City Notebook: Okay, okay, okay

By COLLIN GALLANT on October 15, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

It’s not polite, but I’ll voice what you’re all thinking about while considering what having a premier as a potential MLA would mean for Medicine Hat.

“What’s in it for us?”

Those who know about the byelection (and many don’t – ask around, you’ll be surprised) in the northern half of Medicine Hat and Cypress County are probably wondering if getting UCP leader and Premier Danielle Smith into the legislature may remove the chip off the forgotten corner’s shoulder.

Many here will offer their votes on principle, of course. They have no lack of motivation to support the conservative candidate.

Some may recall that when Don Getty lost his Edmonton seat in the 1986 general election, Stettler in his new riding somehow became the HQ of the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. It still is.

NDP brass were quick to label Smith a “tourist” this week in support of their candidate Gwendoline Dirk. Alberta Party Leader Barry Morishita portrays his party as beyond politics as usual.

Both are in a race they didn’t expect when they signed on to face UCP MLA Michaela Frey, ready to question the incumbent on what’s been done for riding over the last four years.

Already the top of talking points are Highway 3 twinning, and a base funding agreement with HALO. Both also seemed to have been taken care of already, or at least had the ball start rolling.

Old habits die hard, perhaps. Remember when all of Medicine Hat’s infrastructure dreamers were gripped with visions of an overpass at Dunmore Road?

Shouldn’t we be thinking a little bigger? Bigger than the new hours at the Port of Wildhorse?

Well, city hall is currently cooking up a couple of large industrial projects (Smith and everybody else in the race are in favour of hydrogen and carbon capture development).

It also might like some certainty about its municipal power franchise in a utility sector that’s undergoing massive upheaval.

A recent spate of announcement from outgoing premier Jason Kenney was explained as a backlog created by holding announcements during the mourning period for Queen Elizabeth II. Now, with a byelection on, announcements for the region are likely to be held til after the vote.

Smith also has to form a cabinet, a task that should be accomplished after caucus and policy meetings with the membership this coming week.

Some other questions that will need to answered by candidates for voters:

– Is COVID on the ballot? Smith has made it a priority to talk about, or at least happily answer questions when asked. The folks still sporting car flags added some fuel to her party campaign. But many politics have fallen through the thin-ice of COVID politics.

On the flip side, the more Smith talks about it, the more it seems her opponents have to defend public health measures. The vast majority of Albertans (yes, even in the southeast) agreed or at least accepted restrictions, passports system, etc. That same majority are also clearly sick of hearing about them.

– Is coal mining on the ballot? Irrigation underpins the economy in the Brooks region. Landowners, land leasers and water rights holders, are pretty protective of their turf.

– Will we see an NDP or UCP candidate for Cypress-Medicine Hat rise to the top in the Brooks-Medicine Hat campaigns?

The Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce is exploring the potential to hold a candidate’s debate. Stay Tuned.

In the region

Redcliff’s a happening ‘burg… Deni Watson is the town’s Citizen of the Year, as awarded by the town’s Lions Club. The Trukker’s rest stop owner also works as a family-school liaison worker, provided free meals for truck drivers during the early pandemic, and still backs the Meals-on-Wheels program.

The German-Canadian Harmony Club turned 60 with a bash last weekend. (Isn’t it Oktoberfest?) Stay tuned for some interesting construction news in the town.

A look ahead

City council’s organizational meeting occurs Monday – a yearly requirement that also denotes the one-year anniversary of last year’s election and one year in office for the largely remade council roster.

100 years ago

With no frost yet in the city, the fall was a marvelous state of affairs for local gardeners, the News reported in early October 1922, while high wind int he region hampered threshing.

Police in Macleod brought murder charges against a man and wife after the woman confessed to “kicking to death” a man in Hillcrest Mines. Police thought that impossible considering the women’s slightness and instead believed the man died while consuming drugs during a “bizarre baptism” ritual in the couple’s home.

They were converts to the “Rocky Mountain House Religion.”

The CPR would spend $60,000 in Medicine Hat improving the roundhouse to accommodate the larger “5000 class” engines.

Dr. C.E. Smyth was the winner of the first city golf championship held at the new municipal course after carding 36-round score of 191.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com