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Bell: Smith's Alberta political code of conduct targets woke bullies

Premier Danielle Smith's municipal affairs minister Dan Williams is on fire. You've got to read this guy.

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It’s a big day. A big day when the self-appointed zealots of wokeism will cry over their avocado toast.

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It is a day when there is news of a code of conduct for local politicians, including those serving on city councils like the ones in Calgary and Edmonton.

For far too long city hall watchers have witnessed the sad spectacle where somebody didn’t like what a certain politician said. They didn’t like what the politician stood for.

It could be another politician, a fellow member of the same council whining and complaining and demanding the individual’s conduct leads to a public shaming, a political spanking, a demand they be re-educated with some sessions of sensitivity training.

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Local politicians, and I speak as a witness to Calgary city council, always knew they could be next in line to be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, the latest target to be cancelled by the mob rule of a cancel culture.

Dan Williams, Premier Danielle Smith’s point man for cities and towns and other local governments, has had enough.

And he is not playing games.

There will be a code of conduct for local politicians but it will be about how they must conduct themselves in representing the public interest.

It will set standards on such things as misuse of influence, unauthorized use of municipal assets, disclosure of confidential information and serious misconduct.

The code of conduct will not become a weapon to silence opinions other people don’t like. There will no Office of Hurt Feelings.

And if there is a legitimate complaint the code of conduct was violated it would be investigated by an independent third party and not some kangaroo court.

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“This will not be politics by other means. This is not about censoring speech. The rules I’m putting in will have firm guard rails,” says Williams, the province’s municipal affairs minister.

“If you want to oppose someone politically, do that in the council chamber. Do not try to weaponize it or turn it into some HR complaint, to accuse someone of something when you fundamentally disagree with their politics not their actions.”

Williams says the Smith government believes they need to step in and oversee a system that’s fair and above board.

One thing is clear with Williams.

Trampling on legitimate free speech and dissent cannot happen in today’s Alberta “even if it’s unsavoury to the woke mob or the people who are the majority on a council.”

“We need to allow the free expression of speech.”

Williams is not finished.

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“We see this in our workplaces. We see where there is cancelling someone using HR policies, attempting to escalate something when the real beef is someone doesn’t like the politics of the dissenting view.”

Williams sees this as unAlbertan and unCanadian.

“We should not have the power of the State to censure or censor individuals because they have a different political view.”

‘Free and open debate’

A code of conduct should be about serious misconduct and now it will be.

“We need free and open debate. How else can we expect our elected officials to truly respond and have the best ideas prevail?”

How does Williams figure this happened?

When did free speech, speaking your mind, turn into something watched over by self-appointed judges of what can and cannot be said?

“I think there seems to have been a fever pitch that came across our country and our culture that was so easily offended to say honest things and very blatant true things.

“Hopefully I think we’ve turned a corner as a society. There are many, many Albertans and Canadians who believe free and open debate is essential for good decisions.”

The municipal affairs minister adds if you can’t have free and open debate “the whole enterprise of democracy is dead in the water.”

Williams says free debate is the oxygen legislatures and city councils “need to breathe.”

He pushes back against his critics who accuse the provincial government of sticking its nose in where it doesn’t belong.

He says the province has the legal authority to set these ground rules and local governments “need to have someone overseeing and regulating how they operate.”

Witnessing the many misadventures over recent years at Calgary city hall, it is tough to disagree.

Finally, the man vows to make it “abundantly” clear to one and all what a code of conduct for local elected politicians will be about and what it will not be about.

Methinks he made it abundantly clear in this interview.

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