This is rather bizarre. After fighting against an August downtown road closure (or an "opening," as the Bow River Flow organizers call it), Ald. Ric McIver is now hopping on a bike and participating in the event — sort of.

To recap, here's a sampling of what McIver's said about the plan to close a couple lanes of Memorial Drive to traffic: 

"We're all getting the message that the public is really mad about this. I'm all in favour of block parties, but not along Memorial Drive. . . . It really is time to stop the madness." (Calgary Herald, April 16, 2009)

"Calgarians were not pleased (when they first heard about the closure). Best I can tell, they're still not pleased. This is what's wrong with council. People really believe they know better than the people who put you in the chair." (Calgary Herald, May 12, 2009)

Now McIver's participating in a bike ride happening in conjunction with the Memorial event. And the bike tour will close road lanes in six — yes, six — communities.

Ald. Druh Farrell led the push on council to close Memorial, and she's surprised by Ric's participation to say the least. "You could bowl me over with a frigging feather," she said when told about McIver's plan.

"It is astonishing. I guess it all depends on who brings something forward whether or not Ric supports it or not — not whether or not it’s a good idea."

McIver, meanwhile, apparently sees nothing strange about the situation.

"You know what? You’re talking about apples and oranges, if you don’t mind," he told me. "When I took exception... to Memorial Drive was when the proponent was suggesting closing it down every summer for four weeks — and potentially every Sunday forever. I still think that’s a terrible idea.

"This is a much different situation. It’s a one-hour event, whatever it is. I don’t see any correlation there at all."

I pointed out to Ric that he was still fighting the Memorial closure when it was trimmed down to one August Sunday.

"The biggest reason was is because the proponents were still talking about expanding it to four Sundays and then every Sunday again," he said. "And you know what? There was no festival on the table when I was opposed to it. I’m sorry, we checked it, even in council. 'Is there an application, anybody actually actually asked for a festival?' and the answer was 'no.'

"So I’m all for festivals. I’m on the record for trying to support festivals in several ways. But it wasn’t a festival thing when I was opposed to it. It was shutting it down.... If you want to do that with a secondary road in a neighbourhood where the neighbourhood agrees, great. Shutting down a major road, whatever major road, just because — I’m sorry, I still oppose that. Why? Because it’s a silly idea."

What do you think? Is McIver making sense or making excuses?