For the first time in nearly 15 years, there are three councillors with wards along Centre Street North who believe a north Green Line is essential.
When Andrew Yule (Ward 3), DJ Kelly (Ward 4) and Myke Atkinson (Ward 7) are sworn in on Oct. 29, they bring a key north Green Line advocacy piece that’s been missing in the past.
While there’s been advocacy in the past with Couns. Jasmine Mian and, before her, Jyoti Gondek in Ward 3, Ward 4 has largely been silent on a northern push for the Green Line. Ward 7 had a strong ally for years in Druh Farrell, and though recently defeated Terry Wong wanted an underground line in the downtown, he ultimately opted to support the current provincial plan to go southeast with a future option through the core.
In LWC’s 2025 candidate survey, Yule supported a below-ground option in the downtown and ranked the Green Line North as a project of utmost importance for the future council. Kelly said Calgary should get the Green Line into downtown in whatever way the province will pay for it, and ranked the Green Line North as a four out of five in priority.
Atkinson didn’t respond to LWC’s candidate survey, however, on his website, in the priorities section, he said that an elevated link “puts the fragile recovery of the downtown at risk” and that the Eau Claire market could sit vacant for decades.
“As your Ward 7 councillor, I will advocate alongside residents, local businesses and downtown communities to ensure the Green Line is built properly—underground through downtown to Eau Claire—and work to ensure future project funding is prioritized to extend the line north across the river to the communities of Ward 7 and beyond,” his website reads.
Southeast gained an advantage due to the advocacy: Kelly
Councillor-elect Kelly said that he strongly believes one of the reasons why the Green Line is headed to the southeast and won the directional debate despite the ridership data supporting a northern route is due to the tireless advocacy of former Ward 12 councillor Shane Keating.
Once dubbed the father of the Green Line, Keating spent nearly a decade pushing for the southeast alignment. In the end, it paid off.
“Unfortunately, we’ve gone for a very long time without an equally strong advocate to join him from the north of the city,” Kelly told LWC.
“Between myself and Andrew Yule in ward three, you now have two councillors who are very strong advocates for the Green Line going north.”
Councillor-elect Yule said it seemed that former Coun. Jasmine Mian often beat her head into the wall, pushing for a north Green Line. Now, with the three new councillors, perhaps some headway can be made in moving it north.
“I’m hopeful we’ll have a really strong north central Calgary cohort that can get stuff done,” Yule said.
“You see infrastructure, whether it’s transit or anything, you see the infrastructure go to the far northwest or the far northeast, and we up the center, we kind of get missed on a lot of stuff.”
Kelly acknowledged that some work has been done to upgrade the current Max Green (formerly the 301) bus line. He also said that there’s currently no firm plan to even get the transit line into the downtown.
“I imagine it is going to be very difficult to advocate for the dollars to be able to get across the river and to build it north, especially while the south leg isn’t completed,” he said.
“We have to get through downtown before we can get to the river, and we have to get across the river before we can get it up to the north, where the Green Line is most needed. The 301, now the Max Green, is the busiest bus line in the entire city. The ridership for the Green Line always was primarily in the north of the city. We definitely need to get it all the way up there for our neighbours.”
