Manning Foundation tracks Calgary city council vote trends

A report on city council voting records shows who supports increasing taxes and spending and who is more likely to oppose such measures among Calgary politicians.         

The Manning Foundation, a conservative non-profit group, analyzed 73 votes over the past three years.

It found that Ald. Andre Chabot voted three-quarters of the time to hold the line on taxes and spending questions.

Ald. Druh Farrell and Ald. Gael MacLeod were most likely to vote to raise taxes or spend more, the report says.

It will be up to voters to decide what to do with this information, said David Seymour, a senior fellow at the Manning Foundation.

“Fewer and fewer people are reading mainstream media and looking at neutral objective data like this. You have people reading on social media sites where they polarize themselves and have less of a discussion,” he said.

“If anything, I think or I hope this might actually lead to a less polarized election because you can actually have an honest discussion.”

The analysis found that on those 73 votes, Mayor Naheed Nenshi was just as likely to reject raising taxes or spending as he was to support it.