Mayor Neheed Nenshi criticized the provincial Tories for calling an unnecessary and costly early election, saying Calgarians “are not happy” about it.
Premier Jim Prentice has already been panned by party leaders and political commentators for the election call.
Nenshi was asked about the election as the city announced a new transit app. He said there is no need for an election now, and also cited the high cost of running a campaign in the midst of other pressing issues.
“I don’t think I would have called an election now,” said Nenshi. “I think that there is a pretty good mandate. And I think that if we’re in a world where it’s difficult to find $200,000 to investigate the deaths of children in care, to then find $30 million to run an election, it’s a tough argument for me to make if I were in that shoe.”
He’s getting plenty of feedback from Calgarians about the campaign, announced by Prentice on Tuesday.
Nenshi’s biggest concern is that Albertans won’t show up to vote. “I suspect we will have historically low voter turnout,” he said. “They are not convinced there are really. . . good options for them.”
Meanwhile, he said the city will launch the Cities Matter website.
The mayor says he wants to survey every party on where they stand on issues facing Alberta’s cities.
“We’ll be spending a lot of time on city issues, engaging politicians on these urban issues,” Nenshi said.
