House-cleaning at city council getting closer with each day

Perhaps Alberta's top doctor would like to chime in with her views on whether the city's multibillion-dollar Green Line transit project should proceed.

Or maybe Deena Hinshaw might offer an opinion regarding the ongoing civic deliberations with the Calgary Flames over the future of the planned new arena and entertainment centre?

Hey, why not? After all, down at city hall, they're queuing up to do her job. And fair's fair, after all.

Seriously, is it any wonder so many citizens are angry, scared and confused these days, considering the recent antics of Calgary city council? Because, if ever there were an issue that summed up just how dysfunctional this current council has become, it's this week's debate over dropping the mask bylaw.

Remember, it wasn't long ago our mayor branded folk who refused to mask up and marched bare-faced into shopping centres as a bunch of so-called “covidiots.” A rough translation of that relatively new term describes anyone thus branded as a person disbelieving in science and refusing to follow health strictures aimed at curbing viral spread.

Indeed, Mayor Naheed Nenshi subsequently went on to describe these scofflaws as incorrigible.

OK, then, one wonders what he might call the various councillors who did exactly the same thing by refusing to accept the relaxation of measures across the province that was explicitly and expertly explained more than a week ago by Hinshaw.

It seems that when the science of the hour backs up your views, then that's fine and dandy. But, if it doesn't, then that's no problem either. Instead, simply wheel in a different so-called expert to arrive at another conclusion that happens to fit your narrative.

Actually, those shopping mall protesters that so enraged our mayor months ago used the same tactic, because these days there's an expert opinion somewhere to be found to buttress every point of view, no matter how ludicrous.

Then again, nowadays what qualifies someone to be judged an expert arrives courtesy of a very low bar indeed.

The news media love the word because it's short, sweet and works a treat in headlines. But, honestly, does an emergency room doctor or a university professor possess so much precise detail about the future spread of a newly emerged zoonotic virus among the general population that they can pontificate at will and be immediately judged an accepted font of knowledge?

Sure, such folk have a medical degree and work at stitching up wounds or lecturing online would-be docs, but does that, therefore, confer the moniker of expert about all matters COVID-19?

Still, at least such folk are from the medical tree, even if they sit on a different branch than that encompassing public health. City councillors don't even belong in the same forest, yet does that stop them from challenging Hinshaw's conclusions?

Nope. They move from the undoubted glories of pothole fixing to argue the merits of vaccines based upon genome sequencing quicker than you can count aloud the number of current mayoral candidates.

It's all politics, of course. That's to be expected with three of the current crop of councillors running for the mayor's job while others look for a suitably soft place to land outside the civic arena.

But the upshot is that a city already torn and confused by the endless torrent of conflicting advice, warnings and theories about this pandemic is today even more adrift, after forlornly seeking leadership and clarity from those it elected to serve almost four long years ago.

Thankfully, it's Stampede time and, masked or not, that's a blessing.

In Calgary, this is truly the start of summer. It's also the unofficial countdown to October's civic election, one where we hopefully vote into office 15 individuals who understand the adage: “There's no I in team.”

That faint hope alone is worthy of a boisterous and heartfelt Yahoo!