Now that the federal election is out of the way, I turn my attention to the upcoming Calgary municipal election. Both the mayor and the councillor for my ward have retired, so I am confronted by a sea of eager faces seeking to fill the vacancy. I have decided to ask my MLA, a fellow progressive and former councillor himself for suggestions.

This being Alberta, filling out a municipal ballot on October 18th won’t be enough. The Kenney government couldn’t resist horning in. We will also be asked to fill out a provincial ballot to elect a senator (yes, you read that right), vote on whether or not we want to change the constitution to remove equalization, and to say yea or nay to adopting daylight saving time (DST) year-round.

Normally I would trash this ballot—we don’t elect senators in this country and the second question is just a ploy to get more conservative voters out to vote for conservative councillors. But this time I’ll fill it in. I would like to opt for DST, and one of the dozen or so candidates for senator has caught my eye.

I refer to Independent candidate Duncan Kinney. Mr. Kinney has only one plank of note in his election platform, but it’s a winner. In fact, it’s the only plank that has any interest to me. Mr. Kinney is running on abolishing the Senate.

Kinney is executive director of Progress Alberta, “a worker-controlled non-profit … that advocates and organizes for leftist change in Alberta.” His shamelessly rude campaign buttons read, “Fuck Kenney, Vote Kinney.”

Getting to vote for DST is good. Getting to vote for a “senator” who wants to abolish the Senate is special.