Dave Bronconnier

Dave Bronconnier
35th Mayor of Calgary
In office
October 22, 2001  October 25, 2010
Preceded by Al Duerr
Succeeded by Naheed Nenshi
Personal details
Born (1962-10-07) October 7, 1962
Calgary, Alberta
Spouse(s) Cindy Bronconnier

David Thomas Bronconnier (born October 7, 1962) is a Canadian politician, who served as the 35th Mayor of Calgary, Alberta.

Personal life

A fourth generation Calgarian (his great grandmother was born in Calgary in 1895), he grew up in the southwest community of Glenbrook and attended Viscount Bennett High School. Bronconnier enrolled at the University of Calgary but left after a short while to pursue work opportunities. He worked for the City of Calgary Electric System and for Alberta Government Telephones and then in 1983 started a small construction company. In 1987, Bronconnier and his business partner founded First General Services. The company specializes exclusively in insurance restoration and fire damage repairs and now employs 15 people. He is married to Cindy Bronconnier, with whom he has four children; Adam, Weston, Leslie and Grant.

Political career

Bronconnier served on Calgary's city council as the Alderman for Ward 6 for nine years.[1] He was first elected in 1992 and then served 3 terms before deciding to run for mayor. In 1997, Bronconnier ran in the federal election as the Liberal candidate for Calgary West. Bronconnier was defeated by a landslide in this election by Reform Party candidate Rob Anders.[2] Long serving and very popular mayor Al Duerr was retiring leaving the position open. Bronconnier narrowly defeated Bev Longstaff, Duerr's protégé, winning the mayoralty race of 2001.[1] He became Calgary's 35th mayor.[3]

Bronconnier was re-elected in 2004[1] with nearly 80% of the votes. Only 18% of the population voted, making it the lowest voter turnout for a municipal election in Western Canada.[4] He campaigned for re-election in the 2007 Calgary municipal election and was re-elected with 61% of the votes.[5]

On February 23, 2010, Bronconnier announced that he would not seek reelection in the 2010 municipal election.[6] He was among the finalists for the 2010 World Mayor prize.

In November 2011, Bronconnier was named by Premier Alison Redford to be Alberta's trade commissioner in Washington, D.C. for a temporary nine-month term.[7]

Mayoralty

Environmental leadership

Mounting international, domestic, and celebrity criticism[8][9][10] of Alberta's underdeveloped Green technology infrastructure prompted former Premier Ed Stelmach's government to commit $4B CAD to a province wide green capital projects plan in 2009.[11]

In 2009 Bronconnier and Pembina Institute was awarded at the "UN Climate Change Summit" with the 'Reaching Out to Global Energy Award' for the technical and engineering collaboration with Calgary's 'Greening the Grid program'.[12] city consulted with Pembina for technical advice.[13] Pembina scholars compiled the 'Options for Reducing GHG Emissions in Calgary'[14] to advise the city on how to implement infrastructure projects for environmental protection. The city acted on these recommendations through city owned company Enmax decided on a series of public works facilities such as the 'Shepard Energy Center', and a 12 Turbine wind farm that supplies wind power for Calgary Transit's C-trains, and the District Energy Centre a heat capture energy plant providing heat and energy for the downtown core.[15] The city publication of the 'Greening the Grid' was entitled 'Calgary Climate Change Action Plan: Target (down arrow) 50' (Target Minus 50)[16]

The 'Greening the Grid' program's objectives are to empower city facilities by renewable sources by 2012. Calgary Transit's C-trains' electrical needs were partially provided by wind power in 2001, by 2009 the inception year of 'Greening the Grid', the C-train were fully empowered by 'Ride the Wind' a program launched by Enmax and wind power engineers 'Vision Quest Windlectric.[17] committed $250M CAD on the 'Greening the grid' program.[18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The City of Calgary - Office of the Mayor - About the Mayor". Calgarymayor.ca. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
  2. "Calgary West - Canada Votes". CBC.ca. 2008-11-07. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
  3. "The City of Calgary: Meet Mayor Dave Bronconnier". Content.calgary.ca. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
  4. Fong, Petti (2007-10-15). "Decent wage but no place to live". Toronto Star. thestar.com. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
  5. "CBC News - Calgary - Election squeakers shake Calgary council, mayor re-elected". Cbc.ca. 2007-10-16. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
  6. Calgary Mayor Bronconnier won't seek re-election. Calgary Herald.
  7. http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Bronconnier+Alberta+temporary+trade+envoy+Washington+with+video/5681881/story.html
  8. Landry, Frank. 'Alberta defends environmental record to US Legislators'. September 8, 2010, Calgary Herald. http://www.thewhig.com/2010/09/08/alberta-defends-environmental-record-to-us-legislators retrieved October 20, 2013
  9. Cosh, Colby.'James Cameron in Alberta's Oil sands' Maclean's, http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/10/04/judgment-day/ retrieved October 20, 2013
  10. Cyderman, Kelly. 'Alberta gets fresh black eye with tar sands coverage'. Feb 22, 2009 http://oilsandstruth.org/alberta-gets-fresh-black-eye-tar-sands-coverage, retrieved October 20, 2013
  11. Renata D'Aliesio.'Alberta pumps $4B into eco-plan', Calgary Herald July, 2008. www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=d0a9034c-d770-4951-b692-52a3c287cc86&sponsor= retrieved Oct 20, 2013
  12. Sylvester, Krista. 'Calgary mayor back from climate summit with city award'. Metro News Calgary. December 21, 2009, http://metronews.ca/news/174876/calgary-mayor-back-from-climate-summit-with-city-award/ retrieved October 20, 2013
  13. Earl-King, Jennifer, 'Calgary recognized in Copenhagen for climate leadership. 660 News Radio, Dec 16,2009 http://www.660news.com/2009/12/16/calgary-recognized-in-copenhagen-for-climate-leadership-2/ retrieved 20, 2013
  14. Row, Jessie, Cobb, Paul, Welk Erin, ect.al 'Options for Reducing GHG Emissions in Calgary', Feb 2011. http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/ESM/Documents/ESM-Documents/Calgary_GHG_Research_Report_Appendix.pdf?noredirect=1, retrieved Oct 20, 2013
  15. Boynton,Sean-Paul,'Calgary adopts district energy to combat emissions', July 15, 2010, Calgary Journal http://www.calgaryjournalonline.ca/news/34-news/1262-calgary-adopts-district-energy-to-combat-carbon-emissions. retrieved October 13, 2013
  16. Harvey, Linda 'Water and Energy conservation: city of Calgary" ,Environment Canada, July 2009 http://www.ec.gc.ca/p2/default.asp?lang=En&n=E6117DC3-1 retrieved October 20, 2013.
  17. Dixon, Jorden,' Riding the Wind right through town', Oct 6,2010. The Calgary Journal. http://www.calgaryjournalonline.ca/september-print-issue/environment/1327-riding-the-wind-right-through-town retrieved October 20, 2013
  18. CBC News 'City Commits $250M to switch operations to wind power', April 9, 2009 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/city-commits-250m-to-switch-operations-to-wind-power-1.800930, October 20, 2013
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