My impressions from Barb Higgins’ interview with the Gauntlet

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September 22, 2010 - By

We’ve started doing our mayoral interviews for the Gauntlet, the University of Calgary’s independent student newspaper. Each municipal election we put out a supplement in our newspaper, so look for that in October. Here I’ll post a bit of a behind the scenes look at each of our interviews and my completely subjective impressions. Our first interviewee was Barb Higgins.

My first impression is – why is she so hard to get a hold of? She hasn’t responded to CJSW’s request for an interview that we sent a month ago, and Kim had to pull several strings to finally get her to come to the Gauntlet.

Then she was 20 minutes late. I know it’s hard to get around Mac Hall right now, so I could understand maybe a bit of lateness…but 20 minutes is a bit much.

Anyways, the interview was fairly short – we only had ten minutes with her. She almost seemed nervous at first, she was sitting on the edge of her seat leaning forward. Was she trying to seem more personable or eager? I don’t know. I guess I’m so used to her sitting up straight as a news anchor that her body language was a bit unexpected.

Maybe she was praying to God we wouldn’t pull something out of left field because we’re just random students who are figuring out journalism as we go. Kim told me Higgins’ “people” were trying to get us to do the interview downstairs in Mac Hall where other students could watch. That would be a smart move, but frankly it was just too noisy. I don’t know what Kim’s response was. We ended up doing the interview upstairs.

At first her answers were a bit vague and unimpressive, like her platform. Good ideas, but no specifics. I did like her answers about secondary suites and transit though. She said that the mayor has to set a positive tone about secondary suites because a lot of the argument does come down to emotion: fear if the suites are not safe, or disdain for the type of people that live in secondary suites – students and other low income residents. She said she wants to change the stigma.

For transit she said she wanted to get rid of the three dollar transit parking and increase the amount and frequency of buses that went to the C-Train stations. This is good, but not necessarily a unique platform point.

One response was interesting: we asked what she would do to make students more connected to City Hall and she replied “You don’t feel connected?” or something of that nature. We all looked at each other thinking,”Um..yeah..’” She then went on to say how she approached the Students’ Union and School of Public Policy to get fresh ideas about student and budget issues, but I felt like she was trying desperately to come up with something.

So, all in all, I felt she wasn’t quite prepared to tailor her platform to students. I actually skipped a class to make this interview because I really wanted to see what she was about – but I still don’t know what to make of her. I want to like her, I really do. I’m just having a hard time finding a reason for it.

I like Nenshi cause he talks details, but I’m averse to liberalism. Why is everyone else so mum?

Tomorrow we talk to Bob Hawkesworth and then Naheed Nenshi on Friday.

cross posted at gin and tonic.

Tags: Categories: Mayor of Calgary

  • Chris

    Love the honesty of this post. I’m wondering if Barb only has a known face and that’s how she’s captured her percentage of the polls. I’m all for Nenshi, but unfortunately the reality of Calgary’s voters being old people I’m guessing they’re going to vote for Ric. Here’s hoping the lazy students who don’t normally vote get off their collective asses and hit the polls.

  • Anonymous

    Good post, Emily. Honest and enlightening.

    In terms of Nenshi: While I suspect his social politics lean to the left, I’ve found his fiscal policies to be, quite frankly, the most conservative of all the plans I’ve heard to this point. Ensuring value-for-money and increasing transparency in spending aren’t quite the hallmarks of the classic Calgary view of the “tax-and-spend leftie”. I’d categorize him (though I *do* loathe such labels) as a “Centrist”, if anything. Fiscally conservative, socially liberal. Like Barb claims to be, only with… you know… a platform. ;)

    - E.S.

  • http://emmaline1138.wordpress.com/ Emily

    I did kind of raise an eyebrow at myself after I posted “liberalism” as well. I agree that’s probably not the most accurate term. And hell, there’s no guarantees that people running as conservatives are actually conservative at all, so it really might not matter in the end.

    Like I posted back on my blog, and I hate that I’m referring to buzz words, but transparency doesn’t mean the same thing to me as fiscal responsibility or balancing the books. Considering that financial mismanagement at City Hall is something I hear a lot of Calgarians complain about, I’d think fixing the books would be a top priority and you’d make it clear it was top priority. “Transparency” is a really vague term. It doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll balance the books, it means he’ll be upfront about whatever money he spends.

    And I know he talked about improving the auditor system, but shouldn’t it be emphasized that the financial responsibility lies first within City Council? You’ll make the auditors life a living hell if you first don’t enforce financial responsibility yourself.

    I do like his ideas, I just am unsure about that aspect, I guess…

  • Nora Stewart, P.Eng.

    As a professional engineer, having come through the male world of engineering I was always surprised to find it was women who were unsupportive, it was women who condemned other women and now I witness it again. Have you researched the background of Barb Higgins? Have you witnessed her contribution to Community and the people of Calgary through UNICEF, the United Way and CUPS to name a few. I’ll bet not, yet you flippantly condemn her as I perceive because she is a woman and heaven forbid woman should strive to be Mayor of Calgary. I am very disappointed in the narrow view put forward by this piece.

  • Shanda Doherty

    I am a 30ish woman who has been somewhat following political engagement from this site not engaging myself until the piece you wrote on Barb Higgins. What tripe! As a woman activist, having been involved in the Globalization struggle in the 90s and having been involved in a Women’s Conference in Iraq during the first embargo, I looked for woman who inspired because it was woman who I was struggling with and Barb Higgins was one I admired. Your juvenile destructive comments are offensive to all women and give others cause to ask have we accomplished anything for women as we struggled to see the results.

  • http://twitter.com/Emmaline1138 Emily Ask

    I did not intend to be destructive, this was just my honest impression. I have nothing against her running at all. If I vote for her, however, I want to vote for her because she is the best and not just because she is a woman. I’m considering her on equal terms with the other candidates – isn’t that what we want? To be equal? I’m still willing to be convinced, but she just didn’t quite convince me on this occasion.

  • http://twitter.com/kirkschmidt Kirk Schmidt

    I may have been reading a different article, but at no point did I feel that Emily harped on Ms. Higgins because of her gender.

    Many of us who have been following the race have been less than impressed with the point-form, vague, policy that Ms. Higgins put out for the majority of the visible campaign. You will see similar comments in many weblog posts by individuals of both gender, as well as in newspaper articles.

    I, as many people did, had high hopes for Barb. Someone who has been involved with her community, someone who has researched and read the news for two decades, and someone who is friendly and outgoing should do well.

    Are we not doing the opposite of the argument that Emily attacks her gender by suggesting that she should be in city hall simply *because* she is a woman? I’m all for it – if you’re the best candidate. Again, so far, many feel that they have yet to see solid policy – not “what” she’s going to do, but “how”.

    I think this was a great article about seeing both the human side of a candidate, and pointing out many of the things that many have observed with Ms. Higgins. How unfortunate that this gets turned into a personal attack instead of a debate on Ms. Higgins’ policy.

  • CalgaryVoter

    I thought your report was on target. Being a femminist from the 70′s and involved in everything from women’s groups to peace initiatives, I found nothing offensive or sexist about your observations. She was unprepared, she was late, her “handlers” (Donn Lovett) wanted to give her more exposure to ensure “star quality”. Essentially, she still hasn’t a lot to say and that, “sistah”, is that.

    … and QUIT saying that the elders will vote for McIver and Liberals for Nenshi. The real candidate to watch is Wayne Stewart.

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  • Garebeargm

    i want to like her as well but it’s hard to say.

    I have wanted a woman mayor since Bev Longstaff.

    I assume that she will make it up as she goes along but she could be projecting something that isn’t what you are seeing. She might be confident and you didn’t take it that way……

    She is comfortable in front of the camera but…..when it comes to answers off the top of her head it might not come across.

    Yes it’s a toss up between her and Nenshi and Nenshi is winning

  • Piersanti, Vivien

    I will be voting for Barb Higgins. I have seen that she is successful in her chosen field- not an easy one to succeed in. She has a caring for those unfortunate and will go out there to be involved instead of just going home and relaxing. Because she only just decided to run for mayor her ideas have not yet crystalized. I will vote for her because she seems a person of Integrity and energy.

    I warn voters not to vote for any previous people involved in past municipal positions. I just happened to go ones to city hall and a commitee meeting and saw how disrespectful they were towards the people of calgary who happened to have found it necessary to be there. Also it is best to start fresh with new people every few years to prevent any kind of corruption. The elected should serve the people of calgary and not the big businesses who donated so much to ric Mciver or to special interest groups.