Photo by Shane Clausing.

By Curtis Galbraith

Municipal Politics

Mayoral and council candidates sign fair election pledge

Jul 27, 2021 | 5:53 PM

Grande Prairie Mayoral and Council candidates gathered at the Montrose Cultural Centre Tuesday afternoon, to sign a pledge created by the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association.

The goal of the pledge is for potential candidates to commit to upholding key democratic principles while running a fair and respectful election race.

Councillor Dylan Bressey says it was great to see so many council and mayoral candidates commit to running a fair race.

“It keeps things local, maintains non-partisanship, be transparent including with your campaign fund-raising, and be respectful. I think those are things that often are, and certainly here in Grande Prairie, are present at the municipal level,” expressed Bressey.

“They’re often lacking at provincial and federal levels of politics, and we want to keep those important principles a big part of our democracy and our city council here in Grande Prairie.”

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He adds it commits candidates to engaging in meaningful and impactful discussions during the campaign.

“Municipal government is the level of government that people interact with the most and yet it’s the one that gets the least democratic discussion.”

“Once every four years, we’ve got this great opportunity where the microscope really is on city hall and residents really do share what their vision for the community is and I really hope we don’t lose that local focus this election cycle,” he added.

All three mayoral candidates also signed the pledge, including current councillor Eunice Friesen.

“I’m confident that the behaviours, the calls on the pledge, would have been adhered to anyway. These are things that I’ve seen my colleagues on council (and) Interim Mayor (Jackie) Clayton, we do those things already,” said Friesen.

Municipal elections take place across Alberta on October 18.