CALGARY – Popular Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi won his 3rd consecutive term in office after a nasty, divisive election that saw his opponents use the Calgary Flames criticism of the mayor’s plans for a new arena against Nenshi.
But Nenshi fought back and won decisively again with all of the incumbent councillors also securing their seats following an election day marred by long voter lineups, ballot shortages and slow results.
Nenshi’s main rival, Bill Smith, conceded at midnight when Nenshi had 112,503 votes to Smith’s 97,756.
“Today, we confidently said as a people, as a community, that we will be bold, we will move forward and we will do it together,” said Nenshi to a cheering crowd at The National bar on 10th Avenue S.W. after Smith conceded, reported CBC News.
By about 6 a.m., with all 234 of 234 of the ward voting stations reporting and 32 of 32 city-wide voting stations reporting, Nenshi had 199,122 votes, compared to 169,367 for Smith.
Voter turnout was higher than it’s been in more than four decades, with 387,306 votes cast by 58.1 per cent of the electorate, according to Elections Calgary.
Nenshi said he was humbled by the support and also from looking back on some of his mistakes over the past seven years.
“I can’t promise you I’ll be a different person and I’m not sure you want that, but I can promise you I’ll do my very best, put my pants on every day and go to work every single day for every one of you,” Nenshi said.
“Being your mayor is the best job in the world. This city is the best city in the world. And our best days are still ahead.”
Smith calls for Calgarians to ‘get behind our mayor’
A much shorter speech was delivered at Smith’s election night headquarters earlier, as he conceded the campaign.
“I talked to Mayor Nenshi just a few moments ago to congratulate him,” said Smith.
“We’ve had what some suggest was a divisive battle over the last few weeks … and I think we need to put that aside and get behind our mayor and press the issues important to Calgarians that have to do with taxes, spending and how we treat Calgarians.”
At one point, the race seemed split between Nenshi, Smith and Andre Chabot. But the longtime city councillor seemed to get squeezed out as the campaign progressed and he had garnered only 11,945 votes by early Tuesday morning when all the ballots were counted.
The other seven mayoral candidates racked up 6,872 votes among them.
The once unassailable Nenshi was put on his heels during the campaign when two polls revealed he was well behind Smith, something contradicted by polls released from other organizations.
Jack Lucas, assistant professor of political science at the University of Calgary, said part of the reason for Nenshi’s victory could be his support among young voters, a cohort that’s less likely to vote, but can be a force when it does.
The mayor ran on his record and a vision that includes an entertainment and cultural district in Victoria Park on the eastern edge of Calgary’s Beltline neighbourhood.
It was that proposal that started off the campaign on an ugly note, when the owners of the Calgary Flames responded to Nenshi’s proposal by saying they had walked away from negotiations with the city on a new hockey arena.
