Nenshi urges ‘debate on facts’ with rival Chabot
It’s been nearly two decades since Calgarians have seen a sitting councillor run against an incumbent mayor for the top spot at city hall.
That changed earlier this week, when Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot announced he’ll challenge Mayor Naheed Nenshi in the October civic election.
Nenshi, who is seeking a third term, welcomed Chabot to the race on Thursday.
“It’s going to be a fun eight months,” the current mayor told reporters.
“I am actually super happy that councillor Chabot has finally made up his mind. He has been dithering on this probably for about 10 of the 12 years he’s been councillor, and I think this is the fourth time he’s announced he is running for mayor this year.”
Nenshi dismissed claims by Chabot that the culture at city hall is one of fear, with staff afraid to speak up and simply collecting a paycheque before retirement.
“It’s going to be a vigorous debate. But it will also be a debate based on facts,” said Nenshi, citing employment satisfaction surveys that show employees are comfortable raising ideas to their direct supervisors.
“Our cut-red-tape project included hundreds of ideas from city staff, many of which have been implemented. We’ve implemented a new program called Civic Innovation YYC specifically about this. It’s just right across from council chambers, so councillor Chabot might want to go visit some time,” Nenshi said.
Chabot told Postmedia on Tuesday that one of the biggest challenges he’ll face in running against Nenshi, who enjoys a 60 per cent approval rating with Calgarians, is trying to convince the public “this culture of co-operation is not there.”
“It’s certainly portrayed that way, it appears really nice on the surface, but what’s actually happening on the ground isn’t truly that,” Chabot said.
The differences between Chabot and Nenshi are seemingly plentiful, with Chabot describing himself as a “school of hard knocks guy” and Nenshi as an “academic.”
But, Nenshi said, if you look at the colleagues’ voting records, they’re remarkably similar.
“One of the interesting things that you’ve seen in the past is that councillor Chabot and I actually vote together on almost everything, except secondary suites,” Nenshi said.
“It is interesting that he’s voted for the past two budgets, he did vote against the tax decrease for business, which is interesting for a ‘fiscal hawk.’ You can’t just say it, you got to actually do it. But, that said, we work together really well. I like the guy a lot, actually. He’s a terrific councillor and I don’t anticipate that’s going to change.”
Calgary businessman Shawn Baldwin and David Lapp have also declared their intentions to run for mayor this fall.