Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith waded into the debate on the City Centre airport on Friday. Smith called for a plebiscite to be held on the issue of closing the airport. The City council voted to close the airport last year in stages.
“The citizens of Edmonton clearly voted to keep this airport open in the last two plebiscites. To me it’s a pretty straightforward issue: to overturn a plebiscite, you should hold another plebiscite” Smith said. “This is the only way that the people will get a chance to have their say before the bulldozers are rushed in – and after all, this is their airport and their land, not city council’s.”
Mayor Stephen Mandel did not appreciate the attention brought to this issue by Smith.
Putting it bluntly Mandel told the Edmonton Journal that "Most Edmontonians, and myself included, take offence when Calgarians tell us how we should run our city.”
Envision Edmonton, the group behind collecting signatures for a plebiscite, want to keep the airport open. They have taken out adds in the daily papers and have been busy collecting names for their petition and many events across the city during the summer.
Some derided the Wildrose leader on Twitter. Mack Male, who often comments on issues in the Edmonton municipal scene, has always been a strong supporter of closing the airport.
He dismissed Smith's comments, tweeting, "She doesn't live here, didn't get involved at all last year, and now says negative things about (Edmonton City Council)."
David MacLean, vice president of Alberta Enterprise Group who were one of the organizations seeking to keep the airport open. He was also busy on twitter defending the idea of hold a plebiscite.
"I'm a democrat. I love ballot questions. I think citizens should vote on more issues. It's great for participation," MacLean said.
With the rather slow start to the Edmonton municipal election season Smith may have heated up the discussion. That will depend on if the Envision Edmonton group can get their 80,000 signatures by Saturday in order to enforce a plebiscite..
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