Calgary’s first municipal political party has officially launched touting themselves as a broad coalition of citizens wanting a better way of doing politics.

A Better Calgary (ABC) announced its launch Wednesday, as a centre-right party that will field candidates to compete for ward seats in Calgary’s 2025 municipal election.

The addition of municipal political parties was ensconced in recent provincial changes to the Municipal Government Act and the Local Authorities Election Act. The province hasn’t yet provided specific guidelines on how the parties will operate and under what rules but said those details would be forthcoming.

Jon Horsman, spokesperson for ABC, said they wanted to announce right now because there’s a lot of work to be done to prep for the 2025 Calgary municipal election. He said the new party can start building an organization and then begin to vet candidates for 2025.

“The timing is really mostly driven by the election cycle that’s coming at us, which requires us to get organized now,” he said.

Horsman said they recognize that adding municipal political parties is against what many Albertans want at the local level. LWC did a story with research that indicates 40 per cent of people would prefer candidates to remain independent. Polling done by Leger in May showed that respondents were split (38 per cent opposed, 37 per cent support), but there was 27 per cent who weren’t sure of adding municipal political parties.

They want to avoid the partisanship that many fear comes with political parties, Horsman said. He said the current party structure you see in provincial or federal politics just isn’t appropriate for the local level.

They won’t have a policy book that candidates have to sign off on, he said.

“We’ve got an umbrella of values and principles; fiscal responsibility, environmental stewardship, that we all kind of agree to and build a broad coalition around,” he said.

“Then, the candidates themselves can both advocate for the policies that they believe in and then also work in the best interests of their constituents.”

Councillors respond to Calgary’s first municipal party

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said there’s been a concerted attempt to “take back Calgary” or “take back Alberta” and citizens rejected that attempt last municipal election.

Carra said that the UCP blamed failed third-party advertisers as the reason they didn’t achieve their take back Calgary plan.

“The addition of municipal parties is just another step in that mission, and this party seems to be very much coming out of that entire group of political aspirants.”

Carra said that political parties don’t make sense when your city administration is set up like a corporate board. It works better in a true parliamentary system.

“… I think Calgarians, when they vote in municipal elections, consistently go to the polls, and vote in favour of building a city that works a city that can meet the future that’s coming at us,” he said.

“If it’s going to be a party fight, it looks like it’s going to be a party fight, I hope that people look at what the underlying values are of the parties that amass and I suspect we’re going to get a very similar outcome after the 2025 election, that Calgarians will vote their values, and we will elect a city council that is interested in celebrating and building upon the incredible strength that we have in this community, and is interested in building for the future.”

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said that he expects there to be several political parties field candidates this fall, not just ABC. He said he didn’t know anything about this particular party, however.

“I hope there’s not going to be multiple parties, so we’re pretty much back at the same place we were before,” McLean said.

“But I will watch with interest to see which parties form, what their platforms are, and Calgarians decide, as I will myself.”

McLean said he’s not involved with any political parties, but as they come up, he’ll weigh options and either join one or stay independent.

Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said that she’s been outspoken from the beginning that she’s not in favour of municipal party politics.

“I understand that’s the framework, though, that we’re working under. And so, if this is the first, then I’m sure there will be many more to follow,” she said.

City getting back to basics

Horsman said they would be building a structure of 14 ward associations that will be membership-based and volunteer based.  They will run nomination contests in each ward and have the members pick the candidate that best represents them.

Still, Horsman said they intend to have the candidates follow the will of the members or constituents that voted them in. There will be no party whip or policy whip, he said. They don’t have a specific policy platform on topics like citywide rezoning, public safety or housing. Ultimately, their core principles are for the city to get back to the basics of delivering essential services to citizens above all else.

“The role of municipal politics is to again, be accountable to your constituency, and conduct yourself in a way that you know is in the best interest of the city and your constituents,” he said.  

“We think the autonomy to the candidates is correct because it gives them the opportunity to kind-of self-define who they are.”

Ultimately, it will be up to the membership to hold them accountable for the decisions that a respective councillor makes as a part of that party, he added.

Horsman said that while details on how parties operate still need to be ironed out, they will abide by all disclosure rules and encourage transparency.

“We’re not trying to hide anything. We’re telling our donors that their names will be out there and they’re fine with that,” he said.  

“There’s a lot of people that cannot contribute their time, and sometimes not even their talent, but they can contribute to financial resources, to kind of deliver and contribute to the political process.”

The group was set to hold a launch party Wednesday night and will be having a community event on July 12 at 3:45 at Bowness Park.

ABC does have a website here, but at the time of publishing, the navigation bar only redirected back to a signup page.

• with files from David Kim