Accountability — Calgary style

Why the editorial staff at the Calgary Herald simply do not collect paycheques from City Hall is beyond me, considering their continued support for pretty much anything and everything done by His Worshipedness in all his glory. Case in point: their inexplicable defense of the mayor’s travel budget increasing by 176%, from $39,368 to $62,489:

So Mayor Dave Bronconnier spent $62,000 on 17 trips?

Although we often find ourselves nodding appreciatively at the insights provided by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and are sometimes dismayed by city council’s apparent delight in taxing and spending, we’re with Bronco on this.

Surprise, surprise.

Much of the travel was to Edmonton and to Ottawa. The appeal of either can be tested with a simple question: If one was given a ticket for anywhere WestJet flies, would one use it to go to Edmonton or to Ottawa?

We are prepared to accept that only pressing city business could possibly induce the mayor to visit either.

Nor should the glamour of foreign adventure be exaggerated, when the routine is one of diplomatic discussion through interpreters, over canapes of uncertain provenance. While jet-lagged.

Big-city mayors travel. It’s part of the job description and nothing to get exercised about.

A lot of things are part of the mayor’s job description but that does not mean that there should be no public scrutiny either, if that is what the editorial means by getting “exercised”.

But that’s not the point; the original Herald article had the CFIB make no concern regarding trips to Ottawa or Edmonton; their primary concern was with the extensive foreign junkets by the mayor. I’m sure that the mayor would be more than happy if we took his word that his $5,000 trip to New York City will result in unique solutions for homelessness, especially considering the media capital of the world probably has no telephones or internet access to provide information. Likewise, his $9,000 sojourn to the World Leadership Awards in London, UK, can probably be justified by Bronco as there are likely no leaders in municipalities closer to England than our own White Hatter of the New West. And why even show any concern over the $18,000 world-wide junket to Beijing, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia because Broconnier has assured us that this trip was necessary to attract business to the red-hot Calgary marketplace.

The fact is, the 2-fold increase in travel accommodation budget for the mayor is well within fair game for any group concerned with accountability in municipal politics, and this would include the Herald. Considering the mayor’s own begging for tax dollars from all levels of government, one might be excused for thinking that he would mind the frivolities within his own house first.

Alas, hypocrisy is awash in city hall, and it is a shame that our own newspaper of record would rather use its editorial space to criticize the only group willing to hold the mayor to account.