Naheed Nenshi served as mayor of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, from 2010 through 2021. He did not seek re-election in 2021 and was succeeded by Jyoti Gondek.
Nenshi was awarded the World Mayor prize in 2014 by the City Mayors Foundation. He became the first Canadian mayor to win this award.
Elections 2010 mayoral election
Nenshi first ventured into politics in 2004, running unsuccessfully for a seat on Calgary's city council. His 2010 campaign for mayor, dubbed the "Purple Revolution", was uniquely a viral campaign which relied heavily on using social media to promote his platform and hyper-engage voters. According to Nenshi's campaign I.T. specialist Richard Einarson, the name "Purple Revolution" was chosen because the campaign wanted broad appeal across the socio-economic spectrum of liberal red and conservative blue voters.
Beside viral campaigning, the volunteer body of "Team Nenshi" were given a great degree of autonomy to exercise creative talent. The team promoted the cause through creative guerrilla marketing tactics such as "Operation Purple Dawn". Nenshi's supporters converged on the city in a mass rally on the evening before election day. They advertised Nenshi by posting signs and writing platform slogans with chalk graffiti on pavement of high traffic locations. Supporters offered their homes as venues for coffee parties where Nenshi spoke to the gathered about his platform. The coffee parties offered a friendly atmosphere for friends to discuss the volatile nature of sensitive political issues without risking their relationships. About 40 parties were held during the campaign.
A late September poll showed that his campaign was generating interest as he sat third with eight per cent support, although well behind the leaders, alderman Ric McIver (42%) and local media personality Barb Higgins (28%). His growing popularity led to greater scrutiny of his views, including a public dispute with Calgary Police Service chief Rick Hanson over the cost of policing the city.
Days before the election, a Calgary Herald poll showed that Nenshi's grassroots campaign continued to gain momentum as he had 30 per cent support among decided voters, placing him in a statistical tie with McIver and Higgins. He polled the strongest amongst younger voters, believed to be the result of his social media campaign. Nenshi's surge in popularity carried through to the election, when he earned 40 per cent of the vote, finishing nearly 28,000 votes ahead of second-placed McIver.
Being a Shia Ismaili, Nenshi became the first Muslim to become mayor of a major Canadian city. His win was viewed as a breakthrough for the use of social media as an election tool, and when considered with his faith and background, made international headlines. His election is seen as major signal of the shift in Albertan politics and the demography of Calgary. He engaged voters with a mutual two-way dialogue as "politics in full sentences".
Vandalism and email attacks On September 11, 2010, 20 of Nenshi's campaign advertisements in the city were vandalized or destroyed and a brick was thrown through one of his campaign office's windows. The attacks, which commemorated the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York City, were accompanied by a series of racially antagonistic emails. They were therefore widely assumed to be racially motivated.
2013 mayoral election
2013 mayoral campaign During this fundraising Gala, Nenshi issued a challenge to his opponents to confront him directly and not to engage him in a proxy campaign of lobbying as he warns his supporters that his opponents will likely engage in.
In September 2013 when Nenshi's campaign began in earnest, he revealed the donors of his campaign before the election and urged his opponents to do likewise. Nenshi promised to instigate changes to improve the transparency of City Hall's municipal affairs as one of his 2010 campaign statements. According to the documents Nenshi's 1631 supporters derive from a wide range of core supporters. Among Nenshi's larger contributors were contractors from the housing construction industry, which according to Nenshi indicates that not all among the trade were antagonistic to Nenshi's anti-urban sprawl policies enacted early in his term.
Abolition of developer subsidy For his campaign platform, Nenshi proposed to abolish the $4,800 granted to home builders, aiming to save the city $33 million per annum. According to Nenshi, the subsidy over a decade contributed to the municipal debt of $1.5 billion. Nenshi wanted free market factors to take hold of the housing market and developers to contribute to funding infrastructure to far-reaching suburbs by paying levies. The Manning Centre for Building Democracy supported the motion as supporting free market principles. The group however believed developers should pay slightly increased taxes as long as inner city communities equally also contribute their share of growth costs.
International Avenue business redevelopment zone In October 2013, Nenshi and Councillors Andre Chabot and Gian-Carlo Carra proposed to realize a 2008 plan by then-Mayor Dave Bronconnier to redevelop International Avenue (17th Ave SE) as a vital transportation hub. Since inception of the plan in 2010, the project has been delayed due to costs. The plan incorporates a C-train line and rapid bus lanes, proposed in Calgary Transit's 'Route Ahead' plan. As well, the revitalization incorporates urban renewal projects like renovated apartments and business buildings. Carra studied the circumstances for Forest Lawn's urban decay and planned the neighborhood's restoration as his master thesis. Carra explained that the neighbourhood had not been adequately integrated since it was incorporated into the city of Calgary in 1961.
2017 mayoral election
Nenshi indicated his intention to run for a 3rd term on November 4, 2016. On October 16, 2017, Nenshi won a third term winning over 50% of the vote. The third election has been wrought with controversy as select neighbourhoods ran out of ballots and waiting lines to vote were hours long, resulting in lost votes.
On April 6, 2021, Nenshi announced that he would not seek re-election for a 4th term in the 2021 Calgary municipal election. The election was won by councillor Jyoti Gondek.
Tenure
Positions In 2013, Nenshi supported the proposed Keystone XL pipeline network. He explained that opposition and protests were foolish as the pipe network could mitigate environmental damage caused from the transport of oil.
In 2014, Nenshi refused to present musician Neil Young with a Calgary White Hat, a traditional token of the city's hospitality to prominent guests. Nenshi stated that he did not normally present honours to entertainers. Young was performing his Honour the Treaties benefit tour to raise legal funds on behalf of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. The ACFN is appealing government approval to expand fracking on their territory.
In 2014, Nenshi delivered a speech to the Calgary Economic Development speakers' series on diversity. Nenshi explained that there was a lack of ethnic and gender diversity among senior city staff. Nenshi stated that although the city had an excellent record of hiring minorities and women, they may experience a ceiling to promotions and advancement.
In 2017 Calgary, as with many municipalities in Western Canada, recorded an increase in the number of overdoses and fatalities related to an opioid epidemic. During a conference of Canadian mayors, Nenshi invited the federal government to use Calgary as a test city to implement harm reductionist pilot projects and gather research unique to Calgary's needs.
Although Nenshi's second term council voted to end addition of fluoride to Calgary's drinking water, he personally supports water fluoridation. He does however support more depth in the research literature related to municipal water fluoridation.CBC. "Nenshi would vote to reintroduce fluoride in Calgary drinking water with public support", CBC, retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/nenshi-supports-return-of-fluoride-in-drinking-water-1.3459040, retrieved on April 29, 2017. Calgary has undertaken five plebiscites on water fluoridation, initially voting in favour of the practice in 1998. In 2016, the city council rejected a call for another vote, but in January 2019, Ward 11 Councillor Jeromy Farkas requested a report on the history and cost of water fluoridation from the city administration in preparation for a possible 2021 plebiscite.
Relationship with housing industry Nenshi's policy of exercising greater city control over urban growth to manage urban sprawl is one of his key campaign promises. As expected, Nenshi's council has regularly collided with key associations of Calgary's housing industry. Frictions between the Nenshi council and key housing industry associations are an ongoing, overlapping, and escalating affair. Grievances continuously surfaced during the 2013 election, for example the "Cal Wenzel video", rumour-mongering about a pro-development slated council, and the Wenzel slander lawsuit of 2013.
Early in 2013, Nenshi's council suspended relations with the Calgary branch of the Canadian Home Builders' Association. The CHBA as a result was banned briefly from attending planning sessions. This action was conducted after the Calgary branch president Charron Ungar commented that the city was enacting a policy of "suburban freeze". Ungar commented upon a city plan which scheduled two suburb developments within 10 years.
Nenshi declared that the CHBA and the Urban Development Institute (UDI) were representing the housing industry poorly after a controversial article was published by the UDI. The article suggested that minorities might not find suburban living comfortable. Nenshi suspended relations with the UDI soon after the article was published. Nenshi also felt that it was more expedient for the city to deal directly with the construction industry.
Cal Wenzel housing lobby video In 2013, a video was leaked of Cal Wenzel, the CEO and founder of Shane Homes, speaking to a panel of Calgarian home builders about a plan to influence the decisions of the city council after the upcoming elections. In the video Wenzel spoke of plans to raise $1.1 million to enlist the support of Preston Manning's conservative foundation, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. According to the speech, former Mayor Dave Bronconnier counselled Wenzel on how to control council motions with eight votes. “So for whatever and however, we have to ensure that we end up with the eight votes.” Wenzel proposed a solution to circumvent direct confrontation with Nenshi's popularity. Wenzel named councillors the industry could rely on to support motions in favour of the lobby, and which he supported with donations. Nenshi has ordered a probe into what he described as distasteful and shadowy possible violations of electoral laws. In the wake of the release of this video, and violations of campaign fund limits set at $5,000, the Manning Centre has come under scrutiny.