Calgary Ward 11

On July 1, 2009, Calgarians awoke to newspaper headlines announcing that the Southwest Ring Road was doomed.

Following a vote on the Tsuu T’ina Nation that saw the NO side tally 150 more votes than the YES side, everybody in the media immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was the end of very long story that started in the 1950s.

Was it the end? Or was it a false ending in a cliff-hanger with more twists and turns than a Steven King novel?

The vote held on June 30, 2009, was the closest we have ever come to hearing the word YES from the Tsuu T’ina Nation on the issue of the Ring Road. The NO side carried the day with 150 more votes than the YES side.

However, as anybody in politics will tell you, the difference here is really just 76 votes. If 76 of the voters change their minds, the YES side wins.

So does it make sense to give up and walk away when the margin of victory is so narrow?

If I may use an analogy, this is like watching the Calgary Stampeders walk away from a ball on the goal line after failing to score on their first down.

A football team wouldn’t do that. Even if they fumble on the first down and lose a few yards, they regroup and try again. And they keep trying until the rules prevent them from trying any more.

Fortunately for Calgarians, the situation with the Tsuu T’ina is not governed by CFL rules. This is politics! Nothing ends until we say it ends.

How many times have we voted on the fluoride issue in this city? How many times has City Council debated the aldermanic pay-raise issue?

The responsible thing to do here is to recognize that we are very, VERY close to getting YES for an answer from the Tsuu T’ina Nation. This means that the offer we made them was nearly — but not quite — good enough.

So let’s take a break and then restart negotiations with an improved offer in the fall of 2010. We are too tantalizingly close to simply walk away from the table now.

During that time, we can start planning and preparing for an eventual environmentally responsible Weaselhead crossing should that ever become necessary.

We can draw up the plans; we can begin acquiring the properties. At the same time, we can finish the process of increasing the capacity of 14 St SW to a level that will carry us through the 20-year period we will need to complete the Weaselhead crossing.

All of this will demonstrate to the Tsuu T’ina that we are very serious about finding an all-city route that will bypass the reserve completely.

If, at that point, we still have not received the answer we want, then we will at least be in a position to move quickly the only option that remains open to us.

Or to continue the football analogy that I started above, if we fail to convert on our second down, we can choose to kick a field goal.

Brent Johner Ring Road

I am told that Ald. Brian Pincott today announced that he favours the construction of an LRT line along the 37 St. right-of-way in southwest Calgary.

Below is an article I wrote for the Calgary Herald that was published in 2003. This article proposes the construction of a trolley line along that same right-of-way.

Three years earlier, while running in a by-election in Ward 13, I proposed building an LRT line along this route.

It’s a good idea, but I won’t claim credit for it. I borrowed the idea from Yves Dansereau of the Weaselhead Society, who proposed building an elevated tramway to move commuters and serve as a tourist attraction.

So does the original idea for a commuter line belong to Dansereau? Probably not. Over the past 60 years, many different ideas have been offered by many different people.

Here is the original text of the article that appeared in the Calgary Herald.

All Aboard

Brent Johner is an advocate for parks and ecotourism in Calgary. Today he invites you to take a leisurely journey into the future on an imaginary trolley line that he believes would serve as a significant new tourist attraction for our city in the middle part of the 21st century.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Welcome aboard Calgary’s historic west side trolley system. We will be leaving Spruce Meadows in a few minutes on the way to our first stop at Fish Creek Park.

It is a gorgeous sunny afternoon here in Calgary. The air is pure and clear giving us an excellent view of the Rocky Mountains from the observation deck. In a few minutes, after we cross Fish Creek, you should also be able to get an excellent view of some 600 head of buffalo foraging on the hillsides of the Tsuu T’ina Nation.

Now please take your seats so that the conductor can get this popular tour of Calgary’s scenic west side underway. Since we are sharing this regional pathway system with pedestrians and cyclists, we will not be traveling over a maximum speed of 15 kms per hour. However during our journey please remember to keep your arms inside of the trolley car.

Our first point of interest on this historic journey is the trolley car itself. This particular car is an exact replica of the trolley car that once cruised the beltline in early 20th century Calgary. It was built and first put into service following a bond issue in the year 2020 by the West Side Trolley Corp. — a private corporation whose shares are held by provincial and municipal governments, the Tsuu T’ina Nation, Spruce Meadows and a consortium of southwest developers.

This car is one small part of a $100 million regional trolley system built over the first half of the 21st century that is fully integrated with Calgary’s transit and pathway system. At this time of year, the west side trolley serves as a vital transportation link for tourists connecting many of our west side attractions including: Spruce Meadows, Fish Creek Park, the Nation’s Cultural Centre, Buffalo Run Golf Course, the Weaselhead Natural Area and Heritage Park..

All year round, though, the trolley system also provides a small but important additional service for southwest commuters. Starting at Spruce Meadows, the line follows the west side of the city past Fish Creek Park, meanders through the Weaselhead/Glenmore area, crosses the Glenmore Dam and stops on the edge of the beltway where commuters make easy connections to bus and LRT lines.

Therefore, in addition to servicing employment centres such as the Rockyview Hospital, Glenmore Landing and the David Crowchild Business Park (completed in 2025) the trolley also allows for easy short trip connections to Chinook, South Centre, and West Hills shopping centres. We hope that you, as guests in our city will avail yourself of these many opportunities to visit our parks, attractions, golf courses and commercial districts.

Now please direct your attention to the windows on the west side of the trolley car. That large body of blue water dotted with colourful sails is the Glenmore Reservoir. It supplies the drinking water for more than half of the city. The drumming you hear is part of the annual Dragon Boat Races and if you look just past the sailboats you will see several boats in the water right now practicing for the big race in August.

That green area on the horizon at the west end of the lake is Calgary’s famous Weaselhead area. It is the only urban park in Canada that is home to breeding territories for three different hummingbird species. It is also a semiannual staging area for the rarest swans in the world — which you can see from this car every April and October.

That steam ship you can see pulling into the dock just beyond the Heritage Park palisade is the S. S. Moyie — a replica of an 1898 original. It is part of Canada’s largest living historical village which is now coming into view on your right. All the sights and sounds of pre-1914 life are brought back to life by a cast of hundreds every summer.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to direct your attention to the structure ahead of us just past the hospital. What you are seeing is the Glenmore Dam which is celebrating its first century of existence this year. The next tour of that historic facility begins in 30 minutes.

Here now just beyond the dam in the valley below you can see the Calgary Golf and Country Club and Sandy Beach Park. As you can see from the people floating down the Elbow River, Sandy Beach is one of Calgary most popular swimming holes.

In just a moment ladies and gentlemen we will be stopping at the north end of River Park where you will be able to make easy transit connections to other Calgary attractions including the zoo, the museum and the science centre. Thank you for riding with us today on Calgary’s historic west side trolley system.

To those of you in the lower car using the west side trolley to commute to work today — thank you. Have a pleasant day. We’ll see you all in eight hours for a relaxing and scenic ride home to the southwest suburbs.

© Brent Johner. Originally published in the Calgary Herald, August 2003. Reprint rights available.

Brent Johner Brian Pincott, Ring Road LRT, Public Transit, Ring Road