Election conduct review gets approval

Mayor Naheed Nenshi suggested Tuesday that a motion by a pair of councillors to look at how the mayor and incumbent councillors conduct themselves during an election may be the result of sour grapes.

Councillors Jim Stevenson and Ward Sutherland asked for council support to have the city’s ethics adviser develop a code of conduct specifically for the mayor and incumbent councillors vying for the top job. Stevenson said he was troubled in the 2013 election that Nenshi backed several incumbent councillors, something he fears could pave the way to a more partisan city council in the future.

“If a member of council runs or the existing mayor runs they have a lot of influence in this city, and if they’re involving themselves in individual ward elections I have a problem with that,” he said.

Stevenson said during the last election, Nenshi publicly said voters shouldn’t cast a ballot for candidates who didn’t disclose their donors prior to election day, something he felt was inappropriate for the incumbent mayor.

An irked Nenshi said the move appears to be little more than hurt feelings. “It is not proper to use city resources to fix a perceived slight from several years ago,” he told council. “Any restriction on freedom of speech for anyone would be so completely beyond the powers we have as a council that this is a giant waste of time.”

Coun. Shane Keating said he favoured having ethics adviser Alice Woolley take a closer look at how incumbent members of council conduct themselves during an election as opposed to having elected officials police themselves.

Nenshi amended the motion to include sitting councillors, along with the incumbent mayor and incumbent councillors who are running for the mayor’s seat, to be considered in the review.

Council voted 9-5 in favour of the plan. A report from the ethics adviser has been set to return to council on Dec. 19.