Manning Centre to work with municipal candidates

The Manning Centre in Calgary wants to help candidates running in this October's municipal election.

The founder of the conservative think-tank, Preston Manning, says the centre wants local politicians to learn about running government within its financial means.

He says it’s important for aldermen to understand how they are affected by the current financial state of the province.

"It cascades down to municipal governments as well so we have fiscal challenges and we think some of the ideas we’ll generate will help the councils deal with those," Manning said.

He says the aim is to teach candidates that they must be accountable to voters.

"Taking into account the views of the citizens, not just as voters but as consumers, producers, workers, investors in the city," said Manning.

He says the centre is not trying to run a slate of conservative candidates in the October election.