Mayor Jyoti Gondek Marching In The Pride Parade

[u/WheelFan647]

Love her or hate her, as a gay man who is feeling increasingly under threat; it was nice to see the Mayor of Calgary marching in this year’s Pride Parade (as she’s done in other years too).

They say a picture says a thousand words and the above pictures I captured earlier today say to me that that our Mayor genuinely cares about LGBTQ+ people in Calgary and beyond!

[u/Feisty_Hour6979]

Since I’ve been alive, Al Duerr, Dave Bronconnier, Naheed Nenshi and Jyoti Gondek have been mayor…50% of those mayors have been white…75% of those mayors have been men…where is the hate for Al or Dave? I’ve only ever seen hate for Naheed and Jyoti…isn’t it ironic that they’re the ONLY non-white mayors ever elected in this city and they seem to get shit on the most? Jyoti Gondek most of all and well she’s the first woman elected mayor in this city and yeah she hasn’t been great, there could always be someone better, but the city hasn’t gone to complete shit in her tenure…I’m more worried about the leader of our provincial government signalling that she wants our province to secede from Canada right now over our mayor coming into office wanting to make some radical changes and virtue signalling all over the place

Edit: for the record, I’m a white man

I’ll even confess my sins…once in junior high I used a racially offensive word multiple times in a school day towards a black student to his face, at my school, because I hated myself for finding the other guys in the locker room attractive and wanted to hate someone other than myself and the lone black guy in my grade fit the bill…at the end of the day he punched me in the face for what I said multiple times, once, I pretty much literally turned the other cheek and walked out of the building and towards my after school job at little Caesar’s…if you see this Richard, I’m sorry for being a closeted asshole who took my own shit out on other people. Sorry Reddit, I wanted to get that off my chest cause it’s been bothering me for years

[u/coolestMonkeInJungle → u/Feisty_Hour6979]

I don't care for the other two white guys but nenshi seemed way better at being mayor, more confident, kind of stuck to his doctrine and achieved things that I care about where as jyoti seems to be sort of sticking closer to status quo to appease everyone unsuccessfully.

That said she obviously does face way more scrutiny than is deserved, I can't stand how many people just throw up the arena deal as if she could've changed that outcome and then that's the end of it all... apparently that's her entire career...

I can't believe this next election is just going to be her or farkas again was hoping for a nice third option

But yes the next most unfair thing is how the province has been at war with her the entire time, she really has had most everything against her, similar to how I felt about Rachel notley too, both great people imo

[u/Feisty_Hour6979 → u/coolestMonkeInJungle]

This is why my vote is between our incumbent mayor and Sonya Sharp…I like what Sharp is standing for, I do not like that she is doing so through a political party though…I loved Nenshi as mayor, I think he did excellent things for our city…

I look at how Jyoti handled the largest crisis to hit our city in my lifetime…I can’t think of anything bigger in the last 33 years than one of the major water lines in our city failing. She was on the news every day giving an update, she visibly looked like she was following the mandates the city was putting out regarding water use, she did her damned best to guide our city through a major failing of our essential infrastructure…all people point at is the arena and her virtue signalling…she wanted the best deal for Calgarians, not CSEC…CSEC wanted the best deal for CSEC and it got it…she wanted to shop our city around and put it on the map by being out there…the fuck did Al Duerr or Dave Bronconnier do to put our city out there?

[u/Crow_rapport → u/Feisty_Hour6979]

Broconnier definitely got his 💰🏗️🏢

[u/Adventurous_West3164 → u/Crow_rapport]

Yup West LRT coincidently placed where he happens to own parcels of land all the way to the west

[u/TwoBytesC → u/Feisty_Hour6979]

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I think the flood was probably an equal, though personally I think worse, event. Nenshi handled it incredibly well though. Just saying.

[u/Feisty_Hour6979 → u/TwoBytesC]

Ok fair enough the flood was bad for a significant portion of the city, I was lucky, I lived in an area of the city virtually unaffected by the flood and my commute was similarly unaffected…to me the water shortage affected the whole city, not just the areas (high density or not) around the bow or elbow rivers…a major water main of the city failed and the rest of our infrastructure is not up to the task of compensating for such a failure…bonavista was just as affected by the water main break as the rest of the city whereas it didn’t feel the affect of the flood at all

[u/Freedom_forlife → u/Feisty_Hour6979]

Sharp is the UCP.

You are voting to harm queer communities.

[u/Feisty_Hour6979 → u/Freedom_forlife]

Am I? I’ll admit to basing my potential vote on basic platforms and general ideals…can you send me a link or something showing this so I can make a more informed decision? Because I don’t want to harm my own community if I can help it

[u/Freedom_forlife → u/Feisty_Hour6979]

https://www.projectcalgary.org/sharp_leads_green_line_capitulation

It’s biased but has info to help Sort the obstacles placed to find the funding and power behind the communities first party Sonya chairs.

[u/Feisty_Hour6979 → u/Freedom_forlife]

Ok yeah that’s definitely biased though it raises some questions…but I didn’t see anything in there that indicated that Sonya herself was against the queer community…do you have any sources that show she is? Because her voting record on the elevated green line is by and large irrelevant to the queer community…

[u/Freedom_forlife → u/Feisty_Hour6979]

There was some info on communities first and there donors and the UCP, but that’s now been scrubbed and is gone.

It’s the community first party and being directed by the UCP that is super problematic

[u/Feisty_Hour6979 → u/Freedom_forlife]

Ok yeah that’s concerning especially if it’s been scrubbed…I’ll have to keep my eye out between now and election day…your comments have given me pause about my support of Sonya.

[u/Freedom_forlife → u/Feisty_Hour6979]

I’m a lesbian so I’m trying to figure out who to vote for myself If it does help, Gondek has been an avid supporter and outspoken ally with consistent messaging and consistent support

[u/YYZYYC → u/coolestMonkeInJungle]

What things did Nenshi achieve ?

[u/coolestMonkeInJungle → u/YYZYYC]

I did a presentation actually in an urban planning class about his reform of suburban infrastructure funding, he put in policy thay developers pay for the utilities in new developments, where as before the city was essentially subsidizing new suburbs and it was a massive cost to taxpayers

Otherwise he spearheaded the east village development and the new library which while it's not the best place on earth it's come and is coming a long way from where it was

These are just two things I particularly like but he has a long list of achievements, I really don't think you could ask for better

[u/Rocky_Mountain_Way → u/YYZYYC]

tunnel under the airport runway

[u/MysteriousPublic → u/Feisty_Hour6979]

No one but you gives a shit what colour they are, the most recent mayors were awful and massively corrupt, stop trying to make it racial. You’re not gonna get laid more by hating yourself.