You know, the kinds of people who have strong negative feelings towards a rainbow crosswalk are, in my experience, not committed to inclusion. Most normal people are going to not care or not notice. So when a whole town gets a bug up their ass about it, well, I’m going to make some assumptions about the town.
Please read the whole article, not just the headline.
Council, including the mayor, claim to have been against this bylaw and supposedly supported rejecting it.
It seems that they made a tactical error in not allowing it the full three readings in council. Since it was a motion brought forward by the community, refusing to give it the full three readings in council meant that it had to go to plebiscite (a binding referendum) under provincial legislation.
Yea this was the town that rather than actually deal with it was like “oh golly gee, let’s let the idiots of the town decide”
They did this to themselves to try and make themselves look neutral but instead just looked stupid. We can’t have an inclusive world when cowards like them refuse to fight.
Honestly, better to know as a queer person that you have a better than 50/50 chance of meeting a raging homophobe in the town.
Council did visitors a favour. They just don’t seem to know it.
As long as we’re spinning things, maybe they chose to follow the will of the people rather than imposing their own views.
At this point, we don’t and can’t know whether letting it go to plebiscite was deliberately choosing to follow the will of the people, hoping to distance themselves no matter the outcome or a tactical error that led to a result they claim to be disappointed with.
Removed by mod
It still had the majority so they still have to follow it. Roughly 30% of the people even bothered to vote on this. Most just don’t care enough to vote on these issue as it doesn’t effect them.
could of
S.M.H
That result came after the decision that led to the plebiscite so could not be factored into the decision. Unless you think they had a crystal ball telling them the outcome ahead of time.
A plebiscite is, by definition, the means by which a governing body lets the people decide. You can easily argue that an outcome should be valid only if there is, say, 2/3 majority, but that’s not the system we have.
Also, I’m not a huge fan of being called a twat when I was being civil, respectful, and thoughtful. I’m too old to put up with much shit, so… blocked.
I could care less if you block me, they chose the plebiscite instead of dealing with it in council because they thought the town was better than this, but like it’s Alberta…
The MAGAs are winning, even here.
These people certainly seem to have interesting priorities.
Between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday, 1,306 Westlock residents – or 33.5 per cent of eligible voters – reported to a community hall to vote either yes or no to the following question:
“Do you agree that: only federal, provincial and municipal flags may be flown on flagpoles on Town of Westlock municipal property; all crosswalks in the Town of Westlock must be the standard white striped pattern between two parallel white lines; and the existing rainbow coloured crosswalk in the Town of Westlock be removed.”
The yes contingent won by 24 votes: 663 in favour to 639 opposed. Four ballots were rejected during counting, the town said.
…
Voter turnout on Thursday was higher than both the January byelection (1,271) and the 2021 municipal general election (1,221) when Westlock had 370 more eligible voters.
My feeling is that a town that bans pride flags should not have pride flags. Imo it’s dangerous to minorities to tell them they’re welcome when they are not.
