MARCH 1st, 2024 | RYAN TYLER

We Don't Need Another Nenshi Clown Show

Calgary's clown prince of purple and chaos wants to be premier.

I can't think of a more petulant and arrogant man-child than Naheed Nenshi. In my forty-some years on planet Earth, I have never been made so nauseous by a politician. I imagine that those who hate Donald Trump might feel how I do about Naheed Nenshi. His tantrums on social media happened long before Trump came onto the scene and he was once forced to apologize to a Calgary citizen after implying he had stopped taking his medication. I once dated a girl who questioned him on Twitter and was immediately cut down, insulted and attacked. Nenshi was Calgary's Trump before Trump. Now, some are encouraging him to replace Rachel Notley at the helm of Alberta's NDP.

Nenshi left the mayor's office with an approval of 39%. He was elected in 2010 through vote-splitting between a right-leaning and centrist candidate—one former councillor and one television personality. He came onto the scene selling himself as a conservative at times, only to eventually prove he wasn't. On issues of taxation and policy, Nenshi was dismissive and defensive when criticized. After the floods of 2013, he was praised, but my strongest memory is of him reminding Calgarians that they still needed to pay their property taxes on time.

It's not hard to put on a windbreaker and talk in front of cameras. That's all he really did during the floods, yet media and ardent followers paid him more accolades than the emergency workers doing the real work. At the time, I found it infuriating. I even remember seeing stickers on windows of bus stops in Calgary's Beltline showing Nenshi dressed as a superhero, while newspapers published polls showing Nenshi's soaring approval ratings.

I hope he enjoyed his glory days. If he thinks he can get them back by becoming the leader of a far-left socialist party, he's probably wrong. Although, the party is a perfect fit for him.

When Nenshi left office, Calgary was in worse shape than ever before. When Rachel Notley left office, Alberta was in worse shape than ever before. It's almost like the NDP and Nenshi were destined to become one. The only real problem is Nenshi's vocal support for oil and gas pipelines while he was mayor—something we know the NDP hates. As mayor, Nenshi took public swipes at John Horgan for opposing pipelines and supported Notley when she pretended to support the Trans-Mountain pipeline. However, just like Notley, Nenshi could pretend to do a lot of things, while failing to prove himself through actions. In politics, empty words can go further than good deeds.

Nenshi is an expert when it comes to spewing platitudes and faking support for things to get elected.

His pure, unadulterated hatred for women like Danielle Smith might be enough to put on a wig and costume for another clown show. He has already dipped his toe in the pool by ranting and raving to a crowd of pro-trans protesters at city hall. It looks like they received him well. I mean, how could they not? He was saying everything they wanted to hear. They may not like his stance on pipelines, but his stance against parental rights is a redeeming quality.

Nenshi has more friends in the Alberta Party, which has potential to become his real home, but whether he is willing to steal votes from the NDP and risk splitting the left is yet to be seen. I wouldn't put it past him. Nenshi can be vindictive. If the NDP's base of die-hard socialists try to kill his leadership plot, he might jump ship to the “centrist” party founded by his friends. The Alberta Party has performed well in the past, but it could pull in historic numbers with Nenshi at the helm. If it does well enough, it could displace and replace the NDP in future elections.

As leader of the Alberta Party, Nenshi would have more freedom to flip and flop on certain issues.

I could even see Nenshi using his connections in the Alberta Party to coerce NDP brass into stepping aside and letting him take control of their party. “If you don't give it to me, I will ruin your chances,” he could say. Knowing what a sleaze Nenshi is, I can imagine him finding a more indirect way of saying that. 

As mayor, Nenshi was a megalomaniac. Rahim Mohamed summed it up best in a column for the National Post, saying, “Nenshi's chronic affliction with main character syndrome precedes his time at city hall.” Mohamed also touched on Nenshi's tenure at Mount Royal, where he received reviews from students saying, “Once his ego fits through the door, he's ready and willing to make you feel two inches tall.”

During his tenure as mayor, Calgary council made news for its dysfunction. At one point, Nenshi arrogantly called in a psychologist to talk to council. Mohamed correctly links that dysfunction to Nenshi's overall personality and his penchant for belittling his colleagues. According to Nenshi, however, he wasn't the problem. It was everyone else who was the problem. Several councillors objected to Nenshi's closed-door psychology session, but the mayor arrogantly shot back at them in public. Even the NDP's Joe Ceci lampooned the idea.

When Michelle Rempel criticized Nenshi's tax hikes on small businesses, he said she was bad at math. He was also sued by a Calgary home-builder for defamation, which was eventually settled out of court.

Nenshi has a laundry list of bad behaviour. For an unmarried, childless man who has spent most of his adult life lecturing people, Nenshi has an ego that could crush Donald Trump and a mouth that could swallow Alberta. He doesn't have any real financial accomplishments, he has no notable business ventures other than a typical consulting firm, his students from Mount Royal hate him, and he left Calgary in ruin and debt —yet his ego appears to have grown larger since leaving the mayor's office. It's astonishing, really.

Actually, the NDP seems like more of a perfect fit now, doesn't it? A party of lazy goofballs with big mouths and no accomplishments sounds exactly like Naheed Nenshi's cup of tea.