With a grand total of six fluoride plebiscites behind us, the question will be on municipal ballots for a seventh time in 2021
A time-honoured tradition of Calgary municipal politics is back again: the fluoride plebiscite.
City council voted this week to ask Calgarians whether they support reintroducing fluoride to the city’s water supply, opening the door to bringing it back 10 years after a vote to stop fluoridation.
The City of Calgary website on water fluoridation says there were five votes between 1957 and 1998. But the city’s archives department confirmed Tuesday that a 1966 vote was inadvertently left off the list.
The question will be on municipal ballots for a seventh time in October.
Here’s a look back at more than 60 years of debate on fluoridating the municipal water supply.
The City of Calgary website on water fluoridation says there were five votes between 1957 and 1998. But the city’s archives department confirmed Tuesday that a 1966 vote was inadvertently left off the list.
The question will be on municipal ballots for a seventh time in October.
Here’s a look back at more than 60 years of debate on fluoridating the municipal water supply.
1957
Calgary’s first fluoride vote took place in the late 1950s, 12 years after Brantford, Ont., became the first Canadian community to begin fluoridating its water.
The debate was contentious. Camps for and against the idea emerged, including a group called the Calgary Pure Water Association. Proponents said Brantford’s experience proved that fluoridating the water could deliver “spectacular improvements in dental health,” while people opposed said it amounted to “compulsory medication.”
Provincial regulations at the time dictated that a two-thirds majority was required to approve the change.
But the results came nowhere near that threshold. Only about 200 votes separated the “yes” and “no” camps, with a slim majority rejecting fluoride.
An October article in the Calgary Herald by Joanne Mace said the fight against fluoride had been “most dramatic.”
“What did Calgarians learn from the fluoridation issue, which seemed to be as hot as the point of a dentist’s drill digging into a decayed tooth? Only that people are mighty peculiar about what properties are contained in their drinking water,” she wrote.
1961
Fluoride was back on Calgary ballots just four years later, when alderman Ted Duncan brought forward a motion to hold a second plebiscite.
Once again, two-thirds of voters had to approve water fluoridation for it to pass. But voters rejected it by just 126 votes.
Duncan was dismayed, but he told the Calgary Herald he hoped the measure would one day be approved without the province’s supermajority requirement, telling the paper, “I’m going to work for a simple majority if it kills me.”
1966
Calgary’s third fluoride plebiscite was the first time a simple majority would have given water fluoridation the green light.
That year, several Alberta communities, including Edmonton and Drumheller, approved fluoride.
But while the vote was still close in Calgary, the margin in opposition grew larger, with about 6,000 more votes against the move than for it. Fluoridation was dead in the water again.
Later that year, the city began a free fluoride pill distribution program, facilitated by the province. Calgarians could go to a doctor or dentist to get a fluoride prescription for their child, and then pick up the tablets at one of three city locations.
1971
Talk of another fluoride vote began early in the year, with a pro-fluoridation group urging city council in March to make a final decision so they could start campaigning.
On Oct. 8, 1971, the Calgary Herald ran a story with the headline, “Once again, the fluoride issue.”
And once again, the debate was heated. At one point, a Seattle doctor visited Calgary to oppose the city introducing fluoridation, calling the effort a “hoax.”
For the fourth time, voters said no to fluoride, with 55 per cent of voters opposed.
The day after the election, a report in the Herald declared, “Calgarians have again refused to imbibe a popular Canadian drink — fluoride and water.”
1989
Almost 20 years passed until the fluoride vote returned, but Calgarians changed their mind the fifth time around.
A narrow majority approved water fluoridation after a well-organized pro-fluoride campaign ran radio and newspaper ads promoting the dental health benefits.
Calgary didn’t begin adding fluoride to the municipal water supply until 1991.
1998
A squeaker 8-7 city council vote put fluoride back in front of voters one more time in 1998. Coverage from the time noted the issue continued to be “highly polarized.”
Polling ahead of the municipal election said the results were too close to call, and the city was expecting high voter turnout partly because of controversial plebiscite issues — there was also a vote that year on whether to continue allowing VLTs.
About 55 per cent of voters opted for continuing water fluoridation.
*Original article online at https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/a-brief-history-of-calgarys-long-relationship-with-fluoride-votes