Sean Chu 'not campaigning' by door-knocking in another councillor's ward
David Bell | CBC News | Posted: July 4, 2016 11:00 AM | Last Updated: July 4, 2016
He says he’s meeting people who will eventually be in his ward, but not everyone agrees
With new ward boundaries coming for next year's municipal election, one Calgary councillor is being criticized for door-knocking in another councillor's ward.
Sean Chu says he's just meeting people in communities which will be added to his ward. But not everyone agrees.
Alix Williams, who lives in Brentwood, had a visit from a city councillor last week.
Not her city councillor, Druh Farrell, but Chu from Ward 4 and he left his City of Calgary business card.
"He just told us that he was hoping to run in a year-and-a-half and if we had any questions, that we could always contact him," Williams explained.
"But we've always felt fine just contacting our own ward councillor and that's who we would contact."
Druh Farrell says Chu is confusing voters and he shouldn't be campaigning with material paid through his office budget.
"Regardless of whether your campaign pays for that or the city pays for that, we have clear guidelines on not campaigning with City of Calgary material."
'I'm not campaigning'
Chu rejects the criticism, saying he's just introducing himself to voters in areas that will be added to his ward in next year's election.
"As far as I know, there's no law being broken, right? Because again, I'm councillor for Ward 4 and also the whole city and I'm not campaigning," Chu said.
"There's office, as councillor, and there's campaigning," he said.
"And I'm not doing campaigning whatsoever. When you go out as a councillor, you cannot talk about campaigning and I've never done so."
The city's ethics advisor is expected to give councillors some guidance later this summer on dealing with the new boundaries.
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