One session in and our mayor is already offended

Nenshi needs thicker skin or this will be a long four years

Well that didn’t take long. Four weeks to be precise.

That’s the length of time it has taken Mayor Naheed Nenshi to once again be personally offended. Oh boy, this is going to be a long four years.

Now, you would have thought the mayor would be popping one of those big grins he can turn on so charmingly. After all, he’s just been re-elected for a third term after a rather nasty election campaign which saw his share of the popular vote fall from 74 to 51 per cent.

Some folks might reflect on that falling off in popularity and wonder if perhaps you’ve been doing something wrong to lose a sizable chunk of support among Calgarians.

It doesn’t appear such a sliver of selfexamination has crossed His Worship’s mind, however, judging by the first down-to-business meeting of the new council last Monday.

Nope, the mayor is pricklier than a porcupine in heat. The latest thing to give offence was a motion questioning the past approval of the rapid transit plan for the southwest involving co-ordinated, speedy-access bus lanes along with a fairly hefty price tag for construction costs.

Newly elected councillor Jeromy Farkas campaigned in Ward 11 challenging that project, so, after he got voted into office, most reasonable folk would imagine that, democracy being a living, breathing thing, he’d do exactly what he promised potential voters only weeks earlier.

Now, his chances of success were always going to be slim, given those sitting councillors who first voted for the project along with the mayor would have to be convinced to change their minds. Still, times are different in Calgary when it comes to splashing out cash these days, so maybe a rethink of this and other projects wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Yes, the motion died on the vine. Maybe it deserved to. But the idea that a new member of council was following through with a promise made to the people who elected him a month earlier did not deserve Nenshi’s all-too-common explosion of moral indignation.

“I was really asking myself, ‘Why do I find this notice of motion so offensive? Is it just because I support the project?’ Actually, no. It’s because this notice of motion — in and behind it — implies that council has not done its job,” is how he phrased it.

So, anyone daring to question the past performance of a Nenshi-led council is offensive? Aren’t you supposed to grow a thicker skin in politics?

He then turned his attention to the wider world and Calgary’s limping discussion about whether to bid on the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“If we choose to bid, we’ll win,” said the mayor.

Wow, there’s no stopping this guy when it comes to hubris. Maybe the International Olympic Committee, an organization not exactly short of the occasional arrogant member itself, might have something to say about that.

Still, you have to think it a little odd that this is a mayor with whom the Calgary Flames can’t even bring themselves to meet with any longer regarding a new arena for the hockey club. Somehow he thinks the IOC head honchos will roll over and have their copious tummies tickled if he and his council buddies bother to even put in a bid.

Ah, but we won’t. Calgary doesn’t do things like that anymore — take risks, think big, challenge the world. No, we just tell everyone they’re not as smart as us and we don’t want to hear any squawking from the bleachers.

Seriously, he needs to find a sense of humour hidden in some civic cubbyhole.

It’s going to be four long years. For him and us.

Anyone daring to question the past performance of a Nenshi-led council is offensive? Aren’t you supposed to grow a thicker skin in politics?