Another election, another close call for Druh Farrell.
The incumbent councilor for ward 7 in the inner city, won again on Oct. 16, besting her main opposition, Brent Alexander, 9,753 votes to 8,916,
Farrell’s close shave mirrored her last campaign in 2013 when she won with just 37 percent of the vote but still defeated a large field of challengers.
Ward 7 includes the communities on the north side of the Bow River, from Parkdale east to Bridgeland, along with the SAIT and U of C campuses.
Farrell described the race as “the most negative campaign I have ever seen in Calgary.”
It would have been “so easy” to go negative, said Farrell, but she refused to “go there.”
She “refused to believe” that Calgarians wanted to delve into that kind of campaigning, with lawsuits, the “anonymous trolls on Twitter,” and the unnamed political action committees.
“We should be very concerned about that.”
Her campaign team kept it positive, and they talked about the issues and found solutions.
In an interview before results came out at the 1918 Tap and Table in Kensington, Farrell said she is excited to show the public how she can bring more “diversity.”
Furthermore, once Farrell rests up, her first order of business she would like to address in council is secondary suites.
She wants to get it out of council’s hands and move it to a “more elegant, streamlined system.”
As well, the diversity she would like to see in council includes gender, culture, and race differences.
“Let’s have members of council understand that (diversity needs to be included),” said Farrell.
Election night proved to be an adventure for others besides the councillor for Ward 7.
Elections Calgary had a few issues, including running out of ballots at multiple voting stations across the city.
Voters stood in line for many hours in some cases, and stations were open well past the designated closing time of 8 p.m.
That made counting late as well, and the first real results for anyone appeared on TV screens around the city at about 10 p.m.
We’ll have to be better prepared next time. – Druh Farrell
The races for council produced a mixed bag of incumbents and new people.
Four wards, 3, 5, 6 and 11 sent new councillors to city hall, while incumbents took all the remaining races.
