Dance of the seven veils • Richard Bronstein
By RICHARD BRONSTEIN
Dance of the Seven Veils
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think the website of the Manning Foundation has mistakenly got its wires crossed with Comedy Central. How else does one explain the hilarious essays on civic government that are coming out of the Manning Foundation by its leading thinker on municipal government, David Seymour. His first policy paper in August, for which Seymour wrote a commentary in the Calgary Herald, was entitled, “Please, city hall, stay focused and fix my pothole.” It featured the notable claim that council’s discussion about shark fin soup “typifies the city’s pursuit . . .” of concerns beyond its jurisdiction. It’s typical? Like city council frequently discusses the plight of Greenland whales, the Great Barrier Reef and the disappearance of the long-nosed dace? His next great howler is the idea that subsidies for public transit are “ideological goals.” Ideological in what sense? That public transit encourages people to pretend to go to work when they really take the bus to the casino so they can drink and gamble all day? On September 6 the senior fellow in municipal governance at the Manning Foundation had another doozy in the Calgary Herald. The headline says it all: “Why city hall doesn’t care our roads are congested.” Well, every Wednesday night I drive out to the Bow River to go fishing and pass the Southeast Stoney Trail ring road project. SEST, as it is known, is a P3 (public-private partnership) to smooth traffic flow. At nearly $800 million, it is the largest single highway project in Alberta. Yes, it is provincial and federal money, but that comes out of my pocket too. I could also mention the Glenmore Trail/Elbow Drive/ Fifth Street project, the Airport Trail tunnel and dozens more that put the lie to David Seymour’s argument that we are neglecting roads. Tosh! It’s one thing to encourage discussion about civic policies and priorities. Let a hundred flowers blossom. In fact, the actual municipal government reports published on the Manning Foundation website do offer some interesting ideas. But let’s not derail these important, ongoing discussions with inflated anti-city hall rhetoric and infantile arguments like Seymour displays in his Calgary Herald commentaries. One interesting solution Seymour touts is that we should take the opportunity to “make Calgary a centre for technol10 • October 2013 BUSINESS IN CALGARY | www.businessincalgary.com
ogy-driven mobility.” For example, electric cars, driverless cars and measured toll roads. That’s fine to say but how do we get there? Various manufacturers have been saying that mass-produced electric cars are just around the corner. Trouble is they have been saying that for 20 years and it’s still not here. Or what about fuel cells? How many Calgarians have worthless stock certificates for that technology? Maybe someday the Google driverless car will hit the marketplace. But in the meantime, many municipal ratepayers are making their own technological choices. They are choosing to walk, ride bicycles, take public transit and leave the car in the garage. As this movement grows, we need to have a new conversation about the design of Calgary’s urban space. Is there a case for greater density? For secondary suites? For additional investment in environmentally friendly forms of transportation? But David Seymour doesn’t want to discuss those alternative technologies. He only wants to promote automobile monoculture. Part of the reason for this focus on the car is that the Manning Foundation is partially funded by charitable donations from major suburban land developers in Calgary. According to a blog by Jason Markusoff on the Calgary Herald website dated April 26, prominent suburban builders such as Cal Wenzel, Chris Kolozetti, Jay Westman and several others donated $1.1 million to the Manning Foundation. The Manning Foundation has several activities, including public lectures and conferences. But its most curious activity is for political training for aldermanic candidates. And somewhere in this mix is the project in municipal governance for which David Seymour is the senior fellow. I don’t have a problem with developers lobbying city hall – they’ve been doing it successfully for the past 100 years. But I have to wonder why they need to do this elaborate dance of the seven veils. They have a municipal governance project hiding inside the Manning Foundation charitable project that offers political training and produces research reports under the direction of David Seymour whose most trenchant observation to date is that “city council spends all its time talking about sharks, when in reality it should spend all its time talking about cars.” Somehow I don’t think this rigid libertarian nonsense is going to catch on with the public. BiC