New rules for municipal political parties and slates in Calgary and Edmonton have been laid out, along with new Alberta-wide political contributions, and will come into effect at the end of October.

In a news conference on Friday morning, Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver said that local elections belong to Albertans.

“Citizens must be able to participate fully in local elections, following clear campaign rules that apply to everyone evenly,” he said.

“The updates we are making for local elections and municipal governance demonstrate our commitment to accountability, to transparency, and to democracy for all Albertans.”

As previously reported, Local Political Parties (LPPs) will be allowed in Calgary and Edmonton, but the province will also allow slates of candidates to run as well. The primary difference between the two is that slates are informal organizations of candidates. They can’t collect funds together or share significant resources. Provincial officials said they are like-minded candidates, without the infrastructure of a party. It must represent two or more candidates – up to the number of wards.

“It’s a similar idea to a political party, but without the financial implications,” said Minister McIver.

Parties can apply for registration with signatures of 1,000 eligible voters who are members of the party, a list of candidates that if elected could represent a minimum of 1/3 of seats and provide all currently regulated financial and contact information. School board elections will not have political parties.

The parties cannot be affiliated with any provincial or federal provincial party, nor bear any resemblance to them via name or abbreviation. Provincial and federal parties cannot donate to local parties.

“Our intent with introducing Bill 20 in the spring and now with the regulations I am announcing today, has been the same from the very beginning: To increase accountability, transparency and public trust in local elections,” McIver said in Friday’s announcement.

LPPs will operate in a similar fashion to provincial or federal parties. There will be no limits on operational expenses for local political parties and contributions can be made within the four-year campaign period. Funds can be carried over into the next election cycle, the province said.

Contributions can only be made by Alberta residents and organizations, and the maximum contribution amount – in the aggregate (between all candidates or parties) – is $5,000 per municipality, per year.

Contributions from unions, corporations or individuals cannot exceed $5,000 annually in total.

Pollster and political commentator Janet Brown said they did polling across Alberta that showed more than two-thirds of Albertans want to see candidates run as individuals. Less than one in four wanted political parties.

“The upshot is, citizens aren’t fond of this idea,” Brown told LWC Friday morning at the Calgary Talks event.

“People are worried it’s going to make municipal politics more divisive, it’s going to make city councillors less responsive to their constituents.”

Campaign expense rules

In the revised, Alberta-wide campaign expense rules, in an election year, mayoral candidates can spend up to $1 per person based on the population of the respective municipality – or $20,000 – whichever is greater.

Councillor candidates in municipalities with wards can spend $1 per person based on the average population in the wards in the jurisdiction. (Example: Calgary 1.4 million, 14 wards = $100,000 per candidate).  If there are no wards, it’s $1 per person.

LPPs can spend $1 per person based on the average population of a ward, for each ward where they have endorsed a candidate.  Third-party advertisers can spend $0.50 per person based on a population of a municipality.

Population statistics will be based on the Municipal Affairs population list for each city. The province said that list is derived from the most recent federal or municipal census.  Only official census data can be used.

In the 2021 federal census, Calgary had 1.306 million people. Today, it’s estimated that number is nearly 1.5 million.

In non-election years, neither candidates nor parties can incur expenses during the two years following an election year on campaigning. Parties can cover operational expenses. In the year before an election year, candidates and parties can spend up to $0.50 per person based on similar rules to election years.

“The overall purpose of the expense limits regulation is to ensure elected officials focus on governance and keep the campaign activities focused on the year leading up to in the year of an election,” McIver said.

“Elected people need to focus on serving Albertans as their primary responsibility, and the new rules are at least designed to help them do just that.”

‘Kiss of death’: Reaction to the new rules

University of Calgary political science professor Lisa Young said the new rules lead to more questions about why the province is moving ahead with these plans, and if they are doing so with the hope of changing the kind of governments that Calgary and Edmonton elect.

“I think what we see here, though, is not so much creating the possibility as creating an incentive for people to form political parties, and we know that public opinion doesn’t necessarily lend itself to that,” Young said.

Young said she didn’t see the point of differentiating between slates and parties, especially when there are more mobilization and fundraising powers for the latter. Adding slates into the mix and having them register seems like a bit of added red tape because birds of a political feather already tend to flock together.

“I think we see in the absence of these rules, I think we see some candidates doing this sort of thing right that they may not formally announce that they’re a slate, but they might make similar commitments, they might use the same language, they might choose the same colors for their promotional materials,” Young said.

“You don’t need that to be in the Local Authorities Elections Act (LAEA) in order to do that.”

There’s value in having municipal political parties for the low-information voter, Young said. It may help reduce barriers to voting, but the empirical evidence is mixed. She said that it does allow for people to cut through learning about each candidate and their world view if they’re attached to a party they understand.

“Political parties provide what’s called a heuristic for voters. It’s sort of a shortcut that lets them know, ‘Oh, these are people who prefer smaller government, larger government, conservative value, progressive values. I associate with that. I don’t have to do my homework and figure out who the candidate I’m going to vote for is as an individual, I will vote for the team that I prefer,'” Young said.

On financing and expenses, Young said that the change to rules means that you’re going to have longer campaigning and more demand for money in the two years leading up to an election.

“It sort of seems to signal that we’re not going to have the permanent campaign in municipal politics, but we’ll certainly have what feels like very long campaigns,” she said.

One bright light is the aggregate amount annually being $5,000 for individuals, unions and corporations, Young said, calling it a step back in the right direction.

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek held little back in criticizing the provincial government for creating a system that would drown out the voices of independent candidates.

“What I have seen in the new rules rolled out by the province today is a kiss of death to local representation and local democracy,” Mayor Gondek said.

“Favouritism has been given to the party system. Parties are able to raise money whenever they want to, and they can spend as much money as they want to to get people elected. The days of independent candidates who actually represent you look like they’re going to be over.”

The mayor said it’s a big problem that parties can be running and raising money all the time.

“The thing that’s more troubling, however, is the fact that you will have parties running all of the time spending money two years before a municipal election, and they are able to double dip candidates who are part of parties. They can run longer, they can spend more,” she said.

“So getting a candidate who’s doing this for the right reasons is no longer the priority. Running candidates who have more money, that seems to be the priority of this province.”

Calgary will have a municipal election on Oct. 20, 2025. The new election rules will come into effect on Oct. 31, 2024.