. Hehr keeps on going this route I’ll likely end up voting for him. Nobody else seems to really be offering real solutions in this mayoral race–except, of course, for sweet nothings like “fiscally conservative with a big heart.”

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