Let's Not Follow Toronto's Lead on Plastic Bags

Following Toronto city council's rushed and ill-conceived ban on plastic bags, one Calgary Alderman is suggesting we go down the same path:

Ald. Gian-Carlo Carra said the bags “don’t have a place in the future of the planet and civilized society.”
“Let’s embrace the inevitability of the future and get rid of those things,” Carra said.

That's quite a statement, but it doesn't really offer anything useful. If we "get rid of these things", what will we use instead? Paper bags are actually worse for the environment in many ways, and reusable bags have their own problems.  
Moreover, it's unclear whether banning plastic bags will have any measureable impact on landfill use. Plastic bags typically make up less than one per cent of what ends up in landfills. so banning plastic bags is going to have a very small impact either way. In fact, in San Francisco, the percentage of plastic bags in the trash actually increased following that city's ban.
Plastic bags are, of course, recyclable (Toronto's recycling program includes plastic bags - although, Toronto's recycling program has other issues to deal with). Additionally, many people re-use the plastic bags they receive from retailers - as garbage bags or picking up after their dogs, for example. So if stores aren't giving out the plastic bags any more, people will just have to purchase plastic bags themselves.
Banning plastic bags might satisfy the inate desire many politicians have to "do something" about a perceived problem, but this is one "problem" we don't need the government to solve.