As Medicine Hat’s political unrest reaches fever pitch, expert says all sides to blame

Controversy surrounding city council has been in the public eye since last August when utility rates skyrocketed. The rhetoric reached a fever pitch earlier this year when council voted to limit the powers of Mayor Linnsie Clark.

Nicole Frey, a contentious advocate leading the charge for further transparency in Medicine Hat, claims that she is not a bully, but rather a victim.

“I’m being called an abuser, I am the abused,” Frey told CHAT News on Tuesday.

“It’s very, very frustrating from a citizen standpoint to be seeking clarity and having the narrative coming out from our local government that I’m the problem for doing so.”

Coun. Shila Sharps was the first to ring the bell about the code of ethics issues facing city hall.

Sharps said she has mixed feelings about the full details about the complaint being released, but said it’s more important now than ever to seek civil discourse.

“Maybe toning it down so we can all hear each other will get us there faster. I think there’s been, in my opinion, there’s been this ‘if we don’t agree, let’s talk louder’ and that isn’t working,” Sharps said.

“It isn’t working for anybody. So, I think it worked in the past. Things worked in the past when you had civil discourse because that discourse is so important and I don’t know how we get there, but I think it’s just one person at a time trying every time.”

READ: Medicine Hat councillor has mixed feelings about unredacted complaint report

Political consultant Jim Groom said that both community members and politicians are responsible for evolving harmful rhetoric and creating divisiveness.

Groom said that this could be the new normal and that everyone needs to remember to attack the ideas, not the person.

“It’s definitely a personal issue and when it does get that personal, it’s really hard to back it off,” Groom said.

“There is no great recipe for saying this is what we need to do to stop it. It has to start somewhere, but I think what tends to occur is that it just revs back up again and it’s one issue will come up and then before you know it, the gloves are off again.”

Sharps said that a solution is simple.

“I really think we own that as individuals and we got to take a look in the mirror and take a big breath,” Sharps said.

“I will be the first to tell you that I have lost my cool. Probably in the last 48 hours, I had to go, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it,” she said.

“You have to have that introspection and say, okay, my bad. I shouldn’t have done that and you got to do that and I’m about to actually do that. It all falls back on you as individuals. What’s acceptable to you?”

Frey said that it’s up to politicians to do the right thing.

“I think reminding people that there’s still a human being standing there. We may not like what that human being is doing, but that there’s still a human being there,” Frey said.

“But I go back to the government that needs to give us some avenues and outlets to express and deal with that frustration. Because without that, it [miscommunication and frustrations] only grow.”

Groom said that at the end of the day, it’s about trying to find common ground, finding a way to shake hands and walk away when a disagreement ensues.

“We’ve become so polarized that we no longer just disagree with the policies. We really do disagree with the person and unfortunately, when you express that, it really changes the discourse from a polite interchange of ideas and concepts to an attack on the individual’s personality and who they are,” Groom said.

“Let’s face it, we can’t change who we are. We can change our approach. We can change our policies and positions. We really can’t change who we are as an individual, and unfortunately, that’s where the attack has come.”

by Adrian St.Onge

As Medicine Hat’s political unrest reaches fever pitch, expert says all sides to blame

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