naheed nenshi – Page 11 – Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 will be Calgary’s 36th mayor’s day, and his/her time to shine and to celebrate his/her victory. However, October 18th, which is election day, will truly be Naheed Nenshi’s day, win or lose. Nenshi has come a long way from being a low polling candidate overshadowed by Ric McIver and Barb Higgins, to a surging 3rd candidate who can now claim one and a half newspaper endorsements (one from the Calgary Sun and an honorable mention from the Calgary Herald) and polling in the 20s at least. Nenshi’s background and history is one of great interest, and far more detailed and known than his challengers Higgins and McIver.

Biography

Nenshi was born in Toronto and grew up in Marlborough in Calgary, and the beginnings of his political interest began right at Queen Elizabeth Jr/Sr High school, where he was the Prime Minister of school’s 10th mock parliament. Interesting enough, then MLA Bob Hawkesworth was invited as Speaker of the House. Nenshi went on to become president of the University of Calgary’s Students’ Union, and his current campaign manager Chima Nkemdirim, served as Vice President External.

Nenshi would finish his university education with a Bachelors of Commerce at the University of Calgary, and would also obtain a Masters in public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

He would go on to working with McKinsey & Company abroad, one of the world’s top business consulting companies. Nenshi decided to return to Calgary at the age of 29 despite a lucrative offer in Geneva, according to the Herald. Back at home, Nenshi started his own consulting firm, the Ascend Group, and worked with various companies including the Gap, the Government of Alberta, and the United Nations.

Nenshi joined Canada25, a group for Canadians under the age of 35 that worked towards developing public policy. In 2002, he was the lead author of “Building Up : Making Canada’s Cities Magnets for Talent and Engines of Development.”

He has served as the Chair of the Epcor Centre for Performing Arts, was the lead author for imagineCalgary’s 100 year plan, co-founded the Better Calgary Campaign, and was deeply involved with Civic Camp’s beginnings.

Nenshi is now a professor at Mount Royal University’s Bissett School of Business.

Civic involvement

Nenshi’s initial involvement with city politics was during the time when council was considering on selling Enmax. He believed the sale of Enmax to Enron was completely undervalued and should have been noted by city council. Whether or not Nenshi did anything to prevent the sale of Enmax, we now know what did end up happening to Enron.

Nenshi contested in Ward 3 in 2004 after Canada25 decided to field an aldermanic candidate after then Alderman John Schmal decided to step down. Nenshi placed 4th behind 3rd place (now current Ward 3 alderman) Jim Stevenson and 1st place (former Ward 3 alderman) Helene Larocque.

Nenshi continued to engage in civic politics with the Better Calgary Campaign, a local watchdog of civic politics. He has involved himself in Civic Camp, another group devoted to civic engagement and renewal. He has also been a Calgary Herald columnists, writing on various issues about city hall before he decided to run for mayor.

The draft

Nenshi campaign in the early days began with a draft on Facebook. Nenshi responded and for some time, it was really a decision between running for alderman or running for mayor. Some would have liked to see him run in an aldermanic race, but Nenshi decided that the better path would be to run for mayor. Has it paid off for Nenshi to run for mayor? The momentum says yes, but the final confirmation will be the poll numbers.

What has been so spectacular is that the Nenshi camp started off with someone else wanting Nenshi to run. Has it been the same for Ric McIver? Yes to a degree, but Nenshi started out as a low profile candidate despite his civic involvement around the city. In order to get from a grassroots campaign with almost no name recognition (in the general public) to a statistical tie with Higgins and McIver is an amazing feat itself.

The Better Ideas

Nenshi’s strongest weapon to date has been his platform. People have been captivated by the fact that Nenshi has a strong platform, which details what needs to be fixed and how. It is probably why Nenshi has attracted the young people. It has not just been through social media. The fact that the next generation of Calgarians are skeptical of candidates who provide vague platforms and ideas has helped Nenshi. He has gone on the offensive with nothing to lose since the beginning, and that has helped him tremendously.

Nenshi’s 12 better ideas, coupled with his cutredtape.ca and buildthetunnel.ca websites, have propelled Nenshi to the top of the race. He emerged from the lower tier candidates, and this has earned him an endorsement from the Calgary Sun and an honourable mention from the Herald. It’s because Nenshi had something that the editorial boards could read into and work on that he gained the endorsements, and that has left his competitors in the dust.

Scuffle with the chief

When Nenshi asked two questions about the police department funding, he received the wrath from Calgary’s police chief Rick Hanson. While Nenshi targeted Ric McIver, it brought out Hanson, who called Nenshi’s position to be “ill-informed” and “irresponsible.” This was the turning point for Nenshi’s camp, according to the Fast Forward Weekly, as Nenshi had demonstrated he was a viable candidate if other responded to his campaign.

John Dooks, president of the Calgary Police Association, was not impressed by Nenshi’s statements as well. The union would go on to endorse Ric McIver for mayor.

Social media giant

Nenshi and his campaign team have developed a massive online presence that has been virtually everywhere. All the social networking sites, most notably Twitter, cannot escape this massive presence. Nenshi’s rabid followers have essentially kicked out all the online McIver followers that once dominated the Calgary Herald online comments section. This Ron Paul-like dominance has given Nenshi the upper hand when it comes to his social media strategy. When Nenshi released his iPhone application, this signaled the end of the Internet race between him and McIver and Higgins.

Nenshi has the largest Facebook following, which is close to 10,000 fans. In 2007, the largest mayoral following was only 400. Times have changed in the early days of Facebook and YouTube. On Twitter, the #yycvote hashtag is completely dominated by pro-Nenshi supporters in their purple avatars. They work as a collective to bring down any kind of anti-Nenshi rhetoric, especially that coming from the Hawkesworth camp.

Attacks and crushing them

The power of the Nenshi mob, especially online, is frightening. When Bob Hawkesworth decided to launch an out-of-context video claiming that Nenshi was committed to selling Enmax, the Nenshi-bots all went after the so-called “Hawkesworth trolls”. The unusually aggressive and troll-ish behavior of Hawkesworth’s online team was challenged and was overshadowed by Nenshi’s online masses. Bob Hawkesworth would later concede and throw his support behind Barb Higgins. Even after Hawkesworth wrapped up his campaign, his online team has continued to attack Nenshi and McIver aggressively.

Support for Nenshi

All candidates have received various endorsements from candidates and the like. McIver has been endorsed by former Ward 6 alderman Craig Burrows and current Ward 13 alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart. In addition, he’s been endorsed by the Calgary Police Association and Calgary Herald. Higgins received backing from Paul Hughes and Alnoor Kassam, who were both once considering a run for the mayor’s chair. She has also since been endorsed by Bob Hawkesworth after he dropped his campaign for mayor. Nenshi has been endorsed by Wayne Stewart after he stopped his campaign. MLA for Calgary-Buffalo Kent Hehr, who was considering a run, also endorsed Nenshi.

The 3 way debate

Nenshi challenged the top two contenders to a 3 way debate with this drastic quote from Rick Bell’s “Ready to rumble” column:

“Anytime, any place. A time of their choosing, a place of their choosing, a moderator of their choosing, a format of their choosing, I will be there.”

A 3 way debate never occurred between the candidates.

The purple madness

The distinct colour of purple has also added to the Nenshi camp. You can see it anywhere, and it’s to a point where people are starting to get annoyed by the colour. However, it has distinguished Nenshi from the rest, which usually feature some sort of blue or red, and has made it stick out. It started out as a very bland gold and blue, but the purple has done its job this election. Some will even be glad the purple goes away after the election, especially with the Nenshi supporters that dominate on Twitter.

Political leanings

Some, like the National Post and Dan Arnold, are perplexed that Calgary would choose a more left-leaning mayoral candidate and how Toronto is ready for their conservative Rob Ford. However, Calgary has always elected more liberal mayors compared to what Calgarians prefer provincially. However, some contest this claim because the mayors may be “liberal” in party name only. Dave Bronconnier ran under the Liberal banner against Rob Anders. Al Duerr had a membership in the federal Liberal party. Ralph Klein believe it or not, once was a member of the Liberal party. Rod Sykes ran under the Liberal banner in the 1980s. Grant MacEwan was the leader of the Alberta Liberal Party before he became mayor. Harry Hays was a Liberal under the Pearson government. Donald Mackay had two unsuccessful runs for federal politics as a Liberal candidate. Surely the claim that Calgary has changed is quite different than what history might show.

Polling to the top

Nenshi has stunned poliitcal observers with his low polling numbers skyrocketing to tie with Higgins and McIver. It would be a safe bet that both Higgins and McIver did not expect this just a couple of months ago. What began as an inevitable Bronconnier vs. McIver showdown is now a rare 3-way battle between Nenshi, Higgins, and McIver. While some disagree with the claim that Nenshi is at the 30% mark, it has been astonishing to see him come from 1-5% to at least the 20% mark in a matter of just 2-3 weeks. No other candidate, including past and present alderman running, has been able to pull this feat.

Win or lose, civic politics might change

Whether Nenshi wins or loses this mayoral election, it is inevitable that he has changed how many people, especially the youth, look at city politics. In the optimistic sense, a Nenshi victory would transform city politics and re-engage the youth like never before. The next generation of Calgarians will start to pay attention to city politics, something that we have not seen in in a very, very long time. That would be a legacy that no other mayor before him could claim. In the pessimistic sense however should Nenshi lose, it could have a devastating effect. The youth and young adults might see it as “the same old game” and leave with a sense that their efforts were futile. That would not be good going into 2013 as people’s interest will inevitable drop. It would also be unlikely to see a Nenshi run in 2019 or 2022.

However, regardless of the result, Nenshi will have established himself as a very powerful and influential individual in this city. He will have more sway and a bigger following than any of the aldermen elected on council regardless of what the outcome is. His grassroots following will carry over regardless, and no aldermanic candidate or incumbent can claim that at this point (although McIver comes close).

Nenshi has garnered more national attention than McIver during his run, and his campaign will be a case study for years to come.

Sources

Calgary’s underdog mayoral candidate Naheed Nenshi defies categories – National Post

A three-way showdown for mayor of Calgary – The Globe and Mail

Remington: Nenshi is the true face of change for Calgary – Calgary Herald

Dan Arnold: Dear Toronto, Calgary wants its personality back – The National Post

From back of the pack to a real contender – The Fast Forward Weekly

Mayoral hopeful Nenshi, Police Chief Hanson spar over election claims – Global Calgary

Ready to rumble – Calgary Sun