Editor:
People in Calgary were quick to jump on the bandwagon to criticize and blame their new mayor Jhoti Gondek for the demise of the Calgary Sport And Entertainment Centre.
The Calgary Herald's Licia Corbella wrote article after article. She even wrote a column about what she would do if she were mayor. Thank goodness she's not.
She interviewed Jeff Davison – a former city councillor and failed mayoral candidate – who regaled Corbella, offering his opinion from his "outsider perspective", concluding that about $10 million had nothing to do with it, but rather a broken trust. He offered that opinion without any personal involvement in the decision that Gondek made. The breach of trust supposition got headlines in her next column.
Jason Kenney couldn't resist jumping into the fray, directly pointing his finger at Gondek.
Brand new city councillor Sonya Sharp was very critical of the mayor's handling of the issue.
Another article waxed about the good old days when Alberta was a "can do" province, an example being its huge success with the 1988 Olympics. But they couldn't repeat that when the "no can do" votes came in against hosting another one – mostly in the face of the economy.
In case anyone has forgotten, the mayor didn't throw in the towel. It was effectively done when Murray Edwards, the majority owner of the Calgary Flames, made the call and said they were out.
I don't know what everybody wanted her to do, get down and grovel? It sounded like they wanted her to capitulate and beg everyone back to the table. The only sure thing about that is that they'd try to squeeze more money from city coffers.
Gondek had nothing to do with the deal being undone. It was money, plain and simple. Costs will surely rise and it's impossible to say by how much – construction and supply issues could cause delays. And that is why they bailed.
Does anyone remember the Teck oilsands project? Lots of blame was flying around then, mostly at Justin Trudeau. But the writing on the wall was pretty clear. They needed a partnership and they had no more equity. They needed oil costs to be guaranteed to stay high, which of course couldn't be done. And construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline needed to be completed before they would begin.
So merely days before Trudeau was going to announce if it would go through, they bailed.
Marilyn Foxford,
Canmore
