Council OKs campaign guidelines

Calgary’s elected officials approved new behaviour guidelines on Monday to avoid conflict ahead of the 2017 municipal election.

Under recent ward boundary changes, 58 Calgary communities will fall under a new ward in next year’s election. That fact had some incumbents wondering what was and wasn’t appropriate when it came to campaigning in areas that are currently outside their ward, but won’t be when ballots are cast.

In May, Coun. Ward Sutherland introduced a notice of motion directing the city’s recently appointed ethics adviser Alice Woolley to establish a set of guidelines and on Monday, the rules were approved with only councillors Andre Chabot and Diane ColleyUrquhart voting against them.

“With the ward boundary changes there is a significant issue of confusion here if someone comes in and knocks on a door as the non-representing councillor,” ethics adviser Woolley told council on Monday.

“The person at the door, they don’t have these fine distinctions in their mind. They just think the person is now their councillor and they get confused.”

Under the new rules, an outside councillor must now tell the representing councillor when attending a local or ward-specific public event and the outside councillor must make it clear to attendees that he or she isn’t attending as the ward representative.

The rules also state the outside councillor must inform the representing councillor about any campaign activities in the representing councillor’s ward.

Sutherland said that rule isn’t about asking permission or detailing exactly where and when an outside councillor will be campaigning, rather it’s a simple, polite notification.