Naheed Nenshi: "Bad Enmax! Bad!"

A little over a week ago, an email written by Enmax CEO Gary Holden, was leaked to the media. The email was apparently a heavy handed response against a former Enmax staffer who leaked details of Holden's salary and lavish parties held at Holden's personal residence at the expense of the taxpayers. The email went on to say that Enmax would be seeking legal charges against the former employee.

Talk about making a bad situation worse.

Enmax is a city owned utility that provides power to Southern Alberta. So, of course details of $100,000 private parties put on at Holden's home and funded by Enmax caused quite a bit of stir with the citizens of Calgary. Add to that the details of Holden's $2.7 million compensation package for last year, and you have a very bitter public opinion.

Holden has tried defending the parties, which included invited rockstars such as Tom Cochrane and Gord Downy from the Tragically hip, saying that they were meant to showcase Enmax's foray into renewable energy to industry heavyweights. Holden's home was fitted with wind turbines and solar panels and waste-to-energy recovery technology. Holden stated the most recent party in question had 300 invited guests, and 25 Enmax employees who helped stage the event with a cost over $100,000.

It is unclear at this point exactly how many parties have been held.

To add to public outrage, Gary Holden's internal email stressed a firm hand with employees who leak information to the media, and indicated that legal action would be taken against the former employee-turned-whistleblower.

This did not help matters. Several employees who spoke anonymously to media expressed fear for their jobs, should they say the wrong thing to the wrong person. The email also implied an effort of cover-up of Enmax expenditures.

Naheed Nenshi

Last week, new Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi weighed in on the Enmax ordeal, demanding an inquiry into the parties, and why Enmax board of directors seemed to receive a 60% increase in compensation last year.

Nenshi met with Enmax board member Clifford Fryers and laid the smack down. The first verbal bitchslap Nenshi gave Fryers was "no more lavish parties". The second was to suggest the taxpayers and Enmax customers would not appreciate the Corporation spending taxpayers money to persecute a whistleblower.

Seems like a reasonable solution. However, in an apparent effort to make a point, Holden has now cancelled the upcoming company Christmas party, citing Mayor Nenshi's insistence of no more parties. Holden also implied that the outrage from Calgarians was to fault for his employees not being entitled to a Christmas party.

Nenshi hasn't made any public statements about the cancellation of the Christmas party, but somehow I doubt he would begrudge city employees their yearly dose of merriment. However, one of the lavish parties in years past was a Christmas party entertained by Tom Cochrane, who performed a 3 hour set under a reported $100,000 contract. A little over the top, no?

Clearly Gary Holden is an all or nothing type man. Either there is a Christmas party which can only be described as an Orgy of Excess, or no party at all.

This man's disturbing attitude needs to be corrected. If he continues his antics, it would not be unreasonable to assume that he will be removed from his position very soon. And good riddance.

Naheed Neshi: New Mayor of Calgary

So I have been terribly busy these last few weeks. It seems like I have a million things to do each day, and I never get them all done.

That being said, never fear, as I always keep track of topics I want to write about on the blog.

One hot topic this week was the municipal election here in Calgary. This is the first election that I have not voted in. With recently relocating here, I felt that I did not know enough about the history of the candidates to make an informed choice on who to vote for. Sure, you can always find the candidates online and read their platform, but I like to know some history about the candidates: were they in politics before? Did they live up to previous promises they made? Are they reputable business people? Personally, I believe idiots that make an uninformed decision on who they are voting for are far more dangerous than those who abstain.

But I digress.

Much to many people's surprise, Naheed Nenshi, who was considered a distant third runner up during the entire campaign won by a reasonable margin.

Naheed Nenshi Celebrating (photo from www.nenshi.ca)

Naheed Nenshi ran against Barb Higgins, a well know former news anchor on CTV news, and Ric McIver, an older white businessman and former city alderman, who people seem to either somewhat like or openly despise.

Barb Higgins, a well known television personality and attractive white female, was considered the front runner in the race the week prior to the election, though she jumped on the political band wagon relatively late in race.

But, in a rare turn of political progression, Naheed Nenshi pulled ahead when it really counted. Naheed is a Harvard Graduate with a Masters in Public Policy, and has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary. He currently is a professor at Mount Royal University here in Calgary.

So he has solid credentials. Why would this be considered a progressive political choice? Because not only is Naheed a visible minority, (a first for Calgary mayors) but he is now the first Mayor in Canada who is Muslim.

Yes, I said Muslim.

Lets be honest. Muslim is an attention getting word these days. I think draws more attention in the US, certainly, but even still it is capable of causing heated debate here in Canada.

Now the funny thing about it all is I have heard a few people talking about the record voter turn out for the recent election. There were more than 300,000 votes cast which means an estimated eligible voter turn out of approximately 46%. I have heard several people mention that they felt Nenshi won because many of Calgary's visible minorities made sure they got to the polls this year.

While that may be true, I am not sure that the motives were race or religion oriented. Calgarians en masse were definitely ready for a change. Over the course of the last year, most of the local media ran editorials about how the city needed a political change. Additionally, many opinion based publications called for an all out recall of city council. And, if that wasn't convincing enough, there were a record amount of candidates for the mayors chair. At one point during the election, there were 15 declared candidates.

As an added analysis, here are some brief statistics about Calgary:

Population: 1,079,000 (2006 census)

Visible Minorities 23.7% (2006 census)

Number of declared Muslims 26,000 (2001 census)

So looking at all of the numbers, even if every declared Muslim in the city of Calgary was eligible to vote, and casted a ballot for Nenshi, it still would be less than 25% of the votes received. Add that to the amount of eligible minority voters, and it still would not have put him over the top.

After all of that, I think the only fair way to sum up this election, is that the best man won. Simple as that. Nenshi is a well educated, succinct speaker who ran a clean campaign and had a solid platform.

I don't believe the media will let the minority issue or religious affiliation drop anytime soon. But, I hope that Nenshi is clever enough and tactful enough to use it to his advantage. If he spins the media attention correctly, he can bring more positive attention to the city of Calgary and attract a lot of important investment and cultural opportunities to the city.

Good Job Naheed, and good luck with the political career.