Calgary's new mayor: "Politics in full sentences" | Hacker News Reader

Calgary's new mayor: "Politics in full sentences"

theglobeandmail.com

67 pointsrfugger19 comments

The article gets it roughly correct. It's true that, while the Muslim thing got the most attention outside the city, it was a non-issue in the campaign. It's actually more surprising that Calgary would elect an ideas guy.

Nenshi's victory came from a huge last-minute surge, as if the city all at once realized hey, we could dump these two losers (the front-runners, a boring grump and a vain TV anchor) and vote in someone completely different. The next morning, everyone I talked to was stunned and delighted at what had just happened. I suspect that many, including me, were surprised to discover that they weren't such a freak in this place after all.

Perhaps it is a shift in the consciousness of the city, which would be an interesting thing. It has been a wasteland of soulless land developers and corporate robots for such a long time... or at least appeared that way. This event feels a bit like the moment in Pleasantville where the black-and-white world turns to color. Except it's not the whole world, just a single purple crocus. We'll see if more appear.

We loved this guy even before we discovered he's trying to bring politics out of the dinosaur era through tech. His signs were purple and he dotted his i with a star! How refreshing! :)

Nenshi did a good TEDx talk on Calgary and city development here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNAMH2_CLfo

I hadn't heard of him until he won (I'm from a different part of Canada), but I'm a big fan now.

I love his "better ideas" series of videos: http://www.nenshi.ca/new/policy

I don't know anything about Calgary, but I was fascinated by the detail provided in the videos.

Good politicians are only going to emerge when this left/right doctrine is discarded and people can run without being classified as belonging to a particular dogma. It's possible to run a tight budget and deliver services, it's also possible to introduce social activities without trying to create a commune. It's also possible to avoid the 'centrist' tag, as you can be radical in one or two areas and mainstream in many others.

The left/right dogma comes from 150 years ago based on which side of the seine you lived on. It's an outdated and increasingly useless model for solving current problems.

I think it's a lot easier to get away from partisan politics in local elections. All politics are local, after all, so a politician that can identify and intelligently discuss problems that people have every day can do a much better job of avoiding the strictly partisan debate.

It's much harder to be specific at a national level, so partisanship takes the place of thoughtful discussion.

Totally agree. I would only add that even "radical" is difficult to pin down. Compared to who? Compared to current US politicians having single-pay health care is beyond radical but compared to nearly every other developed country on earth it would be moderate (since they all have and like it).

I live in Toronto, and as the author suggests, I feel the pain. I really hope Nenshi succeeds and delivers some unequivocal, sweet results, then takes his record and runs federally. It would be awesome to have someone like Nenshi as prime minister, and what a great example this would set for all levels of Canadian government.

I'm also in Toronto, getting ready to vote, and as another Torontonian friend of mine remarked, just like every other time, we're going to end up with either an insufferable bureaucrat, or a rodeo clown. I look at Calgary with envy.

I look at Calgary with envy.

I wonder if you have any idea how weird that sounds to a Calgarian! It's good for Canada to have taken this atypical turn. Calgary's reputation as a redneck enclave is a silly fantasy; it's really a complacent suburban enclave. What it does have going for it, on a good day, is a certain can-do energy. A lot of people here -- including me, and I never imagined I would say such a thing -- would actively support Nenshi in making some sane changes in this place. It would be particularly nice to break out of the stale liberal-conservative rut that this country has been mired in for so long. I was very surprised, on scratching the surface, to find that Nenshi is neither an ideologue nor a showboater. He seems serious.

But by far the best thing for him to do is just be competent for a while.

Of course, even if he speaks in full sentences, there's no way of knowing, since among five or six quotes from the man only one ("It takes me 45 seconds to say my name") is a full sentence.

Oh, the contradiction: “politics in full sentences” a) not a full sentence. b) _definitely_ a soundbite.

OTOH, that could certainly be the article taking his words out of their (grammatically) proper context.

One of the big things that Nenshi had going for him was that he engaged the 18-25 crowd. My wife goes to school at the University of Calgary and she said that Nenshi had posters and supporters all over campus, whereas the only presence the other candidates had came from the political science students.

And Nenshi engaged at other levels too. The guy rode Calgary Transit to his party headquarters on election night; this city wants someone to improve services, and I want someone that is dogfooding the service to do it!

While it is nice to see good people run for office, I'm not he will ultimately be able to fulfill his promises.

I hate to sound cynical but without the support of Council, the mayor won't be able to do anything. And Councillors, in general, are only focused on what it good for their own wards, and not the good of the city as a whole.

(One solution might be to have a group of like minded people run as a team. Party politics at the municipal level?)

That sort of exists in Vancouver.

Recently the Vision Party won a majority of seats in council and their coice for Mayor won in a landslide victory. Vision had some sort of agreement where COPE (Coalition of Progressive Electors) wouldn't run a candidate for Mayor so that the two progressive parties wouldn't split the vote. COPE has two councillors and they often vote with Vision. The other party, NPA (Non-Partisan Association) (yes that's the real name...Wikipedia for more details) has one seat on council.

The end effect of all of this is that Vision has very quickly been able to implement their agenda. Most recently several separated bike lanes and a street food cart program.

They certainly have Party Politics at the municipal level in Vancouver:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Municipal_political_pa...

without the support of Council, the mayor won't be able to do anything

He might if he manages to hold the attention of the community. I've never done a thing in city politics in Calgary - never had the slightest reason to identify with any of it. It has been as boring as it was vile. But I actually would this time, if Nenshi doesn't make the mistake a certain other "change candidate" did and squander his greatest asset, the popular imagination.

As an Albertan, I am very proud of the exciting candidates we are electing in municipal elections. Hopefully someday we will be able to see the same excitement in provincial politics, where we have had the same party in power since 1971!

Here's an essay on Nenshi's victory written by a friend:

http://raisethehammer.org/article/1205/civic_engagement_and_...

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