The gloves have come off in the race to capture the mayor’s chair in Calgary’s election on October 20. Taking a swing on Monday was mayoral candidate Jeff Davison, accusing a conflict of interest “appears” to exist between Marc Henry and Calgary’s taxpayer-owned ENMAX Corporation. Henry was chief of staff for Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier during the latter’s three terms in office and now operates public relations firm ThinkHQ Public Affairs. Inc., which is under contract with ENMAX. In a statement, Davison’s campaign says, “Henry is actively leading a municipal political party that is running a number of councillor candidates, as well as Councillor Sonya Sharp as its mayoral candidate,” adding Henry is the “party architect of the Communities First municipal political party." “This is an outrageous conflict of interest,” said Davison in the statement. “Marc Henry cannot both profit from a taxpayer-owned entity and simultaneously run a political organization that is fielding candidates for Mayor and Council. This gives the appearance that ENMAX is paying Henry to campaign for Sharp and the others. How can Calgarians believe in our democratic process?” Among other things, the Davison campaign wants Sharp to “confirm whether she knew and ignored this blatant conflict, given her position of authority on City Council and should clarify whether Marc Henry will continue to lead her municipal party’s campaign efforts.” .Plus, “as a taxpayer-funded utility, ENMAX must make public any and all contracts it has had, or does have with Marc Henry and/or ThinkHQ, or its employees, over the past 10 years. In addition, ENMAX must disclose if it has any other contracts with companies that are in the business of running municipal campaigns.” “Marc Henry, a former municipal political staffer, knows better but clearly chose power and influence over ethics,” said Davison. “He needs to decide whether his company will continue to work with ENMAX or whether he will remain at the helm of a municipal political party. He cannot do both. I would also expect that ENMAX would recognize how this appears to be a conflict of interest and deal with it immediately to ensure they are, and are perceived to be, unbiased in this election.” In an interview with Western Standard Henry denied there was any conflict of interest. “This seems like a silly story to me but as an individual, as a person, I am allowed to volunteer on whatever political campaign I want to and it has nothing to do with my company or my company’s work,” he said. “I’m not sure where it’s coming from. I’ve been a consultant for ENMAX for over a decade, and I’ve worked on a bunch of different files for them on their behalf.” .Henry was surprised to be labelled as being at the helm of a municipal political party. “I'm a volunteer for political campaigns and I'm not being paid for any campaigns,” he said. “I'm helping out some friends who are running for council. I'm a volunteer for the Communities First Party.” “I guess Jeff’s folks are looking to somehow get me to stop doing that, I don’t know. They are saying it’s a conflict of interest, but how is it a conflict? I was a consultant for ENMAX, as well as a variety of other clients, long before I was a volunteer on any campaign.” “My company has no relationship of any kind with any political campaigns whatsoever.” In terms of being the leader of Communities First, Henry said, “Where did they get that from? I guess I got a promotion up from volunteer.” Asked if the allegation of conflict of interest was indicative of the tactics election campaigns could adopt going forward, Henry said “As we get closer to election day, I guess it's indicative of some campaign. If you don’t have anything else, this is what you lead with. Fill your boots.”
