Bronco is hot to trot. Now the mayor tells us anarchists are at the gates, maybe the agitators are already in our midst, determined to destroy.
It is a low-risk card for the top city politician to play.
He paints the perilous picture. Righteousness reigns in this ruckus. No ambiguities. Home and Away. Us Against Them. Calgary and the Axis of Evil.
If there really are awful anarchists Mayor Bronco can say I told you so and blast the nihilistic nuisances with pepper spray, tear gas and armoured cars, cops, cavalry and khaki, all the way to an anti-capitalist kingdom come.
And most conservative-minded Calgarians, loving their law and their order, will applaud with enthusiasm, if only because the dissenters may block the drive home.
After all, at the World Petroleum Congress, held here exactly two years ago, the only poop hit the fan when a larger-than-life street cleaner named Tiny kneed a smaller-than-life protester, right where it hurts.
Not only didn't Tiny go to trial, citizens crowned the street cleaner a folk hero and a party was even held in his honour.
If, on the other hand, there are no anarchists in evidence and everything is quieter than Hawkwood on a holiday, Bronco can proudly proclaim he scared off the vicious varmints.
Win-win. Beautiful.
So it goes. In the last few weeks this newspaper chronicles an increasingly blunt Bronco busting in the G-8 saddle.
Statement after slamming statement.
Wham! Parks are off-limits to politics.
Bam! I won't find protesters a place to stay.
Bang! The placard-wavers better mind their manners if they know what's good for them.
Smash! The city's Catholic bishop is way off-base offering to put up the protesters.
A summary of the mayor's position is taken from his own words.
I won't be intimidated by yahoos and weekend warriors and their bullying tactics trampling on the rights of Calgarians. I have a room waiting for them at the crowbar hotel.
So there.
Yesterday, Bronco rode his political horse just a little harder.
He actually used the A-word. Anarchists.
"They're here to cause disruption, to cause havoc. They don't care about Calgarians, they only care about their very jaundiced view of the world."
Bronco says he's not giving anybody "a bum rap."
But he takes on labour unions (not popular in Calgary), the unnamed unlawful (even worse) and those with intentions "less than laudable."
He says this pre-summit sparring isn't about social justice, as his nemesis Bishop Fred Henry insists.
It's about safety, security and civilization.
The mayor speaks with the zeal of a Hollywood action movie scriptwriter, talking of setting up concrete buttresses, putting up fences, securing trouble spots, states of emergency and the fact some eerie entity called the Mass Arrest Processing Unit is ready to handcuff and haul away.
He points out big American planes at the airport, the availability of advanced anarchist-fighting equipment and the efficiency of the on-guard army.
He mentions the monitoring of incoming flights, the help of the FBI, the CIA and "other foreign agencies."
"Extraordinary precautions in extraordinary times," says Bronco, who maintains none of his warrior words are aimed at "shock value."
"Everybody has a different style," says the mayor, referring to the definite difference between himself and the soft-sell shtick of his predecessor, Al (His Beigeness) Duerr.
"You have to talk about real life situations. My job is to let people know the good and the bad."
The good and the bad, yes.
Hopefully, we won't need the ugly.
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