When people run for municipal office, they aren’t auditioning to be constitutional scholars or pundits on the evening news. They are applying for a specific, high-stakes job: managing the city.
In Alberta, the Municipal Government Act (MGA) provides a clear job description for our mayors and councils. It mandates they provide “good government,” ensure a “safe and viable community,” and act as stewards of our infrastructure and services. It’s a demanding mandate that leaves little room for extracurricular political theatre. Yet, watching the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton, Jeromy Farkas and Andrew Knack, dive headfirst into this independence referendum debate, you have to wonder if they’ve misplaced their job descriptions.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. But when a mayor uses the city’s podium to wage a provincial culture war, they are straying from the mandate they were elected to uphold. They represent a broad, diverse constituency — business owners, families, and workers — looking for a stable foundation, not a local government turned into a constitutional opposition movement. By taking such an aggressive stance on a provincial referendum, they are ignoring the diverse interests of the people they are sworn to represent.
What’s most frustrating is the inconsistency. We see these leaders show up on the news to pontificate on the Constitution, yet they are remarkably quiet when it comes to the real, granular work the MGA demands. We’ve all seen how they react when local interest groups or lobbyists come knocking with petitions for new bylaws. In those moments — where decisions impact the cost of doing business and the stability of our neighbourhoods — they are often entirely malleable to the loudest room in the building.
This is a question of focus. When the stakes are ideological, the microphones are on. When the stakes are economic and practical — like reducing the regulatory red tape that makes our province unaffordable — the same leaders often seem to lose their voice or their backbone. They’ve turned their office into a platform for performative advocacy rather than the stable, managerial body the MGA envisions.
If our leaders are concerned about the future of our province, the best way to show it is by focusing on the “bread and butter” defined by their job description. If they want to make life more affordable, they don’t need a constitutional referendum; they need to get to work on the three levers that actually shape the daily lives of their constituents.
First, they must ensure reliable, efficient infrastructure. Traffic, road conditions, and transit reliability are the primary daily stressors for residents. Improving the flow of our streets isn’t just about convenience — it’s about giving people back their time and lowering the hidden costs of a broken commute.
Second, they need to practice fiscal discipline and provide actual value for tax dollars. Households are feeling the pinch from every direction. Mayors must prioritize disciplined budgeting to ensure every tax dollar delivers essential service value, rather than chasing expensive, performative projects that don’t move the needle on the family’s bottom line.
Third, they must prioritize utility and essential service stability. Local governments have direct influence over access fees and service delivery. By ruthlessly auditing these costs and streamlining how they are passed on to residents, cities can provide tangible relief to household budgets already stretched to the breaking point.
We are builders of a better future, not politicians. We should be focused on growth, innovation, and keeping Alberta the best place in the world to live and work. While others chase the headlines, those of us who actually move the needle need to see our mayors doing the job they signed up for. It’s time for less grandstanding and a lot more attention paid to these three pillars of affordability. That is how a city functions, and that is how we build a future worth having. Let’s get back to that.
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