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Though he’s coached hockey for over 30 years, started a record label, organized music festivals, and put on large art shows, Paul Hughes is probably best known in Calgary for being a local food activist. He’s the former chair of the Calgary Food Policy Council.
He has been a proponent of establishing a food charter and advocates for more community gardens. He’s also an activist for urban chickens and still keeps four chickens in his own backyard.
 With many radically different ideas from other candidates, Hughes says innovative ideas need to be listened to.
“That one in 99, that guy who is stopping the tank in Tiananmen Square, they need to be supported,” he says.
He continues: “I’m looking at it from the perspective of, if I don’t step up then I will not be able to participate. If I’m not at the table, I can’t have a conversation at the table. If I’m not on the bench, I can’t get on the ice. If I don’t shoot, I can’t score.
“And that is only to get on the ice, to sit at the table. What if you wanted to be the dinner conversation, what if you wanted to set the tone of the conversation? That’s why I’m trying to do.”
With dinner, do you prefer water or wine?
I’m a beer drinker. I’ll have a glass of wine, though, or milk or orange juice.
Favourite home-cooked meal?
I like steamed kale and chard with butter and with a fresh backyard egg. I love food that is locally sourced.
When you have a little down time, what are some of your favourite things to do?
My son is eight, so I like playing with him, going for walks with him, riding bikes. I like urban farming, hanging out with the chickens, talking with people, listening to music.
Fondest memory of Calgary?
The most recent one would be 1111, which was the largest independent art show in Canada’s history, and had no municipal, provincial or federal funding whatsoever. We had no budget and we pulled [it] off.
Are you a dog or a cat person?
More of a chicken person. But I love dogs and I love cats. My pet feeds me breakfast, that’s my bumper sticker.
What album did you listen to last?
Johan Strauss. I’ve been listening to some old LPs of Strauss.
First teenage job?
When I was 10, I picked rocks from a farmer’s field. Then I worked at a grocery store when I was 12 as a stock boy.
Guilty pleasure movie?
All the movies I watch with my son. Up, How to Train Your Dragon…I fall for all of these animated kids’ movies.
Favourite film of all time?
The Man Who Would Be King. It’s just an amazing story.
Favourite actor/actress and why?
I really like Brad Pitt. I think he’s really diverse. Every once in a while, he does these wacky roles that are great. We write him off for being another pretty face, but he’s got some talent.
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Any challenges in the campaign?
It’s been going well. This is your chance; this is your lever. I immediately realized the leverage of running in an election. Now I’m talking and getting ideas out there. I’m doing this to show people you don’t need a million dollars.
Challenges you feel you may face as mayor?
Looking at the city of Calgary as more than just a provider of infrastructure. And I want to take my office door at City Hall off the hinges. It’ll be open for people to come in.
Candidates are promising to mastermind snow removal. That’s not what we’re supposed to be doing. We’re supposed to be creating a vision for the city for the next three years.
And there’s the massive amount of bureaucracy in this city. The city staff will come up with every excuse in the book not to do something. They will slow things down. I call it “bureau-crazy” because it’s nuts.
As mayor, how would you help create a more cohesive council?
I’m a high performance coach. You have to build a team and get them rockin’ and rollin’.
I think competition is healthy, but I would like to instill more of a team esprit de corps.
[Hughes also has ideas such as a weekly brunch to bring council together, and even made a joke about a paintball event for the aldermen: “With my infantry background, I’d take every one of them out with head shots.”]
What makes a city “vibrant?”
We need to remove the dead energy. The empty spaces need to be filled to feel healthy. I think we need to look at the Glasgow Project, where community associations were given free rent and building owners got tax breaks. It created social capital and mobilized citizens.
Also, I’d like to give students and youth free access to all city resources, so that’s any academic, recreational or cultural activity or event sponsored by the city.
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Dream roadtrip/weekend getaway?
Hitch hiking across Canada, which I’ve done. What I like about hitch hiking is it’s so completely random. That’s why God gave us thumbs. I’ve gone hich hiked across Canada four times.
Favourite Canadian band or artist?
April Wine, Trooper, Street Heart, BTO, Tragically Hip, Metric.
Favourite sitcom to watch growing up?
Beachcombers.
Favourite series now?
I don’t have a TV now, but I’ve seen a few episodes of Weeds.
Last great book you read?
I read voraciously. I just re-visited Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.
What is your most treasured possession?
The oxygen in my lungs.
If you could go back in time to meet one person, who would it be?
Socrates, and along the way I’d drop in on Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw. Then I’d beetle over to see JFK. And I’d like to stop in on Stalin and kick him in the head.
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see play the lead role as you?
Christopher Walken.
What is your greatest artistic talent?
I’m a painter. I’m an abstract expressionist. And I have the ability to take complex ideas and boil them down to a simple solution.
What talent would you like to have?
Tightrope walking? No, I would like to be able to play music, the violin or an old school synthesizer.
The last time you sang?
I sing with my son. We belt it out together every once in awhile. He loves that song by the Soup Dragons that goes, “I’m free to do what I want, any old time.”
Do you have a motto in life?
They sicken of the calm that know the storm, by Dorothy Parker. What it means is that you want to be involved in the fray, in the action.
If you were a Star Trek or Star Wars character, who would you be?
Well, I’d definitely want to have a lightsaber. Chewbacca. Or Scotty from Star Trek. Can I be an Ewok?
If you had three shazams with a magic wand, what would you change in Calgary?
- Divert resources from the landfills. Whereas countries like Denmark are achieving 98 per cent diversion, we are at something like 20 per cent. That’s got to change.
Accessing and using as much of our 111,000 empty acres of land for a local food system and seriously commit to growing and feeding Calgarians. And there are all of the economic development opportunities that are connected to that.
We consume 10 million food items a year. To use an analogy, if I was to say to you that Calgary uses 10 million hockey sticks a year, but that no one in Calgary is manufacturing hockey sticks, wouldn’t that seem like a pretty good business opportunity?
Build a society that values smart growth.
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