Meet the Calgary mayoral candidate: Jeff Davison

Calgary’s municipal election is now less than a month away and nine people are vying for your vote for the mayor’s seat.

CTV News Calgary invited each of the mayoral candidates this year to answer the same three questions in three minutes or less.

The video segment is posted in full above and the answers are transcribed below.

Jeff Davison is a mayoral candidate running as an independent.

Why are you running for mayor?

Davison: “I think Calgary is the greatest city on earth, and I want to continue to make it that way.

“And, yes, we have challenges with public safety and affordability and infrastructure, but those are things we can overcome with leadership experience and vision. My goal is very simple for our city: Create a safe, affordable place of opportunity for everyone.”

What’s the most important issue that needs to be addressed in the city in the next year?

Davison: “The most important issue I’m hearing in our city is public safety. From transit, to walking around downtown, to just tents we’re seeing popping up in communities. Overwhelmingly, people say to me, ‘Jeff, our city isn’t safe anymore. What happened to our city?’ Well, that’s the biggest challenge we’re going to have to solve, which is why I’ve proposed a task force on how we fix it.

“We really do need to bring together all three orders of government. We need to bring our policing agencies and all of our wraparound care agencies in the community together to agree that we have one single problem. How do we clean up our streets and what is our individual role in solving that major challenge?

“I don’t want to see silos anymore, I want to see solutions. And that’s what we’re proposing to do within the next six months.”

Why should Calgarians vote for you?

Davison: “I think because I’ve been listening to Calgarians. For the past year, I’ve been out campaigning and heard that we’re having challenges keeping up with our roads and our water. We’re not managing growth in ways that we feel positive about our city, and that opportunity seems to be slipping to other jurisdictions.

“I think all those issues aside, this election comes down to one thing: Leadership. And who do you trust? And to me, having spent 25 years in energy, technology, health care and having the experience of being on city council.

“That’s what we need to move forward quickly: Somebody who understands the market here, somebody who understands where we’re going as a city and somebody who can say we have a vision and that is to create that safe, affordable place of opportunity for everyone.

“That’s why I’m asking for your vote for mayor on Oct. 20, because I believe in Calgary, and I believe there’s a better path forward.”