Welcome back to #Briantalks.
5. “How would
you sum up the current climate of Calgary in making change?”
·
“It’s interesting, I would say that Calgary
right now is a little bit scared of change. I think that has to do with the
economy, in this economic state people retrench, they don’t really want too
much change, they just want to survive in a way. I moved to Calgary because I was
attracted by the Calgary attitude of let’s try anything. And that’s true in the
arts like nowhere else, I mean people talk about how we’re an oil and gas town
or an entrepreneurial town right, and we’re a business town and all about
business entrepreneurialism. I honestly think that the most entrepreneurial sector
that we have in our city, is actually the arts sector. Every time the arts
sector does something they put it completely on the line, there is only success
or failure. The business sector has a load of information to learn from the
arts sector in this town. We need to get more of that risk taking in government
and community.”
He goes onto remember the first month he was in the office
and was invited to a breakfast, the newbies were asked to speak about what they
hope to accomplish. Brian stood up and said; “I am looking for the great
successes, and for that I am more than happy to risk and accept magnificent
failures.” If you want to get the great success, you don’t get it, if you’re
not willing to take a chance on failing big.
6. “How would
you sum up the current climate of Calgary in innovating social programs?”
·
“Again, it’s pretty risk averse. We have a lot
of social programs that we know are not quite working the way we want to, but
we’ve been in a climate of really stressed funding, of stress supports for
social programs before the May election of provincial government and with the
federal government election. So we had two governments who really were tightening
down on social programs and funding of social programs. In that environment there
is no room or capacity to try new or innovative things. I am hoping with the
new governments we’ll have the opportunity to try innovating things with social
programs.”
7. “How would
you sum up the current climate of Calgary in sustainability?”
·
“The original definition has been twisted and
turned into what anybody wants it to be. Generally people understand that we
are not sustainable. People want to get there, as long as it effects nothing in
their lives. People look at it and think it’s a problem bigger than just me and
don’t know where they fit in it, and figure they can’t do anything about it
because it’s a global problem.”
8. “What was
the most ridiculous moment you’ve had in office? (Silly, humorous, embarrassing)?”
·
“We spent 4 hours talking about 1 secondary
suite, and in that very same meeting we had a development that had 10,000
people in it, and we spent 20 minutes on that issue. 4 hours, on 1 person, 20
minutes, on 10,000 people. THAT is
ridiculous. I also find it very funny when people take themselves so seriously.”
9. “What are the most difficult
requests you deal with? What issues are totally out of your hands so you wish
people would stop asking about them?”
·
“The most difficult requests are where people
are only thinking about themselves. And where they honestly and completely have
no compassion for their neighbor. Those are really hard to deal with.”
·
“I wish people would stop asking me about
parking. It’s really frustrating how much time we spend, talking about parking.
I said in debate once; we spend more time talking about where cars sleep, than where people sleep. In a way it’s out of my
control. If you’re concerned about parking, then don’t own 5 cars.”
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