I want to get people to think seriously about the issues that will face them over the next 10 years. Calgary is not as cozy a city to live in as it was 10 or 15 years ago. It is a big city now, with big-city problems. It is no longer possible to brag about how easy it is to get around in Calgary. The last time that I was able to brag about that?was 15 years ago.

Calgary is now also a city that is well "served" by organized crime. We are not only a big city that has transportation problems, we are a big city with big-city crime and big-city social problems. WE NEED TO SUPPORT POLICE SERVICES

As cities grow exponentially, so do their problems, and they cannot be solved with the simple remedies that were at their disposal 20 years earlier.

We must use all of the best, current, scientific information regarding the functioning, development, spread, and social cohesion of big cities in order to make the best possible planning decisions. And in our calculations we must also include the changing demographics of our city - the increasing number of seniors, and the increasing number of immigrants for whom English is a second language.

We must also take into consideration the "boom and bust" nature of Calgary's economy. More booming and busting is something that we want to avoid at all cost, but in order to do so we must work much harder to diversify our local economy. We cannot continue to rely on Alberta's bountiful fossil fuel resources to pull us out of difficulty. We must use the advantage that we have today in order to provide ourselves with future opportunity.

The new city council must be creative in ways to encourage new businesses to locate in Calgary and must find ways to encourage them to spend money in research and development. We cannot leave this - our future - to the provincial or the federal governments.