Tomb

A few months after the 2010 municipal election dust has settled, focus has quickly shifted from campaign antics to the daily machinations of the new city council. Issues such as secondary suites, LRT expansions, the airport tun… err… underpass and fluoridated water are front and centre as are the rookie mayor and aldermen.

But what about those former elected officials who, by either their own choice or voters’, returned to a more private life? You know, the alderguy who regularly voted “no.” The one-term alderman with the “cowboy ethics” who hails from Toronto. What’s life like outside the constant glare of the public eye?

One thing is certain, when you talk to them they all sound a lot more relaxed and happier.

RIC MCIVER

The 2010 municipal election marked a precipitous ending to former Ald. Ric McIver’s nine years on council. The staunchly conservative refuse-nik was considered by many to be a shoo-in when former mayor Dave Bronconnier announced his retirement nine months earlier. After all, McIver had been forever waiting for that announcement and had fundraised for the top spot for three years.

But when Naheed Nenshi, considered a long shot from the outset, was crowned king on election night, McIver stood dumbstruck in front of his supporters, stammering out a seemingly off-the-cuff, barely conciliatory concession speech.

“It’s no fun losing,” he now says. “I made no secret I had my whole life organized around leading this city, so when voters went another way I had to start making some new plans.”

No wonder why it took McIver some weeks to draw up a post-council career roadmap. After his major loss, McIver expressed interest in outgoing environment minister Jim Prentice’s Calgary Centre-North seat, but it was longtime Conservative Michelle Rempel who got the party’s nod. McIver also reportedly pestered other Conservative MPs about their retirement plans, hoping to jump into any vacant seat in the next federal election.

The 2010 election loss may have been just a bump for McIver’s political ambitions. Rumours have swirled that McIver may join the Wildrose Alliance Party.

But until then, he has started up a consulting practice, McIver and Associates Inc., and is treading into the import/export business with a liquid glass, a nano-thin material that can reportedly be applied to everything from plants to deter fungus, to walls to repel graffiti. “It’s one of the best new products in the world,” he says. “You’ll be blown away.”

But punching in a nine-to-five workday doesn’t sit well with McIver, a self-described Type-A workaholic, who now pens a weekly newspaper column on city hall politics.

“I miss being at the table before decisions are made instead of hearing about them after,” he says. “It was one of the reasons I wanted to get into it in the first place so that I could make a difference. It’s my intention I’ll be back in public life in the future.”

BOB HAWKESWORTH

Collectively, city council lost 65 years of experience when five of its members were either ousted by voters or chose to retire. Twenty-three of those years belonged to former Ald. Bob Hawkesworth, whose mayoral campaign could be summed up thusly: bizarre.

The 59-year-old’s campaign took an uncharacteristically negative and dour tone, targeting opponents and the airport tunnel issue with zealous ad hominem attacks.

He focused on the tunnel, warning it would cost taxpayers upwards of $823 billion, and Nenshi, who, Hawkesworth declared, would sell Enmax Corporation for a song. It was a calculated (if not an ultimately doomed) strategy aimed at defining the low-key council veteran of 23 years.

“The only thing I was negative about was the airport tunnel,” he says. “In order for us to be able to say yes to public transit we had to say no to the airport tunnel because we can’t do both, and I believe that’s still the case.”

Unfortunately for him the tactic didn’t work. With plummeting polling numbers, a deflated Hawkesworth threw his support behind TV persona Barb Higgins (who, by the way is MIA) in the last campaign days.

Despite the failed bid and tarnish to his publicly perceived jovial persona, Hawkesworth has no regrets. “I did what I wanted to do, and I did it on my terms.”

But after three months of reflection, family visits and Christmas baking, Hawkesworth is readying for his next challenge.

“It’s right up my alley and it’s work that I love to do,” he says, before clamming up and promising to cough up the details a few days later — once his new boss gives him permission to talk.

We’re still waiting…

JOE CECI

Unlike his fellow ousted council comrades, former Ward 9 alderman Joe Ceci left politics on his own terms, announcing his pending departure in April 2009, months before the election.

“Politics is like anything else,” says Ceci, who sat on council for five terms. “If you take a break from it you kind of get a different perspective.”

Since handing his office keys to his successor, Ald. Gian Carlo-Carra, Ceci has spent much of his time gaining “perspective” in his basement, building a home office, complete with a roaring fireplace.

Yet, he’s not a complete layabout, buying groceries at 2 p.m. and checking out this year’s High Performance Rodeo. “I get to do all these things at times when there’s not a lot of people around, which is great.”

A vocal supporter of the city’s arts community, Ceci continues to sit on the board of the Calgary Arts Development Authority — a role he relishes.

“CADA really has a set of challenging goals for 2011,” he says. “The big things there are the creation of arts spaces in the city. The board and staff are all focused on that.”

Tagged as one of last council’s “Flaky Four,” a quartet of aldermen, including Hawkesworth, Druh Farrell and Brian Pincott, that often banded together on left-leaning issues, the former social worker makes no apologies for his progressive beliefs and wears the label as a badge of honour.

“The four of us really pushed the needle on a lot of environmental and social issues together,” says Ceci, who plans to re-enter the social services sector. “If one pundit wasn’t ready to deal with that from his perspective, that’s on him, not on me.”

JOE CONNELLY

Few could argue Joe Connelly’s innate ability for self-promotion. The salesman-like campaign pitches, the slick website, the rug in his mayoral campaign headquarters emblazoned with gigantic letters J-O-E.

But even Connelly, whose voicemail ends with “Make it a great day,” couldn’t crowd-source enough voters to launch him from a one-term alderman to the city’s 36th mayor.

“Calgary is a unique place where people really do give a damn about their city as a whole,” says the Toronto-born Connelly. “That’s something that we need to manage and foster. Not just the politicians, everybody has to realize we live in a great city at the end of the day and need to protect that.”

With the political life now a memory, Connelly is back in business, consulting for Edmonton-based printing company Cowan Imaging. It’s a tad easier than the 18-hour workdays as an alderman. “Being home for dinner is a huge change,” he says, though he’s not ruling out a return to the political stage.

“Everybody should do politics at one point in their life just to see how challenging it is,” he says. “At the end of the day it’s easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize, but unless you’ve really been in the chair… you really don’t know what it’s like.”

JON LORD

He’s a man of many hats: former alderman and MLA, mayoral wannabe, small business owner, musician, journeyman painter, carpenter, drywaller and problem solver.

“You name it,” says Lord, who jumped into the mayor’s race after a nine-year absence from city politics, finishing in sixth place.

Now Lord can add another feather to his cap: community assistant for rookie Ward 14 Ald. Peter Demong.

On the surface it sounds like an odd relationship — a former alderman mentoring a newbie at city hall. But to Lord it makes perfect sense. After all, he did the same thing — hiring former five-time alderman Craig Reid — to hold his hand through his rookie term in 1995.

“As far as I know I’m the only one that ever did it,” says Lord, whose new role pays from $43,000 to $54,000 a year. “So I guess that makes Peter now probably only the second one that’s ever done it.”

Lord replaces Demong’s transitional assistant, Craig Chandler, a right-wing Christian Conservative and executive director of the pro-business, small government Progressive Group for Independent Business — a lobby group Lord has a longtime affiliation with, though only as a member, he insists.

Although Lord supports the PGIB advocating for small businesses, the two parties haven’t always “seen eye-to-eye,” he says.

“PGIB has been known to be a bit extremist at times,” says Lord, who owns Casablanca Video in Marda Loop. “I thought that I was able to bring something to the table to give them an alternate point of view to help make them more effective.”

And if you’re wondering who is in Ward 14’s driver’s seat, the answer is Ald. Demong, says Lord.

“I’m just providing support, backup, advice, suggestions and stickhandling on his behalf,” he says. “Some people wouldn’t do that because they might feel threatened hiring people with more experience, but I think it’s actually a mark of a first-class manager.”