Gondek is prepared to duke it out with Premier Danielle Smith. She throws the first punches Monday morning
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The Calgary mayor is in a fighting mood. Mayor Jyoti Gondek is not holding back.
Gondek is prepared to duke it out with Premier Danielle Smith.
She throws the first punches Monday morning.
Ring the bell.
The Smith government killed the Green Line. There was no attempt to negotiate.
The Smith government supported the Green Line and then changed its tune when the Green Line didn’t change.
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The Smith government killed the Green Line claiming they had a better solution and that solution has already been examined and rejected.
The Smith government’s idea of connecting the Green Line to the Red Line and the Blue Line at city hall would mean more LRT cars, more traffic and you’d have to move the Red Line from 7th Avenue to 8th Avenue, that is, Stephen Avenue.
Gondek is just warming up.
The mayor says the province can’t really put the Red Line right on Stephen Avenue, because it would hurt too many businesses. You can’t put it above Stephen Avenue and make it an elevated train because the Plus-15 gets in the way. So you’d have to tunnel, something the province doesn’t want to do.
You can almost see the mayor catching her breath.
Gondek also doesn’t believe the province has any practical Green Line plan for north of the river.
Gondek says she tried to get the Smith government to reconsider. The mayor adds the city can get more dough from the feds to build out the Green Line.
Gondek says the construction business isn’t happy and downtown businesses are alarmed.
Now the mayor is warmed up.
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Gondek claims the Smith government wants control and had the power to kill the city’s Green Line plan and killed it.
She says they only want power and to be able to pull off political stunts.
Besides all of that, cautions the clearly irritated and agitated mayor, the Smith government will have to come back to the city and the feds if they want any dough from them for whatever Green Line the province wants.
Later, with newshounds, Gondek’s temperature has not gone down.
The mayor repeats many of her points for the TV cameras.
She even has a new taxpayer-funded “stronger website” at www.mayorgondek.ca and it sure sounds like Gondek is going to run again for mayor.
Later, Gondek goes to a rally of people in front of city hall backing her position.
The crowd was small but committed, maybe a hundred or so including the guy at the back taking off his shirt and practising his kung fu moves.
Gondek asks the assembled to push the the provincial government to reconsider and back the city’s Green Line stub-of-a-line plan.
She tells the assembled the reality is when the dust settles there will be no Green Line. Period.
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Dan McLean is one of the councillors who wants the city to sit down with the province and the feds to discuss the future of the Green Line.
“The group that didn’t want to make this political is making this extremely political,” says McLean, of Gondek and her think-alike city council majority.
“They’re going full nuclear. Cooler heads need to prevail. They’re throwing a tantrum,” says McLean.
The councillor says Gondek and crew “have blinkers on” and are not looking out for the people reading this column.
“This mayor and this council do not have your best interests in mind,” says McLean.
“They have their best interests in mind.”
And what interests could those be?
“It’s big government knows best. There’s an unlimited bucket of money out there that’s yours but they think it’s theirs.”
Sonya Sharp is a councillor who doesn’t want to push that nuclear button. She wants to pause before making any big decisions.
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“There is a lot of finger-pointing right now. At the end of the day we’re all here to serve the same people,” says the councillor.
“You may not like what sort of banners people are flying under but that doesn’t matter when you’re trying to deliver a transit system to the citizens of Calgary.
“We need to take a step back, take a breath, regroup and find a solution.”
For Sharp, it is not battle stations yet.
Looking at what it might cost to wind down the Green Line the councillor feels “it would not be financially responsible” to “throw our hands in the air and say to the province, take it over.”
“I feel there’s a lot of emotions here. We are making decisions based on emotions.”
rbell@postmedia.com
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