A group of concerned Edmontonians have started to roll out the Principled Accountable Coalition for Edmonton (PACE) to change the direction city council is going. PACE Vice President, Communications Doug Main said the output from Edmonton city council over the last several years has been so disappointing that there was a chance to create a common sense, fiscally prudent, and business-friendly municipal political party. “And we’ve been talking to folks and bringing people together and received a very, very warm welcome,” said Main in a Monday interview. “The feeling I get is the Edmonton marketplace is really ready for some dramatic change in the kinds of people that are on city council, and they like what we’re saying.” Main said he became involved in PACE because he saw there was an opportunity. Additionally, he acknowledged getting involved struck him as interesting and fun. While he holds a leadership role with PACE, he said it is made up of a group of people who came together and saw a need for a municipal political party. These people had to wait for the Alberta government to introduce the legislation and regulations to create it. The City of Edmonton had to decide how it was going to handle the regulations, which did not take effect until late October. Now PACE is filling out the forms, engaging in the processes, setting up the governance, and filling out the petitions for candidates. He noted a comprehensive platform will be developed by its members and candidates. However, he pointed out some policies it will advocate for are a balanced budget, fiscal prudence, a regulatory regime that speeds up the process for decision making, law and order, and Edmonton LRT safety. By fiscal prudence, he said this means being certain Edmonton city council will get value for spending, is making decisions stemming from facts, and ensure decisions to go into debt are determined by reality. At the moment, he said it has been fiscally imprudent by spending $500,000 on electric buses where half of them do not work and allocating millions of dollars towards carbon-neutral firehalls. One idea he said it was looking at to improve Edmonton LRT safety is installing turnstiles or fare gates. While there are reasons why turnstiles or fare gates could not be implemented, he said he wants to see people make a move to help the Edmonton LRT become more safe. He denounced the current city council as business unfriendly with its policies about construction, bike lanes, and ripping up properties. If PACE takes over, he said it will evaluate costs to businesses affected when it carries out projects. Although it has no official candidates, he said it has held multiple conversations with people who want to run for it. He added there are some impressive people who have indicated they want to run. At the moment, he said announcing candidates depends on how long it takes to get official party status. He predicted it will have some announcements before Christmas and a full team revealed in early 2025. At its information meetings, he said people have informed it they are glad to see what it is doing. He said the benefits to having municipal political parties are helping voters identify what candidates stand for, providing candidates with a sense of team to maximize returns, improving voter participation, and making municipal elections more transparent. If it did not believe it would succeed, he said it would not be doing this. He confirmed its goal is to put forward 13 candidates for the 2025 Edmonton election and form a majority on city council. Main concluded by saying PACE will make a different value proposition to Edmonton voters. “If you’re not happy with what you’ve sent from city council from the last three, four, five, 10 years and you think it needs to be changed, then support the PACE candidate in your riding and we’ll deliver a principled, accountable city council for Edmonton,” he said. The long awaited entry of municipal political parties to Calgary’s political scene became a reality in June. .EXCLUSIVE: Calgary’s first municipal party to be unveiled Tuesday.Described as a big tent, membership-driven organization, A Better Calgary (ABC) Party kicked off its unveiling with a series of events and a membership drive. The ABC Party started with a formal unveiling at the Holiday Inn and Suites Calgary South followed by a larger push at the Calgary Stampede in July.
A group of concerned Edmontonians have started to roll out the Principled Accountable Coalition for Edmonton (PACE) to change the direction city council is going. PACE Vice President, Communications Doug Main said the output from Edmonton city council over the last several years has been so disappointing that there was a chance to create a common sense, fiscally prudent, and business-friendly municipal political party. “And we’ve been talking to folks and bringing people together and received a very, very warm welcome,” said Main in a Monday interview. “The feeling I get is the Edmonton marketplace is really ready for some dramatic change in the kinds of people that are on city council, and they like what we’re saying.” Main said he became involved in PACE because he saw there was an opportunity. Additionally, he acknowledged getting involved struck him as interesting and fun. While he holds a leadership role with PACE, he said it is made up of a group of people who came together and saw a need for a municipal political party. These people had to wait for the Alberta government to introduce the legislation and regulations to create it. The City of Edmonton had to decide how it was going to handle the regulations, which did not take effect until late October. Now PACE is filling out the forms, engaging in the processes, setting up the governance, and filling out the petitions for candidates. He noted a comprehensive platform will be developed by its members and candidates. However, he pointed out some policies it will advocate for are a balanced budget, fiscal prudence, a regulatory regime that speeds up the process for decision making, law and order, and Edmonton LRT safety. By fiscal prudence, he said this means being certain Edmonton city council will get value for spending, is making decisions stemming from facts, and ensure decisions to go into debt are determined by reality. At the moment, he said it has been fiscally imprudent by spending $500,000 on electric buses where half of them do not work and allocating millions of dollars towards carbon-neutral firehalls. One idea he said it was looking at to improve Edmonton LRT safety is installing turnstiles or fare gates. While there are reasons why turnstiles or fare gates could not be implemented, he said he wants to see people make a move to help the Edmonton LRT become more safe. He denounced the current city council as business unfriendly with its policies about construction, bike lanes, and ripping up properties. If PACE takes over, he said it will evaluate costs to businesses affected when it carries out projects. Although it has no official candidates, he said it has held multiple conversations with people who want to run for it. He added there are some impressive people who have indicated they want to run. At the moment, he said announcing candidates depends on how long it takes to get official party status. He predicted it will have some announcements before Christmas and a full team revealed in early 2025. At its information meetings, he said people have informed it they are glad to see what it is doing. He said the benefits to having municipal political parties are helping voters identify what candidates stand for, providing candidates with a sense of team to maximize returns, improving voter participation, and making municipal elections more transparent. If it did not believe it would succeed, he said it would not be doing this. He confirmed its goal is to put forward 13 candidates for the 2025 Edmonton election and form a majority on city council. Main concluded by saying PACE will make a different value proposition to Edmonton voters. “If you’re not happy with what you’ve sent from city council from the last three, four, five, 10 years and you think it needs to be changed, then support the PACE candidate in your riding and we’ll deliver a principled, accountable city council for Edmonton,” he said. The long awaited entry of municipal political parties to Calgary’s political scene became a reality in June. .EXCLUSIVE: Calgary’s first municipal party to be unveiled Tuesday.Described as a big tent, membership-driven organization, A Better Calgary (ABC) Party kicked off its unveiling with a series of events and a membership drive. The ABC Party started with a formal unveiling at the Holiday Inn and Suites Calgary South followed by a larger push at the Calgary Stampede in July.
