So, Premier Nenshi?Probably not. Ain't going to happen. When all is said and done, whoever wins the Alberta NDP leadership beauty contest is likely to be striving for silver when next Alberta goes to the polls in 2027. (Things could change, of course — if a week in politics is a long time, three years is forever.)But just saying... Would a Premier Nenshi be like a Mayor Nenshi?Well, it was no fun being a taxpayer when he was mayor of Calgary.The emerging narrative seems to be that union boss Gil McGowan would have the support of the workers and peasants. However, the workers and peasants with their hammers and their little sickles aren’t what they used to be. Boiler riveters have been replaced by teachers, nurses and civil servants and the literal peasants like private property, their own.Meanwhile, Kathleen Ganley has paid her dues, but that doesn’t really matter because Mr. Nenshi — well, he’s just the chap to bring Calgary into the NDP fold, don’t ye see? He was the mayor for 10 years. Very well-spoken, you know.Well, that much is true. He is a talker. And it would be graceless to deny that during the great 2013 Calgary flood that left parts of the T2P postal code under six-feet of water, he was consistently in the right place at the right time, with words of needed encouragement.To the degree that one can equate that with leadership, it is something. But, it isn’t everything. Actually, it’s not even that much.But if leadership it was, what happened when it came to running Calgary’s council? Things got so bad that in 2012 he brought in a psychologist, to teach aldermen to work together better.His mayoralty was also one of galloping tax increases and a promised business-friendly budget that wasn’t friendly at all.Fairness requires that one concede the difficulties the city faced during the years that the NDP was in power in Edmonton. (2015-2019.) There were no easy answers as large energy employers shook the Alberta dust from their feet and the city’s office towers emptied out. Any mayor would have faced difficult choices.However, while the city’s businesses and industry cut budgets, laid off staff and did everything possible to restrain costs, City Hall continued as a domain protected from the new realities, free to concentrate upon the priorities that mattered to staff, if not to citizens. (Citizens, it will be recalled, are principally interested in roads, clean water, law enforcement and buses that run on time, at the least cost. A quick review of the city’s communications suggests a far greater interest in diversity, equity and inclusion.)And so, as the tax base shrank and the tax bills went up, so did city hall spending, evenly and uninterrupted. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation reckons taxes went up 35% on Nenshi’s watch.Then to cap it all, he wanted to bring the 2026 Winter Olympic Games here, for a cool $5 billion. He called it a “good deal for Calgary.”He may be a talker, but he’s got a tin ear.The voters said, “No thanks.” (No kidding!)Here at the Western Standard, we should probably be talking up Nenshi's candidacy. He would do for news organizations in Alberta, what Trump does for CNN in the US.Plenty of bombast, plenty of spending and always a fight, as the blue-collar members of the NDP strove with the green members of the NDP and the psychologists waited in the lobby to be called upstairs at the McDougall Centre. (Now renamed something nobody can wrap their tongues around.)The headlines would write themselves.But that would be irresponsible. He may become leader, he probably won't become premier. Just once in a purple moon, even?Don't think so. But if he did, it wouldn't take me long to be missing Rachel Notley.
So, Premier Nenshi?Probably not. Ain't going to happen. When all is said and done, whoever wins the Alberta NDP leadership beauty contest is likely to be striving for silver when next Alberta goes to the polls in 2027. (Things could change, of course — if a week in politics is a long time, three years is forever.)But just saying... Would a Premier Nenshi be like a Mayor Nenshi?Well, it was no fun being a taxpayer when he was mayor of Calgary.The emerging narrative seems to be that union boss Gil McGowan would have the support of the workers and peasants. However, the workers and peasants with their hammers and their little sickles aren’t what they used to be. Boiler riveters have been replaced by teachers, nurses and civil servants and the literal peasants like private property, their own.Meanwhile, Kathleen Ganley has paid her dues, but that doesn’t really matter because Mr. Nenshi — well, he’s just the chap to bring Calgary into the NDP fold, don’t ye see? He was the mayor for 10 years. Very well-spoken, you know.Well, that much is true. He is a talker. And it would be graceless to deny that during the great 2013 Calgary flood that left parts of the T2P postal code under six-feet of water, he was consistently in the right place at the right time, with words of needed encouragement.To the degree that one can equate that with leadership, it is something. But, it isn’t everything. Actually, it’s not even that much.But if leadership it was, what happened when it came to running Calgary’s council? Things got so bad that in 2012 he brought in a psychologist, to teach aldermen to work together better.His mayoralty was also one of galloping tax increases and a promised business-friendly budget that wasn’t friendly at all.Fairness requires that one concede the difficulties the city faced during the years that the NDP was in power in Edmonton. (2015-2019.) There were no easy answers as large energy employers shook the Alberta dust from their feet and the city’s office towers emptied out. Any mayor would have faced difficult choices.However, while the city’s businesses and industry cut budgets, laid off staff and did everything possible to restrain costs, City Hall continued as a domain protected from the new realities, free to concentrate upon the priorities that mattered to staff, if not to citizens. (Citizens, it will be recalled, are principally interested in roads, clean water, law enforcement and buses that run on time, at the least cost. A quick review of the city’s communications suggests a far greater interest in diversity, equity and inclusion.)And so, as the tax base shrank and the tax bills went up, so did city hall spending, evenly and uninterrupted. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation reckons taxes went up 35% on Nenshi’s watch.Then to cap it all, he wanted to bring the 2026 Winter Olympic Games here, for a cool $5 billion. He called it a “good deal for Calgary.”He may be a talker, but he’s got a tin ear.The voters said, “No thanks.” (No kidding!)Here at the Western Standard, we should probably be talking up Nenshi's candidacy. He would do for news organizations in Alberta, what Trump does for CNN in the US.Plenty of bombast, plenty of spending and always a fight, as the blue-collar members of the NDP strove with the green members of the NDP and the psychologists waited in the lobby to be called upstairs at the McDougall Centre. (Now renamed something nobody can wrap their tongues around.)The headlines would write themselves.But that would be irresponsible. He may become leader, he probably won't become premier. Just once in a purple moon, even?Don't think so. But if he did, it wouldn't take me long to be missing Rachel Notley.
