Adam MacVicar

Adam MacVicar covers the politics of local government, focusing on how decisions at city hall and in the Alberta legislature translate into budgets, transparency fights and concrete changes on the ground. His reporting tracks the pressure points between municipal officials, provincial leaders and voters, with particular attention to leaked documents, accountability measures and high-stakes campaigns such as Alberta’s referendum on its place in Canada. Alongside policy and politics, he follows major civic projects and redevelopment schemes, documenting how infrastructure, public spaces and housing plans reflect those same political choices.

City hall budgets and transparency

MacVicar is Global Calgary’s city hall reporter, and much of his recent work centres on the politics of budgets and how transparent council is with residents. He has broken stories on confidential budget documents that project steep property tax increases and hundreds of millions in extra operating costs if council funds every stated priority, framing the leak as a test of the mayor’s narrative that spending requests are only a “wishlist.”

He follows the fallout from those leaks through multiple pieces, reporting on the mayor’s pledge of “fiscal discipline” ahead of four-year budget decisions and tracking how internal documents and public speeches diverge or align.

His coverage also highlights the procedural side of transparency. MacVicar reports on a councillor’s push for a provincial review of closed-door meetings after that councillor admitted leaking budget documents, treating the episode as an entry point into broader questions about when council chooses to debate in public and when it does not. He connects those concerns to structural reforms, such as a proposed municipal lobbyist registry introduced in the wake of an RCMP corruption investigation into city hall, and shows how provincial officials frame transparency as a core priority while leaving the city to design its own system.

Across these stories he focuses less on personalities and more on the mechanics of accountability: how documents are handled, how investigations unfold and what rules change in response.

Alberta referendum and independence debate

Beyond city hall, MacVicar covers Alberta’s referendum on its constitutional status and the political campaigns built around it. He reports on Forever Canadian, a group that has pivoted from promoting national unity to registering as a third-party advertiser to campaign for Alberta remaining in Canada, detailing scrutiny of the group’s activities and accusations that it has effectively been campaigning all along.

In this coverage he follows the formal rules of Elections Alberta, the tactics of political actors and the implications of third-party advertising for the tone and reach of the referendum debate.

He also fronts explainer-style segments on Alberta independence and the economy, outlining how proponents of separation frame independence as a path to prosperity and greater control over natural resources, while economists and business leaders warn of a much bleaker outlook.

His reporting stresses that even extended uncertainty can carry economic costs, and he situates those warnings within the larger political conversation surrounding the referendum. Social bios for MacVicar reinforce this focus by describing him as covering city hall and politics for Global Calgary, reflecting a beat that spans municipal governance and the province’s wider constitutional questions.

Municipal projects and urban change

MacVicar regularly links politics to the physical shape of the city by reporting on major municipal projects. His work includes coverage of the Olympic Plaza transformation project, describing how construction plans for a central public space signal changing priorities for downtown and sit within broader debates about revitalization and spending. He reports on the Green Line LRT surface route finalized by council, explaining how an at-grade alignment down 10 Avenue S.W. will reshape transit access and end at a downtown station, and noting the council committee discussions that led to the choice.

He follows long-term community investments such as the new library at the Symons Valley Centre, including timelines for completion and the role of such amenities in growing neighbourhoods.

MacVicar also covers housing affordability in Calgary through data-driven stories, citing CMHC projections on how many new housing starts are needed annually over the next decade to close the affordability gap and examining whether current construction trends are sufficient. Across these pieces he treats projects as political artefacts, showing how council priorities, provincial policies and referendums on questions like Alberta’s future in Canada filter down into transit lines, civic spaces and housing supply.

Investigations and party politics

Earlier in his career at Global News, MacVicar reported on provincial party politics and allegations of misconduct, and that thread continues to run through his work. He has covered an independent MLA’s request that the RCMP investigate alleged mass voter fraud in Jason Kenney’s leadership race, detailing claims about thousands of fraudulent email addresses and describing how voting kiosks were allegedly used to access those accounts during the leadership vote. In that piece he sets out the allegations, the political stakes and the absence of confirmed outcomes with clear distinction between claims and proven facts.

More recently, he connects investigations directly to municipal governance.

His reporting on the RCMP probe into alleged corruption at Calgary city hall examines how questions about influence and decision-making spur calls for new transparency measures, including the proposed lobbyist registry, and how councillors differ on whether to act before the investigation concludes. The consistent focus is on how investigations - whether into party leadership races or municipal dealings - reshape political narratives, institutional rules and public trust.

MacVicar has worked as a digital journalist with Global Calgary since 2017, covering city hall and municipal issues after earlier roles in radio and television news. His beat sits at the intersection of politics, policy and the lived experience of residents, and his work combines leaked documents, economic analysis and on-the-ground reporting from council chambers and project sites.