Posts Tagged ‘Naheed Nenshi’

Dye for Democracy

April 12, 2012 - By

I received notice this past week of a grassroots group popping up on Facebook named “Dye for Democracy”.

Essentially, their target is simple: Advocate for no particular party or outcome, but rather encourage ALL eligible Albertans to cast a ballot (an INFORMED one, if you please). Members of the group have committed that if the turn-out is over 52% (the turn-out in the 2011 Tunisian election), they will dye their hair one of Alberta’s official colours, blue or gold (yes, temporarily).

I’m all about increasing voter turn-out (the 41% of 2008 was embarrassing), and if this is the sort of thing that can help, then all power to them. They want to take it one step further, though, and so here it is:

They propose that Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary, and Stephen Mandel, Mayor of Edmonton, both encourage voter participation, and put a little skin (or hair?) in the game themselves… The Mayor of the city which has the lower voter turn-out would have to dye his hair.

Is it gimmicky? Absolutely. Will it work? Maybe. I know both mayors are popular and cast a large shadow in their respective cities – even Calgarians who dislike Nenshi would certainly [...]Read More

Tags: ι Categories: Provincial Election - News

Calgary, meet your new council

1
October 19, 2010 - By

The unofficial results are in and we have seen a mix of change and returning of the old guard happening. It’s a whole new ball game now; an entirly new dynamic. Here’s the list of who the fifteeen around the table will be:

Mayor - Naheed Nenshi
Ward 1 – Dale Hodges
Ward 2 – Gord Lowe
Ward 3 – Jim Stevenson
Ward 4 - Gael Macleod
Ward 5 – Ray Jones
Ward 6 - Richard Pootmans
Ward 7 – Druh Farrell
Ward 8 – John Mar
Ward 9 - Gian-Carlo Carra
Ward 10 – Andre Chabot
Ward 11 – Brian Pincott
Ward 12 - Shane Keating
Ward 13 – Diane Colley-Urquhart
Ward 14 - Peter Demong

The biggest question facing how this new council will work together is what kind of a chair will Naheed Nenshi be. Will he be a bullying mayor (not likely) or more laissez faire in his control of meetings? Or might he be more like Bronconnier and give alderman some leeway, but keep them on a short leash if they stray too far outside what is prescribed in the procedural bylaw. An alderman like Druh Farrell will live and die [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 1, Alderman - Ward 10, Alderman - Ward 11, Alderman - Ward 12, Alderman - Ward 13, Alderman - Ward 14, Alderman - Ward 2, Alderman - Ward 3, Alderman - Ward 4, Alderman - Ward 5, Alderman - Ward 6, Alderman - Ward 7, Alderman - Ward 8, Alderman - Ward 9, Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

All eyes on Naheed Nenshi

7
October 18, 2010 - By

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 [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

yyc Twibates Part I: Intro and Mayoral

October 17, 2010 - By

In a world of 140 characters or less, “twitter debate” is simply 7 characters too wasteful. With tweeps and twitpics and twurls, it seemed only appropriate that our experiment be called a “twibate.” When we set out to do this, we had no idea if it was going to work well or not. We had no idea whether 10 minutes between questions would be far too long. We weren’t even sure what audience would be like. Yet, as we progressed with the experiment, we learned that there are actually some good ways to do this.

Is Twitter the be all and end all of debates? No. It has severe limitations. However, it actually did help some individuals make decisions, and it helped some candidates get messages out. It is a complimentary system, to the already established media for campaign messaging and political discourse.

The most difficult piece for myself, personally, has been getting the time to dissect the data. Twitter’s back-end functionality actually links tweets together *if* someone clicks the “reply” button as opposed to starting their tweet with “@[username]” without hitting the button. So side conversations can be completely unreliable without going through line-by-line and determining what conversation a [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι Categories: Events, Mayor of Calgary

The ‘Real’ Disappointments

1
October 16, 2010 - By

Nation, one of the things I’m most excited about to come out of this election on the Social Media side of things is the birth of a new blog, by (until now) guest blogger Christina Rontynen and her “plus one”.  Being the megalithic blogging presence that I am, I take full credit for the creation of this blog, as well as Calgary Rants and (by extension) Calgary Daddy, not to mention CalgaryPolitics.com.  Add to this the fact that I single-handedly wiped Alberta Tory off the map, and scared Calgary Grit so badly he had to move to Toronto, and it becomes clear that the greatest force shaping the landscape of the Albertan blogosphere isn’t rain or wind – it’s The Enlightened Savage.

This is the final entry of a series that began with an open invitation by Christina for candidates to show her “the real them”.

Christina’s post begins…  now.

*****

I started this blogging adventure with an invitation to all mayoral candidates to hang out and let me get know the person behind the politician. I received an overwhelming response – McKenzie, Nenshi, Burrows, and Higgins. So thanks – to those of [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

‘Real’ Conversation with a ‘Real’ Calgarian: Saturday Night with Naheed Nenshi

20
October 8, 2010 - By

Nation, the following is another guest post from Christina Rontynen.  She sent it to me 3 days ago, and I’m getting around to posting it now – she knows I owe her a beer.

This is another in a series of posts she’s written as candidates responded to her initial post, wondering who, exactly, they were.

Her text begins…  now.

*****

It’s Saturday evening, I’m sitting on the couch with iPhone in hand. I was awaiting an important email – an email from Naheed Nenshi.

His “people” had originally planned a get together a week ago – was suppose to be a casual morning meeting at his favourite Calgary cafe. A few days beforehand I received an email rescheduling for the following Saturday night; Mr. Nenshi needed a tag along to the Calgary International Film Festival Closing Gala. My casual coffee had turned in to a night out on the town … I was assured that I would get a chance to see the real Naheed in his element.

“Ding” – it was the email I had been waiting for.

“9:30. And bring a plus-one. We’ll talk our way in. I’m wearing a suit but dress hip and cool [...]Read More

Tags: Categories: Mayor of Calgary

A Call for a Final Debate

32
October 6, 2010 - By

As much as I hate to admit it, it looks like the race to be Calgary’s next mayor has slowly narrowed itself down to three candidates who have a shot at the big chair.

Barb Higgins and Ric McIver are polling almost neck and neck, while Naheed Nenshi is the only other candidate in double digits of support.

I’m not ready to call the race yet or anything like that, but I do think it is time for citizens to be given a chance to see these three head-to-head-to-head in a debate allowing them the opportunity to clearly layout their plan and priorities for all Calgarians to directly compare free of any hindrance.

All three candidates have espoused their belief that what Calgary City Council needs is more transparency and accountability. There is no time like the present to show their belief in these principles and how important they are to them.

CalgaryPolitics.com has created a Facebook event page where all Calgarians can lend their support to this call for a Final Debate of the leading candidates in the week before the election. Please follow this link and mark yourself as “attending” if you too believe this debate [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι Categories: Calgary Issues, Events, Mayor of Calgary, Public Service Announcements

Gut Check Time

7
October 6, 2010 - By

Nation, by now many of you have seen the new polling numbers for the Calgary Mayoral Election.

To sum it up:
McIver 31%
Higgins 28%
Nenshi 16%
All others, combined 9%
Undecided 17%

Let’s take a look at what this poll means for our candidates, shall we?

Ric McIver – 31%

This is a worrisome poll for Ric.  He’s had a more or less prohibitive lead since the day he announced his intention to run for Mayor.  This is the first time someone’s been perceived as being within legitimate striking distance of him – and what’s worse, he finds himself in a statistical tie with Barb Higgins, a photogenic communicator with no voting record hanging around her neck like an albatross.  Most of the barbs (lower-case b) in this campaign have been tossed at McIver, as the front-runner.  Higgins has, to this point, remained relatively unscathed.  Further, Ric has seen his share of popular support drop from 43% (September 19th) all the way down to 31% (October 5th).

Is he still winning? Yes.  If an election were held today, would he be our Mayor tomorrow? Yes. But suddenly, a campaign that has [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

“The Purple Plague”

16
October 4, 2010 - By

I had a good laugh at a term coined by one of the people on social media called, “The Purple Plague.”  The reference was to the fact that Twitter has very strongly leaned toward Naheed Nenshi as potential mayor for our city.  Any new person coming in and asking critical questions are sure to get 20 responses, a quarter of which tend to be a gateway to serious discussion, and the others on the side of what we on TeH InternetZ like to call “fanboi”s.

Of course, for those who have been watching the #yycvote show know that, while the Nenshi fans were always greater in numbers than everyone else, many people *got* that way over the last few months.  That is, it has grown a bit like a zombie plague on Twitter.

My purpose is not to criticize so much as to observe.  The fact is, supporters of Nenshi have begun actually alienating people with opposite opinions.  It has not helped that a number of individuals have attempted to goad them on as well, and so an aggressive behaviour seems to have emerged on many sides.

But what is interesting is that, in general, the social media effect that [...]Read More

Tags: Categories: Political Theory

My Thoughts On The VoteCalgary.ca Mayoralty Forum

6
September 28, 2010 - By

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the VoteCalgary.ca Mayoralty Forum held today at Stampede Park, along with fellow CalgaryPolitics.com blogger DJ Kelly.  The forum was attended by a packed house made up of representatives from Calgary’s building and development industry and it was a well run affair.

 The eight mayoralty candidates in attendance were:  Ric McIver, Joe Connelly, Jon Lord, Barb Higgins, Craig Burrows, Naheed Nenshi, Wayne Stewart and Bob Hawkesworth.  Perennial candidate ( and party crasher) Oscar Fech was also in attendance and while he tried to squeeze in on the forum, he was not part of the proceedings. ( Moderator Ken King explained that these eight candidates were invited as they completed a pre-forum questionnaire.)

 While the forum was well run and went by rather quickly, there really was no “earth shattering” quotes.  Most of the candidates stuck to their positions and the central theme centered around such buzzwords as “getting it right”, “creating a level playing field”, “streamlining the approval process” and “supporting consumers choice in having the options to purchase a single family, detached dwelling”.  There seemed to be a lot of generic answers given and all candidates tended to stay [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

tales of a blog

2
September 24, 2010 - By

I was reminded today that people actually read Calgary Politics. Naheed Nenshi called ahead of time to say he was running late for his Gauntlet interview and specified that he read my post and regretted following Higgins’ example. Higgins’ team called back today (two days after…hmm) to apologize for being late, giving us such a short window of time, and wanted to reschedule another interview. She also fired her campaign manager today for communication and scheduling problems, which I assume is related to some degree.

For the record, we’re only doing one interview per candidate.

Yesterday as I wrote about our interview with Bob Hawkesworth I thought to myself, “We haven’t finished doing all of our interviews yet, so it’s probably not the best if I post my thoughts about the interviews before we finish them all.” Duh. They say hindsight is the clearest. I will still post my thoughts about the interviews, but after we’re finished them.

It’s freaky to think that mayoral and aldermanic candidates read what I write and even refer to what I write. Yeesh, that’s not a lot of pressure at all…

[...]Read More

Tags: ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

A ‘Real’ Candidate becomes a ‘Real’ Voter: Coffee with Derek McKenzie

September 22, 2010 - By

(Submitted by guest blogger Christina Rontynen)

I’m going on my seventh year of roaming the halls of the University of Calgary. As a Masters student I don’t get out much … around campus that is. Yesterday was the first time in a long while I had headed out of my office and over to Mac Hall, a hub for undergraduate students – they gather there for the essentials of university including: books, bathrooms, burgers, beer, babes, and coffee (by the buckets full).  Derek McKenzie, recent mayoral race dropout, was going to meet me at Tim Horton’s for an afternoon caffeine rush before his 3 o’clock class.

McKenzie had set up this meeting with me nearly a week ago. It was his way of responding to my previous blog. He wanted to show me his real self. He wanted Calgarians to meet the single-dad behind the politician. When my TweetDeck lit up with notification that he had called the race quits Monday morning I was nervous my first blog interview would be cancelled – but he very much still wanted to share his experiences with me. That excited me; this guy, busy guy, still wanted to make time for [...]Read More

Tags: ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

No free lunch for any mayoral candidate

2
September 9, 2010 - By

Update: Forgot to add a comment on Derek McKenzie. It has now been included.

This post was originally going to be called “Blurtations about the 2 horse race” but it was decided that this was a better title. While this blogger didn’t get the opportunity to eat lunch or have coffee with Higgins, he did have a “pseudo lunch” with her when she made her platform speech down at the Olympic Plaza. There are many points to be made from this event and from the election in general that a post to talk about it all was fitting.

1. A platform from Higgins, or at least something to hold onto: Expectations are pretty low so far when it comes to platform ideas. In the perceived two way race between Ric McIver and Barb Higgins, you’re probably not expecting a lot in terms of platforms and policies. However, while many have criticized Higgins for a lack of a platform, she came out with at least a few (and very practical). She laid out 7 main goals, and gave the public at least a hint of a platform.

a) Financial Responsibility: One that was interesting to hear was the make [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

Return to Sender

5
September 3, 2010 - By

Each day, I come home to an earless black cat (yes, earless) and a mailbox full of bills and junk mail. But yesterday, amongst the clutter, I noticed a direct mail piece from candidate Naheed Nenshi. First reaction: “that must have been expensive.” Since I don’t get cell phone reception in the elevator (thanks Telus), I gave the Nenshi marketing piece a read. Fast Forward to this morning and I can’t tell you what was actually on the full-colour, double-sided postcard. What I do remember is skimming an article the other day about campaign disclosures.

Fast Forward Weekly reported Nenshi promised on May 27 to “immediately unveil his donors on a weekly basis” (see full article). Here we are three months later and Nenshi is now saying September 20, 2010 is the big day based on advice from his “volunteer lawyers.” Yup… those are the exact qualities I’m looking for in a mayor. Promise one thing, deliver on another.

Anyway, you can bet come September 20, I will be looking for the generous donor or donors who contributed to a direct mail strategy that cost at least a healthy five figures. After chatting to some friends, at [...]Read More

Tags: ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

Guest Blog: It’s Saturday Night… Do you know where your Mayoral Candidates Are?

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September 1, 2010 - By

Nation, this blogger is blessed to have many articulate readers and friends who visit this blog, some of whom occasionally agree with him, and, as is more often the case, many of whom DISagree with him (because they’re intelligent, and he’s just eye candy).

Occasionally, one of those readers or friends (in this case, both) submits something in writing that deserves a great deal more attention than the typical “comment” at the bottom of another blog post. Christina Rontynen submitted the following commentary to me last Saturday evening, and I’m putting it up on the blog (with her permission) for public consumption. All references to time (e.g. “tonight” or “this evening”) are – as Einstein might say – relative.

Christina’s writing begins… now.

*********

I sit up on a Saturday evening … and like the nerdy, politically astute female I am I wonder what my mayoral candidates are up to. Saturday night is the stereotypical date night; the night away, the night off, the night checked out from the world of politics.

Looking through my TweetDeck I find that the hashtag #nomnomnom brings me to find individuals enjoying funnel cake, chocolate chip cookie dough, and @eliz_rocks enjoying “deep fried cheese [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

Don’t Fire Until You See The Whites Of Their Eyes…

3
July 29, 2010 - By

Nation, the silly season is upon us in full force, as we have (at last count) 12 candidates for mayor, 44 confirmed aldermanic candidates, and 11 candidates for trustee spread out over 2 school boards – all vying for public attention, donor dollars, media coverage, and the all-important momentum, going into the October 18th vote.

The crazy train arrived a little earlier than normal this election cycle, with word earlier this year that mayor Dave Bronconnier would not be seeking re-election. From the day that announcement was made, it was only a matter of time before all heck broke loose – and break loose, it did.

3 sitting aldermen are seeking the mayor’s chair: Ric McIver, Bob Hawkesworth and Joe Connelly. As well, Alderman Joe Ceci has announced he won’t be seeking re-election. So, right there, you have 4 wards that will seat new alderman at the first council meeting this fall. That’s assuming no incumbents taste defeat – an unlikely situation, as the acrimonious and controversial nature of this past council hasn’t been seen in these parts since Danielle Smith was a CBE Trustee. People are hungry for change – and it’s not overstating the matter to suggest [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

Polling mayoral candidates in July

3
July 14, 2010 - By

Let’s get right down to it (and you probably know the reason why this post is up if you’ve been following the 2010 municipal election). A recent poll released by Alberta Courage Network says that Wayne Stewart is in the lead of the mayoral race with 34% of those who responded. It also made the following conclusions:

- 73.4% indicated that denser neighborhoods was a good idea
- 78.8% wanted more walkable neighborhoods
- 77.4% suggested new highways and ring roads was a low priority
- 82.8% said rapid transit is a high priority
- 68.0% supported an LRT to the airport

This poll was conducted over a period of 6 days with 206 Calgarians.

So what’s wrong with this poll? If you aren’t a Calgarian, then chances are you’ll think this seems OK. However, if you knew a few things about this city, you’ll know that something feels not so right about the results of this poll. And you’re not only. It’s being heavily criticized by many people. Mike Blanchard from AM 770 CHQR said the following:

With all due respect to Mr. Stewart, I don’t buy the result. I don’t hear Stewart’s name [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

A Conversation With Naheed Nenshi

June 3, 2010 - By

Nation, I downloaded Skype for the first time 2 days ago. Tonight, I used it to interview a mayoral candidate who was 2 time zones away.

Now, my mother always told me not to apologize for something until people notice it’s badly done – but my inability to take my mother’s advice is legendary.  Just ask her.  So, I’m going to apologize in advance for the quality (or general lack thereof) of the audio.  Likewise, I’m aware that I overuse the “umm” non-word to segue in between an answer and the following question.  To paraphrase everyone’s favourite doctor: “I’m a musician, not a radio interviewer!”

All that said, though, I wanted to put the interview up, in its first and only take, without editing.  I think it’s important that everyone know the answers that Nenshi provided were off the cuff, without practice or warning.  After all… the object is not to make ME sound good, the object is to hear what Naheed has to say.  He’s running for Mayor – I’m just the Benevolent Ruler For Life of the E.S. Nation.

And heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Nenshi!

Tags: Categories: Mayor of Calgary

And Bob Makes… Eight? Nine?

1
June 2, 2010 - By

Nation, the announcement of Bob Hawkesworth’s intention to run for Mayor of Calgary this week has bumped up the list of confirmed mayoral candidates to eight – or nine, depending on what counts as “declaring” – with over 4 months to go to polling day.

For those keeping track at home, here are the confirmed candidates, according to CalgaryDemocracy.ca :

Alnoor Kassam – Alnoor claims he hasn’t declared his intentions formally yet, but that’s like the Oilers saying they haven’t decided whether to take Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin or someone else entirely on Draft Day. He’s been “unofficially declaring” himself to anyone within earshot for months. He’s running.

Bob Hawkesworth – the longtime Alderman joined the fray officially this week, though he’s been hinting for several weeks since announcing he wouldn’t be seeking his Aldermanic seat again. Thus far, he seems to be the only incumbent member of council in the running for Mayor who is actually defending council’s record – an interesting approach, but certainly unique among his peers.

Craig Burrows – the former Alderman announced last week, to little fanfare. Burrows has had some time away from “the game” to organize his bid, and doesn’t have to wear [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary

Ask Naheed!

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May 29, 2010 - By

Nation, I’ll be talking next week with recently announced mayoral candidate Naheed Nenshi, and posting the results of that interview on the blog in some form or another (audio? video? text?). While I’ve got a list of questions to ask him, I’m also very interested in what it is that YOU want to know about the lucky 7th person to declare himself a candidate for Mayor.

Add your questions to this post as a “Comment” or email me directly at amishbuggyracing (at) gmail (dot) com, and I’ll get you the answers you need from the ‘Heed.

Remember “Choose your own adventure” books? Consider this a “Choose your own interview questions” blog post.

- E.S.

Tags: Categories: Mayor of Calgary

Nenshi + Hawkesworth = stronger McIver

5
May 27, 2010 - By

Today Naheed Nenshi has announced he will be running for mayor. On Monday we can expect a similar announcement from Bob Hawkesworth. The big winner from these announcements? Ric McIver.

As recently as yesterday, things were not looking great for Mr. McIver’s chances of becoming Calgary’s next mayor. As each mayoral candidate announced (Joe Connelly, Jon Lord, Craig Burrows) observers could see small parts of McIver’s assumed lead chipping away. Once Kent Hehr announced, enough had been chipped away that we were looking at a very real two way fight between McIver and Hehr.

With Nenshi and Hawkesworth entering the race, it’s fair to assume Mr. Hehr is now the one experiencing the chipping away of potential voters from his target group. It’s my guess that when it all plays out, enough will have been chipped away to return Mr. McIver to a healthy leading position once again.

What are your thoughts?

Cross posted from djkelly.ca

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary