City council content to remain aldermen
Last Updated: Monday, December 3, 2007 | 9:04 PM MT
CBC News
After just 20 minutes of debate, Calgary city council voted to retain the title of "aldermen" Monday night.
Led by the three female members of council, aldermen rejected adopting the gender-neutral term of "councillor" by a vote of eight to six. Mayor Dave Bronconnier left the chambers during the debate, saying it was up to his colleagues what they wanted to be called.
Ald. Druh Farrell, who represents Ward 1, said getting rid of "alderman" would jettison some of the city's history.
"I agree with the whole idea of social justice and inclusion, but will changing a name do that? Will changing a name change everything? No, it's not that simple," she said.
But Betty Donaldson of Citizens for Calgary Councillors said the title is derogatory and outdated.
"Women who succeed under patriarchal systems and don't know much about gender — as Druh Farrell's muddled argument shows — aren't really very representative of the kind of changes that we need to have," she said.
"They are stuck in the past, and they are quirky and they are outdated."
Ward 1 Ald. Dale Hodges, the longest-serving member of council, reintroduced the motion to change the name of the office from "alderman" to "city councillor" on Monday, 30 years after the debate was first ignited.
Calgary is the only major Canadian city to still use the term "alderman," which goes against the image of Calgary as a progressive urban centre, he said.
'They are stuck in the past and they are quirky and they are outdated.'—Betty Donaldson, Citizens for Calgary Councillors
"It's not an issue I've identified personally, but it is an issue for some members of the public," Hodges said.
"A number of people who don't ever comment on any other issue will comment on this. So I think there's more support out there for a change than maybe some of us realized in the past."
Mary Valentich, a retired professor of social work who has been fighting for the change for more than two decades, said the vote to keep the term makes Calgarians look like a "bunch of rednecks" to the rest of the country.
The debate was first stirred up in 1977 and went to a vote in 2003 but was defeated by a majority of council members.
Some aldermen felt Monday's name debate was a waste of time when so many other priorities need to be addressed by the city.
