Peter's Mayor of Calgary Page
Part of the PETER FOR RULER OF THE WORLD network.



Thinks he can be mayor
Lucky there's beer!
VOTE PETE
  1. Why are you running for mayor? What qualities do you have that make you a suitable candidate for this position?
  2. What do you believe are the three biggest challenged facing Calgary, and what will be your action in regard to these challenges?
  3. What is your position in regards to privatization and contracting out? Do you believe public money should be transferred to private, for-profit companies? If so, under what conditions?
  4. Do you believe Calgary has too many homeless citizens? What should the City of Calgary be doing to provide affordable housing?
  5. How would you define the relationship between City Council and senior administration? Would you like to change the relationship and if so how? Be specific.
  6. Do you believe Calgary has enough green space? How would you ensure our air quality is maintained at a good level? Should Calgary continue to rely on landfills for garbage disposal, or how should Calgary recycle more? What would you do to ensure we have clean water available to all citizens?
  7. How do you see the relationship between the City of Calgary and its workers? Do you believe any of them should be deemed essential and not allowed to strike? What would you do to improve this relationship?
  8. Do you believe the citizens of Calgary receive adequate services from the City? How could services be improved?
  9. Is the present system of how Calgary receives and generates revenues fair and adequate? What type of change would you like to see, and what is your plan to implement that change?
  10. How would you improve the way citizens of Calgary move around the City? Should developers be forced to have higher housing density? How do you propose to finance road construction or improve transit services?
  11. Who has provided financial backing for your campaign over $500?
  12. Do you have interests with and company having business transactions with the City of Calgary?
  13. What do you believe should be done with the site of the former General Hospital?
  14. How do you believe your salary and benefits should be set?
  15. Is there anything else you wish to tell us about yourself?

  1. Why are you running for mayor? What qualities do you have that make you a suitable candidate for this position?
      I am running for mayor out of my own curiosity. I would like to give others the opportunity to vote for someone with my viewpoints.

      As for my qualities for mayor I will be the first to admit I have pretty much no political experience outside of my own projects. I do believe that I provide a more 'citizen' viewpoint then the big named candidates, however. I seriously doubt that any of the aldermen or the mayor was stranded during the transit strike like myself and the majority of Calgarians. My biggest advantage is that I am one of the citizens and my head isn't lost in political clouds.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  2. What do you believe are the three biggest challenged facing Calgary, and what will be your action in regard to these challenges?
    • Housing/Heating
        I see this as the #1 concern for Calgarians. Not only just housing and heating but all the necessities of life. Though this may not be the priority of the average citizen I think the city should come first. And the truth is there are a lot of people living in poverty, in substandard housing, or not in houses at all. What will energy prices be like this winter? What about next year? What happens when we sell Enmax? These are all important questions, and they need to be answered before it gets cold.
    • Greenspace/Downtown Development
        Here is my idea. Let's take the east downtown and turn it into a park. Not only does this create a great riverside park but it adds many possibilities for summer festivals. It would be a great boost for business as well when people would travel from Stampede Park to the East Park to Princess Island. And don't develop the area eat of Olympic Plaza, leave that as a park.
    • Unions
        Lots of Calgarians are unionized and employed by the city. There are two problems here. First the city is slow in negotiating contracts, and second the union's demands are usually unreasonable. This is a big problem and one way or another it needs to be fixed. I think a hard-line, but fair stance needs to be taken for all union contracts and I don't think that this has happened in the past.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  3. What is your position in regards to privatization and contracting out? Do you believe public money should be transferred to private, for-profit companies? If so, under what conditions?
      I don't think privatization should not be in the vocabulary of city council. It is just common sense that if something gets privatized (or deregulated) the cost will go up. The province privatizes liquor in Alberta and the price goes up. They deregulate electricity and the cost goes up.

      Contracting out should only be done if the city doesn't have the resources or infrastructure to do something themselves.

      Giving money to private companies of course leads to many economic advantages, more employment and thus more taxes. As long as there is a payback plan I'm all for funding private companies.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  4. Do you believe Calgary has too many homeless citizens? What should the City of Calgary be doing to provide affordable housing?
      If Calgary has one homeless citizen it is too many. Further more if Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto or HicksVille Saskatchewan has a single homeless person it is one too many. I do not believe that homelessness is a problem which can be fixed by a single city. And the truth is building housing for them is not a solution, but it is the start. The need to be given an education and jobs. The idea being once they are educated they can get a job of course.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  5. How would you define the relationship between City Council and senior administration? Would you like to change the relationship and if so how? Be specific.
      I do not have any knowledge on this topic, however, I see no problems in this area which do not exist in the business world already and unless that viewpoint changes I don't see anything there that would need to change.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  6. Do you believe Calgary has enough green space? How would you ensure our air quality is maintained at a good level? Should Calgary continue to rely on landfills for garbage disposal, or how should Calgary recycle more? What would you do to ensure we have clean water available to all citizens?
      Section 2 talks briefly about greenspace. There is lots of greenspace in Calgary and I don't think it is a matter of 'enough' or 'how much'. Location and quality are two big issues. Sure nosehill is not developed, but lets face it..... its a big hill with a circle of rocks on top of it. Also, just because we can develop sections of land doesn't mean we should.

      Here is my idea. Let's take the east downtown and turn it into a park. Not only does this create a great riverside park but it adds many possibilities for summer festivals. It would be a great boost for business as well when people would travel from Stampede Park to the East Park to Princess Island. And don't develop the area east of Olympic Plaza, leave that as a park.

      Air quality is a big concern. Ten years ago I was living in the south and on cold days you couldn't see downtown, you saw a brown haze. And that was 10 years ago. Now there have been some good improvements. The C-trains now run on air power for example. I would defiantly create campaigns to put lots of emphasis on car pooling and using transit, along with improving transit where needed. In the past I have in a small way already made a contribution (which helped a lot more during the transit strike) when I created CalgaryCommuter.com last year.

      Likewise recycling. A major advertising campaign for more recycling would be in order. However, I can tell you now it would be a failure. People are not going to change because _you_ tell them to. Take it from someone who remembers what it is like to be a kid still, and at the same time to be an adult. A major campaign in schools will teach kids and parents will then learn from the children. Again see section 15 about education.

      Water safety is of course a concern, more so in recent months. I have no knowledge on current operational standards in the city of Calgary to answer this question with though.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  7. How do you see the relationship between the City of Calgary and its workers? Do you believe any of them should be deemed essential and not allowed to strike? What would you do to improve this relationship?
      Where the city is concerned they have a type of monopoly, they are in most cases the only service provider as in the case of transit. One of the wisest things I heard said was that we went 50 days without transit and lived. imagine 50 days without police officers, or doctors. That's the difference between essential and just important.

      I think the relationship between the city and employees is in bad shape, and for this I put most of the blame on unions. When a union strikes they ARE going to get a better contract. That's a given. So they strike. However, the city is also at fault. My goals when it comes to unions will be to try and resolve contracts sooner and without as many disturbances as we saw with the transit strike.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  8. Do you believe the citizens of Calgary receive adequate services from the City? How could services be improved?
      I personally have never had any problems with city services. However, I am just 25 years old. I can not speak about the quality of service disables people, seniors or minorities receive. Though it is a big concern. I would invite public discussions on this topic to learn more.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  9. Is the present system of how Calgary receives and generates revenues fair and adequate? What type of change would you like to see, and what is your plan to implement that change?

      I believe it is fair. Not only do we have to be concerned about revenues we receive, but also where our revenues go. Sure we generate lots of revenue and taxes, and most get sent out of the city. However, let us all keep in mind that the food we eat doesn't come from the magic fountain in Olympic Plaza. It comes from farms. These farms need services. They need roads. They need aid. Small towns throughout the province act as processing plants and they need the same services. Plus a lot of our services are supplied by both the province and the country, those need to be paid for as well. I could lie and say we send out way too much money.... but what kind of a mayor lies?

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  10. How would you improve the way citizens of Calgary move around the City? Should developers be forced to have higher housing density? How do you propose to finance road construction or improve transit services?
      During the transit strike many interesting stats came out. Calgary is one of the lease dense cities population wise in Canada. We have 1.7 cars per household, yet we have one of the greatest per capita ratios of transit users. I don't see too much of a problem with how Calgarians move around. Ultimately I would like to see transit used more and to be more effective even though I believe we have one of the best transit services around, and I have been using it for the past 10 years with very few problems.

      I don't believe it is council's place to decide what developers build. This is a free market and they will build whatever the market asks for.

      I believe a successful education program can begin to save money in waste transport though recycling, road maintenance through car pooling and transit and other such endeavors. Though my plans don't involve massive amount of money to be spent these educational programs will end up saving money.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  11. Who has provided financial backing for your campaign over $500?
      $500! Who would give me $500!

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  12. Do you have interests with and company having business transactions with the City of Calgary?
      No

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  13. What do you believe should be done with the site of the former General Hospital?
      I think any decisions about the land should be reserved for a later time when it is 'needed'. Right now we could put a new hospital up which many not end up being needed. Or we could turn it into a big mall only to discover in 3 years we really need a hospital there.

      The one thing the city really needs though is a giant waterpark with lots of waterslides and tube rides and so forth.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  14. How do you believe your salary and benefits should be set?
      Salaries should be reviewed and set at the end of each term for the incoming council. If (for whatever reason) the salaries were to go down that should occur any time before 1 year before the elections.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]

  15. Is there anything else you wish to tell us about yourself?
      There have been no questions about education in tis survey. Though the position of mayor does not traditionally involve the CBE I believe education is the cornerstone of society and I would plan for the municipal government to work more closely with education at all levels.

      From my experience when a child comes home and tells his parent that he learnt origami, his parents will get him paper and he will fold it into birds or frogs. When a child tells his parents that today he learnt how to sprout seeds his parents will get him seeds so he can sprout them. When he comes home and tells them he knows how to recycle.... when he comes home and tells them his new best friend lives around the corner and he knows all about car pooling.... when a child says these things his parents will recycle and they will carpool.

      You may ask, why mayor instead of school board. Well I'm not trying to change education. If anything I am trying to improve the city, and I know the best place to do that from is mayor, but I also know it won't happen without education. I think the city can offer lots to the CBE as well and more direct city involvement with the CBE could be beneficial to both parties.

    [BACK TO THE TOP]