Premier Danielle Smith and NDP leader Naheed Nenshi each addressed delegates and media at the 2024 AB Munis convention in Red Deer on Thursday, and it was a tale of two starkly different perspectives. Delegates are debating and voting on 27 resolutions, positions for which will be advocated to the Alberta government. rdnewsNOW will have a recap of AB Munis and what passed once the convention ends Friday.
For now, Premier Smith warns municipalities that, “We’re never going to agree on everything.” “This [convention] is a model for how we should conduct ourselves,” she remarked. “You can find common ground with every single person you talk to.
” An example that could not be clearer of her statement on taking opposite stances came Thursday when municipalities voted approximately 85 per cent in favour of allowing electronic vote tabulators to be used in municipal elections. — READ MORE: New municipal election rules could lead to increased cost and processing time — In her media scrum, Smith said tabulators have unfortunately posed issues, such as when candidate Miranda Rosin appeared to have been elected for the UCP in 2019, and was set to make a victory speech, only for late mobile votes to finally come in and prove she’d lost. Smith said these kinds of situations are avoidable if hand-counting is used, thus municipalities will continue to have to do it, “the old-fashioned way.
” Red Deer city council recently voted unanimously in support of the tabulators,.
