Nenshi’s approval rating sits at 57%
The honeymoon is most certainly over.
Just over six years after he was first elected in a come-from-behind win, Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s approval rating sits at 57 per cent, according to a new Mainstreet/ Postmedia poll.
That’s a big drop from the years following Nenshi’s surprise mayoral victory in 2010, when more than 80 per cent of Calgarians said they liked the job the mayor was doing.
One year into his Purple Reign, one poll ranked Nenshi as the country’s most popular politician with an 86-per-cent approval rating.
The nearly 30-point drop to 57 per cent remains the lowest rating since Nenshi took office and is unchanged since the last time Mainstreet polled citizens about the mayor in June, 2015.
But it’s an approval rating pollster Quito Maggi insists is still solid for any politician.
“It’s still a very, very strong number,” said the president of Mainstreet Research.
“Being up in the stratosphere of 70s and 80s approval is (seen) during a honeymoon period ... The honeymoon can last a whole term, and in Mayor Nenshi’s case well into his second term.”
As he campaigns for a third term, the poll found 21 per cent of respondents “somewhat disapprove” of the mayor and 17 per cent “strongly disapprove” of the man who won the 2013 mayoral race with 73.6 per cent of the vote.
It found 24 per cent of Calgarians “strongly approve” of Nenshi’s performance — a drop from 38 per cent in 2015 — and 33 per cent of respondents said they “somewhat approve.”
Nenshi’s biggest fans are women aged 18 to 34, according to the data.
While Maggi said Nenshi has a strong approval rating given his longevity in office, Calgary’s city council as a whole didn’t fare as well when 853 Calgarians were polled Nov. 12-13 by interactive voice response.
While 47 per cent of Calgarians surveyed approve of their city council, 44 per cent do not.
Given the margin of error, Maggi said it’s basically a tie.
However, 53 per cent of respondents said they approved of their own individual city councillor, and 28 per cent disapproved.
Maggi said the overall council data could be influenced by a few unpopular councillors.
“We see this in councils where there may be one or two councillors causing trouble,” Maggi said.
With an election less than a year away, and only one ward confirmed to be without an incumbent running again, Maggi said the data demonstrates close races could be on the horizon.
“Star candidates pop up all the time and decide to run for office,” he said.
“There’s some opportunity for good healthy political campaigns developing next year.”
According to the poll, the top area of concern with voters is city hall finances.
Of the answers provided, the top issue was taxation (17 per cent), followed by city spending (15 per cent), transit (13 per cent) and the management of infrastructure projects (11 per cent).
Few Calgarians are fussed about cycle lanes (four per cent), secondary suites (three per cent), or homelessness and poverty (four per cent), according to the poll.
The Mainstreet/Postmedia Poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.35 per cent, 19 times out of 20.