Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier has officially said he is not running in the next city election coming up in October. Bronco first became mayor in 2001 after narrowly beating Bev Longstaff. Ever since Bronco has breezed to victory. What will be Bronco’s legacy?

While I did enjoy Bronco’s tough talk to the Alberta government to shake a few more bucks out of the provincial capital, much I did not like.

In 2002, the G8 Summit came to Calgary. This was the first time I had ever participated in a protest before. Protestors wanted to have a BBQ and rally in Riley Park. Bronco responded by saying, “Park space is there for the people of this city to use and enjoy. It's not at the behest of others who want to take it and abuse it.” He then went on to say that, “The 1960s are over. The world has changed.” Protestors could not even put up posters during the G8.

Freedom of speech and the right to protest be damned, Bronconnier even went so far as to resurrecting an old municipal bylaw prohibiting political rallies in parks in the lead up to the G8. After all the fascist-like threats and barks from Bronco, protestors in the end went ahead anyway and had a peaceful BBQ and rally in Riley Park.

Bronco continued Calgary’s long line of cronyism. He who pays the piper calls the tune. In 2007, Bronco had amassed a $1 million political campaign money chest. Thankfully it took a thief who stole $23 million from Kenya, who came to Calgary to kick poor people out of their affordable rental units to build luxury units, to force Bronco to spend from his money chest. To date Bronco will be leaving with $350,000, which he says he will donate to charity.

To amass $1 million in political donations you have to be piping the right tune behind closed doors. I got ahold of Bronco’s donor list a few years ago. Unfortunately most of the donors were numbered companies. The rest were hundreds of small $1,000 donations from construction, engineering, and developers. Before entering politics Bronco just happened to own a construction company.

The result of Bronco’s tenure was a construction paradise. The City went crazy building roads, overpasses, and C-Train stations. Urban sprawl continued unabated. In 2006, Bronco speaking about Calgary said, “We don’t have sprawl today.” I don’t know which day Bronco was talking about, but urban sprawl here is about as bad as it gets.

Suburban developers feasted at the City trough. Inner city developers did pretty well too. They built high end luxury condo towers, often destroying the affordable housing that the City was trying ‘so hard’ to create. To the last, donors were handsomely rewarded.

Later on Bronco seemed to have a change of heart. During the Plan It Calgary debates, Bronco went from talking tough to protestors to talking tough to suburban developers. This was just bluff and bluster though.

Bronco is the classic two-faced liberal. (He actually ran as a Liberal against Rob Anders in the 1997 federal election. Anders doubled up on Bronco with 51% of the vote, compared to 25% for Bronco). In public, a Liberal’s heart pangs at poverty and environmental destruction, but that is all it does. When push comes to shove, like most Liberals, Bronco chose money. At the last minute in the Plan It Calgary debate, in a backroom meeting with developers, Bronco did the ultimate flip flop. The result was that Plan It Calgary was watered down to meaningless slop. This is what democracy looks like.

The expansion of the $1 billion C-Train into the southwest suburbs is said to be Bronco’s legacy project (note: war contractor SNC-Lavalin got the contract). The C-Train route just happens to go along where Bronco owns property, ka-ching-ching. This is old school politics at its worst.  

Beyond inflating the price of Bronco’s properties, is the southwest C-Train green or just enabling more suburban sprawl? By constructing a C-Train into the suburbs, it allows the 8 to 5 business crowd to live in the suburbs and get to work in less than 30 minutes. This just encourages more people to live in the suburbs and drive around all day and night after work to ensure that Calgary’s eco footprint remains the worst in Canada.

The result is that people who live in the inner city are stuck with a public bus system that sucks ass. Inner city dwellers are actually subsidizing the C-Train out into the suburbs. It would have been far more cost effective and environmentally sound to have created a kick ass public bus system in higher density areas of the city. If people want to live in the suburbs they should at least pay the true cost of living out there.

Backroom Bronco’s legacy is the continuation of suburban sprawl and pork barrel politics. The legacy continues. Thankfully it is time for him to go, hope the door hits him on the way out. Unfortunately, as The Who sang at the Superbowl recently, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Sadly, the new boss could even be worse.