End of an era? Progressive mayors in Calgary and Edmonton to make their exits
Tyler Dawson
POSTMEDIA 10/5/2021
© Provided by National Post Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi (left) and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson speak during the Mayors' Forum in Edmonton, Alberta on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.
EDMONTON — Both of Alberta’s big city mayors are making their exits come October, leaving a void in Edmonton and Calgary and marking the end of two notably progressive leaders in a province inclining towards the right.
Naheed Nenshi , 49, announced April 6 he would not be running for another term as Calgary mayor in the October 2021 elections. He’s been mayor since 2010. And, last November, Don Iveson , 41, who sat in the Edmonton mayor’s chair since 2013, also announced he wouldn’t be seeking another term.
“Calgary, thank you, for everything,” Nenshi wrote on Twitter. “It’s been the honour of my life.”
For Iveson, who was a councillor before he became mayor, he’s done what he wanted, and says it’s time to move on.
“Fourteen years is a long time and I have accomplished most of what I came here to do,” Iveson told the National Post in an interview.
Over the past decade, both men led their cities through ups and downs, development and pandemic, growth and economic collapse. They were mayors in 2015 when the New Democrats broke the 40-year run of conservative government in Alberta; and they were there when the United Conservatives took over in 2019. Now, after years of strong progressive mayoral leadership, they won’t be around anymore — it’ll be a new era for whoever comes along next.
In both cities, candidates are already lining up, with the elections roughly six months away. Calgary has 10 people vying to replace Nenshi, and Edmonton has six hoping to replace Iveson. While neither Nenshi or Iveson were in power for as long as some others — such as Jim Watson, who’s had two separate runs as mayor of Ottawa, one in the late ’90s, and the other since 2010 or Hazel McCallion, who served as the mayor of Mississauga between 1978 and 2014 — they’ve no doubt made a mark on their cities and a new chapter will soon begin in Edmonton and Calgary.
The pair also had, in Nenshi’s words “been friends for a couple of decades,” before they got into politics, leading to a solid working relationship, even if they didn’t always agree.
“We’ve had some pretty big disagreements behind closed doors,” Nenshi said.
Kate Graham, a political scientist who teaches local government at Western and Huron University College, said it’s an “important moment” for Calgary as Nenshi leaves. His election changed international perceptions of Calgary and Alberta.
“A new mayor often comes in with a big vision for the city and it can be an opportunity for new voices to rise up and for the community to have a campaign about the future,” Graham said. “The departure of Nenshi will leave a very big hole. Nenshi broke the mold.”
Both men also had outsized effects on the rest of the country, she said.
“They’re both very skilled leaders within their own city, but also punched way above their weight, both of them have played major leadership roles in advancing federal-municipal relationships in Canada,” Graham said. “Their departure from that table definitely leaves a big hole.” 
© Codie McLachlan/Edmonton Sun/Postmedia Network Then-Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, centre, is flanked by Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, left, and Edmonton mayor Don Iveson, right, after a meeting at the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton, Alta., on Nov. 18, 2015.
For many Albertans, the question of who should replace Iveson and Nenshi is also a question of what political bent the replacement might be. Like most major cities in Canada — the exceptions being Vancouver and Montreal — Edmonton and Calgary do not have parties at the municipal level. However, Nenshi and Iveson were both widely perceived as progressive mayors and they focused on issues like housing, transit infrastructure and urban development.
Now, there’s a palpable desire in Edmonton and Calgary for change — at least according to the small-government types aiming to take over at city hall.
Nenshi’s ride to the mayor’s chair was an unexpected one.
He first won in 2010, a bit of an upset victory as his “Purple Revolution” came from behind — starting out the campaign with just eight per cent support — using viral marketing and social media to win over younger voters. Nenshi’s team wrote pro-Nenshi messages in chalk at transit stations and on sidewalks, they posted signs in apartment buildings and Nenshi himself manned his Twitter account.
It was a noted victory for another reason: Nenshi became the first Muslim mayor of a major Canadian city and, he brought further international attention to Calgary in 2014 when he won the World Mayor prize.
© Stuart Gradon Naheed Nenshi speaks to supporters at his downtown headquarters after winning the mayoral seat in Calgary, Alberta on Oct. 18, 2010.
Over his time as mayor, Nenshi received plaudits for shepherding the city through devastating flooding in 2013, but also found himself a booster for the city’s failed 2018 bid to host the 2026 Olympics, which will now be in Italy. He also oversaw substantial property tax increases and expansion of city funding, and by June 2019, Nenshi’s approval rating was 39 per cent, down from a whopping 74 per cent in June 2014.
Iveson, who seemingly had a less tumultuous mayoral tenure than Nenshi, has been criticized for a focus on downtown — on bike lanes and transit, revitalization and infill housing. His career began with two terms as a city councillor, first elected in 2007, before running for mayor in 2013 with a campaign The Canadian Press described as “Kennedy-esque.”
After winning, Iveson said he thought Edmonton had a “more confident swagger,” and a “new sense of optimism,” The Canadian Press reported. Reflecting on his time as mayor, Iveson points to the city’s development plan and climate change vision as his major accomplishments.
“So, it’s time for the city to choose where it wants to go next,” Iveson said.
Still, Iveson has had his share of controversies. While it’s not entirely his fault — it began before he took over — he’s had to wear problems with the city’s Metro Line light-rail system, and there were construction delays on the Walterdale Bridge project across the North Saskatchewan River. The Valley Line — the next leg in the LRT — is already causing controversy and it, too, is likely to be a ballot question for Iveson’s replacement. One candidate, Coun. Mike Nickel, who Iveson defeated in 2007 to first become a councillor, said it should be put on hold in favour of rapid bus transit.
“People are done with, basically, my opinion is, a failed agenda,” Nickel said.
While 54 per cent of Edmontonians give Iveson, and the current council, positive reviews over the past few years, that skews wildly by age, according to Leger polling from October 2020. It shows 61 per cent of voters aged 18 to 34 give excellent reviews, while only 43 per cent of those aged 55 to 64 agree — a differential pollsters attribute to Iveson and council’s handling of social justice issues, such as Black Lives Matter rallies in 2020.
NICKEL ADVERTISES IN THE FAR RIGHT ONLINE PAPER THE WESTERN STANDARD
In both cities, there is perhaps some room for a more conservative, no nonsense mayor: Someone who will cut spending, reduce taxes and reconsider bike lanes and transit infrastructure. But the two top contenders for “conservative candidate” in each city don’t identify themselves by a partisan moniker.
Nickel’s that candidate in Edmonton.
“It’s just a common sense agenda. People are done with these 20 years of tax increases, of red tape, of these almost never-ending virtue signals and processes,” Nickel said.
'One of the best': Edmonton's 41-year-old, two-term mayor Don Iveson to step down next year
In Calgary, that title probably falls to Coun. Jeromy Farkas, though there are at least two other candidates who are far to the right of Farkas — and pretty much anyone else in Alberta politics — running to be Calgary mayor.
“This election isn’t about whether Calgarians want a Liberal or Conservative mayor. It’s about jobs and the economy and who’s best positioned to deliver on those things,” Farkas said.
Jared Wesley, a University of Alberta political scientist, argues there are issues on the ballot that could bring more conservative-leaning voters to the polls, a potential boon for candidates such as Farkas and Nickel.
A ballot question on equalization, championed by the United Conservative provincial government, should be one such mechanism that energizes conservative voters municipally.
© Ed Kaiser Newly elected mayor Don Iveson celebrating with supporters during the city’s municipal election, at the Matrix Hotel in Edmonton, October 21, 2013.
But, the UCP is polling poorly. Polling from the Common Ground project at the University of Alberta shows that, in Calgary, the New Democrats lead on voter intention with 38 per cent of intended votes, compared to the United Conservatives, at 31 per cent. In Edmonton, 45 per cent of voters would cast a ballot for the New Democrats, compared to just 24 per cent for the UCP.
In particular, says Wesley, at the municipal level, school trustees are also up for re-election, and the UCP’s education curriculum rewrite has been tremendously controversial, something that may bring progressive voters to the polls.
“It’s a bit premature to (declare) the death of progressivism in civic politics in two big cities,” Wesley said. “You’re going to see, I think, these litmus tests, for both councillors and mayors on one hand and school trustees on the other: Do you support support the provincial government’s approach to anything they’re doing right now?”
* * *
There’s more to the mayoral races — and the prospective victors — than how the politics of the man or woman in the mayor’s chair happen to skew. One of the strengths of the Nenshi-Iveson years was that, given all the issues cities face that require dealing with the provincial government, the two men were able to put up a united front.
The United Conservative government has had an at-times fractious relationship with municipalities. And, with Iveson and Nenshi leaving, that power dynamic could shift a bit, said Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt.
“It’s not unusual for the big city mayors to have problems with the province, that’s an ongoing thing,” said Bratt. “But, under Nenshi and Iveson they were able to put a common front together.”
Calgary, in particular, seems to have had a tougher relationship with the UCP government than Edmonton, most notably during the 2019 municipal budget season. Premier Jason Kenney said Calgary needs “fiscal responsibility;” then-municipal affairs minister Kaycee Madu suggested the city “needs to look after its own house;” and then-justice minister (a post Madu now has) Doug Schweitzer called Nenshi “Trudeau’s mayor.”
© Jim Wells Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi speaks to media outside Council Chambers in Calgary on Tuesday, October 13, 2020.
Bratt said he’s argued the United Conservatives “see municipalities as a form of opposition to this government,” but Ric McIver, the provincial municipal affairs minister, disagreed.
“We’ve got a good relationship now, and I expect we’ll have a good relationship in the future,” McIver said. “The fact that the province and municipalities don’t agree on everything I think sometimes just means everybody’s doing their jobs well.”
Iveson describes the UCP as “hostile to all local governments in Alberta,” a trend that respects no political persuasion.
“Perhaps others will be able to reset what has been at this point a dysfunctional relationship,” Iveson said.
Nenshi takes a slightly different view, citing just two premiers — Ed Stelmach, premier between 2006 and 2011 and Dave Hancock, who was premier for several months in 2014 — as the only two easy premiers out of the five he’s dealt with.
“I long for the day when we actually have a provincial government that understands that it is possible to actually be helpful and friendly to the cities instead of seeing the city governments as their enemy,” Nenshi said.
“I don’t know why, but it’s always been hard for provincial governments to understand that the majority of their seats are in the two cities, or at least a near majority of their seats are in those two cities, and that people who live in cities are in fact Albertans who do in fact have Albertan values and who do deserve support.”
Wesley said the fractious relationship between the UCP and the municipalities is just a return to the norm, “where provincial governments want to keep municipalities under their thumb.”
“I don’t think it matters who’s going to be filling those chairs necessarily, but it certainly didn’t help that they were ideologically different from the party in power in Edmonton.”
THERE WAS ONLY ONE GOVERNMENT FOR 44 YEARS THE PC'S PREDECESORS OF UCP THE NDP CHANGED THAT FOR ONLY FOUR YEARS
NOT ENOUGH TIME FOR A RESET
* * *
For whomever comes next, there will be considerable challenges ahead in both cities.
Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta, said after the economic recession — which started in 2014 with a collapse in oil prices and has lingered and intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic — the next mayors in the Calgary and Edmonton will need a solid strategy for boosting business and investment.
Legge said “cities around the world are going to be competing for business and investment,” so ensuring Calgary and Edmonton are competitive, solid places to do business is going to need to be “job No. 1.”
“Albertans are looking for some long-term prosperity in their lives,” said Legge. “Mayoral candidates, should have a real good understanding of business, that’s important.”
Calgary and Edmonton underwent substantial changes in the years Nenshi and Iveson were in power. Calgary, in particular, has faced a daunting economic recession, and its downtown core has been gutted by layoffs in energy sector offices.
Transit has been a big issue for both men, and will continue to be for the next mayor of each city.
© SHAUGHN BUTTS Sarah Chan on her bike with her husband, then-city councillor Don Iveson, dressed up for the opera.
For both men, though, they’ll be on the sidelines, watching whatever happens next — at least for now. There’s near-constant and fairly widespread speculation that either, or both, will make an appearance in federal or provincial politics.
Iveson, asked about his future, said he hasn’t even had time to think about it. He has a wife, Sarah Chan, and two children. He does say, though, that he’s “not running for anybody at this point.”
“There’s still so much I want to tidy up and set up for success into the coming years that I haven’t really had a chance to think about that yet,” Iveson said. “But no doubt some decompression after 14 years non-stop will be welcome.”
Nenshi, who thinks of riding a horse at the head of the Calgary Stampede as one of his fondest memories, also has “no idea” what’s coming next, though he expects to remain “a part of the story of Calgary, Alberta and Canada.”
“Right now, I’ve deliberately allowed myself to be open to different ideas,” he said. “The biggest thing is that, I am told, these last 10 years have been an exceptional year for creation in the field of television so, basically, I’ve got 10 years of TV to catch up on. I hear something called Game of Thrones is worth my time.”
• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson
