Dear Ted,

I wasn’t there for the Ted years. While you were Mayor, I had little kids, my business wasn’t doing so hot, I was up early every day, and the bandwidth I had available for politics was provincial level and up. I heard about your DUI and I know there were issues with the Monarch, Invest Medicine Hat and others, but I didn’t take time to connect dots. There are people trying (rather quietly) right now to make the case that your faults are too many to overcome. They may be right; or they may at least have a few good points - I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter, and there are bigger fish to fry. The fact is that you had your seat on Council the moment you turned in your papers.

Let’s look at that move, using comparators. Consider these three cases, prior to submitting their nomination papers:

>> McGrogan: Would have been a guaranteed win for Council / Could only be a guaranteed loss for Mayor.

>> Samraj: Would have been a guaranteed win for Council / Maybe a 20 percent chance for Mayor.

>> Clugston: Guaranteed win for Council / Maybe a 30 percent chance for Mayor.

How do we read this? McGrogan is, firstly, delusional. Secondly, and more important, it belies any claim that he wants to serve his community. If he was convinced we needed him that badly, he would have gone for the sure thing and run for Council, guaranteeing him another 4 years to represent us at the table. But no, he had to go for Mayor, guaranteeing his disappearance. An incompetent political play.

Samraj is on a mission, but it’s not to become Mayor. Of course he would take the job if it landed on him, but his mission is deeper, more philosophical. After Friday’s forum, it’s clear that Kris has had it up to here with all of us kidding ourselves about realities: realities of what we can afford, what we can gather, what we can spend, how long things take, what a legitimate decision process actually looks like, what the side effects and consequences of decisions are, and so on. Kris needed the spotlight of the Mayor’s race to give greater amplification to his message, and although I abhor the votes he’s going to peel off of Clark, what he’s doing is a high calling of democracy. This was a noble political play, and our city is fortunate to witness it.

Clugston: If it were only main-character syndrome at work, you would have run for Mayor. You didn’t, and the 14-minute interview you gave to Tommy was a real throwdown. A Council seat was yours for the taking. You took it, and immediately pointed to City Hall and called it a dumpster fire. You described how you used to seek out the doctors and businesses we needed, and you’d drag them here kicking and screaming to show them what a great place this is. You told how you used to random-call a citizen every week and bring them to city hall to tell you what was what.

That interview was great. It was a main-character performance, and you brought the alpha. You continued the same way onstage at the chamber forum. I don’t believe you have a hidden agenda - I think you really want to help, and you want it so much you talked yourself down to second seat to be sure that you HAVE a seat. A good political play.

Finally, you accepted the uncertainty of which Mayor you would be serving under (yes, UNDER). At the time you announced, things were 50/50 Drew or Linnsie, and there you were, saying “Yes, I am Ted Clugston, former Mayor, builder, doer, icon, loved, hated, baggage-laden, unrepentant, say what you want, I don’t care - it’s 911 time and we have a City to save and I’m ready to step up and do what I can and if that means serving under Linnsie Clark then that’s what I’m ready to do.”

That was noble, Ted. Well played.

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Last Friday evening, right after the chamber forum, I posted this statement:

“Stuart Young, Chris Hellman and Ted Clugston are undoubtedly going to win.”

Someone at church yesterday asked me about that, as if it were an opinion or an attempt to boost any of you. They misread. My words were chosen as a statement of fact, not opinion.

All three of you are bigger than me, bigger than my page or my reach. The fact I want all three of you to win is incidental: you all just ARE going to win, and I’m stating that certainty for the electorate to face. The sun will rise in the east, and Young, Hellman and Clugston are going to be on Council, so we may as well proceed through the next three weeks in light of these realities.

The biggest thing I love about this, Ted, is that now that we have you, we don’t need Drew anymore.

Glad to have you aboard.