While the 2024 news cycle was often dominated by stories at the federal and provincial levels, a few municipal stories were so newsworthy that they captured the attention of the Canadian public.
Some of the most notable stories from municipalities in 2024 can be found below.
Woke Remembrance Day ceremonies observed nationwide
This year’s municipal Remembrance Day ceremonies were tainted by woke initiatives like lengthy land acknowledgments and pro-Palestine activism. Various municipalities faced backlash for overlooking the true importance of Remembrance Day – honouring veterans and fallen soldiers.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek was one of the municipal leaders who faced severe backlash for her six-minute-long land acknowledgement during the city’s ceremony.
Various Canadians called her out on X.
“Land acknowledgment is like the leftist prayer that they have to say before any event,” said one user.
“I was born here; this is my home and native land. She is a settler,” said another.
Similar reactions occurred in Toronto when Aretha Phillip, the city’s chief of protocol, began the ceremony by focusing on Toronto’s colonial history.
One user responded that veterans don’t need lectures about land claims, colonialism, racism, or other virtue signalling and pandering on Remembrance Day.
“This isn’t about you; not everything is about you,” wrote the user. “This day is about our military, past, present, and their families. If you aren’t getting up to the mic to speak about service and sacrifice, then just sit down. We don’t want to hear it. Save it for another day when people are willing to put up with your virtue signalling.”
A municipality on Vancouver Island, Saanich, featured a reading of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, on Remembrance Day. The originally scheduled poem was also allegedly replaced by a 14-minute land acknowledgement.
Another municipality tried to appeal to Muslims on Remembrance Day when Sir Robert Borden High School in Ottawa played a Palestinian protest song during their ceremony.
“Even their apology is disrespectful and biased,” wrote one user.
Pro-Hamas protestors invaded the Remembrance Day ceremony in Kingston.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called out the wokeism.
“What an absolute disgrace that so many woke activists & authorities used Remembrance Day to push their divisive and radical causes, denigrating our history and the brave military members who sacrificed for it,” he said. “We are a proud country with a proud history, and everyone who lives here should be grateful to call Canada home.”
Green Line LRT “multi-billion-dollar boondoggle”
Calgary’s Green Line LRT was initially supposed to be 46 kilometres with 29 stations and cost $4.6 billion. It was subsequently reduced to merely 10 kilometres with seven stations while rising in cost to $6.2 billion.
Much of the backlash fell on Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, whose approval rating plummeted due to this fiasco overlapping with the city’s water crisis.
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi also shouldered some of the blame, as he was at the helm when the initial proposal was made.
Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen called the updated plan “unacceptable,” stating that the project had become a “multi-billion-dollar boondoggle that will serve very few Calgarians.”
The province revealed the most recent update on the LRT on Dec. 13. They said their revised plan would save $1 billion while adding five more stops, making the route 76% longer while serving 60% more Calgarians.
Alberta towns implementing bylaws combatting Pride crosswalks and flags
Sticking with Alberta municipalities, two Alberta towns adopted bylaws banning pride crosswalks and non-government flags.
The first to do so was Westlock, which banned all non-standard crosswalks. The bylaw passed by a vote of 663 for and 639 against. It also required all flags flown on municipal property to be exclusively federal, provincial, or municipal flags. The existing rainbow crosswalk in the town was removed.
Following Westlock’s lead was the town of Barrhead. The vote in Barrhead was not as close, with 653 voting in favour and 492 against.
The bylaw featured the same rules around crosswalks and flags as the one in Westlock.
In fact, Westlock’s Neutrality Team was in contact with Barrhead’s team throughout the entire process – advising them when appropriate.
All existing crosswalks and flags were removed from public property, but private property and businesses remained untouched.
Emo mayor’s bank account garnished for not succumbing to Pride activists
Moving from small Albertan towns to a rural township in Ontario, a town with a population of around 1,200 people caught international headlines.
This occurred after the town was fined $15,000 for voting not to recognize Pride Month or fly the Pride flag.
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario sanctioned the town’s mayor, Harold McQuaker, to pay $5,000 to Borderland Pride. The town would be forced to pay $10,000.
The mayor subsequently refused to pay the fine or take the DEI training the tribunal attempted to force on him.
“I utterly refuse to pay the $5,000 because that’s extortion…and will not take the training,” McQuaker told the Sun. “I did not do anything wrong. If anybody needs training, it’s the LGBTQ2+ to quit pushing their weight around and make demands that people can’t live with.”
Following that, the mayor had the funds garnished from his bank account.
Olivia Chow favouring bike lanes over Oct. 7 vigil
A community-led vigil to honour the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel was missed by Chow because she was too busy discussing bike lanes.
“I got caught up in the long discussion on bike lanes over Kingsway area where emotions were very high and the meeting went quite long and by the time I was done, I was exhausted,” said Chow. “I didn’t even know precisely what time the event was.”
A petition calling for Chow’s resignation was launched following her absenteeism. The petition has over 12,500 signatures.
The petition was launched by Toronto resident Richard F.
“Since the sobering Oct 7 massacre last year, I have expected our city’s leaders to take a stand against this rising hatred, but instead, I have witnessed an alarming lack of response. Specifically, Mayor Olivia Chow has been consistently absent at crucial moments when we needed her to stand with the Jewish community,” he wrote in the petition.
He added that Chow wasn’t doing enough to combat antisemitism in the city.
“The situation is beyond disappointing; it’s alarming and cannot continue. We implore all concerned citizens and those who value justice and equal representation to join us in demanding the resignation of Mayor Olivia Chow. Her failure to support the Jewish community of Toronto is indicative of a broader inability to serve her populace effectively,” said Richard.
