Political leaders meet with Calgary mayor ahead of May election

City Hall was a busy place Thursday as two of Alberta’s political leaders hoping to be premier met with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

In what could be a bid to sway or earn favour with Nenshi, NDP leader Rachel Notley and Wildrose leader Brian Jean each came to his office for one-on-one meetings with the mayor.

First out of the gate was Notley who seemed optimistic about her face-to-face.

“A good, thoughtful conversation about some of the issues that Calgary has, should I be in a position to be taking over the negotiations with respect to municipal governance in the future, I look forward to building on the conversation that we had today,” she told reporters.

She stopped short of discussing any of the specific topics, when asked if it was about money, calling the conversation over-arching.

“We need to be sure that we have a governing structure that understands and reflects the important work that Calgary does in supporting all of our province,” said Notley. “Calgary is a key-driver in this province and I have said from day one that I am very committed to ensuring that we have good representation from Calgary and Calgary’s interests are heard and will be heard by any government that I lead.”

The NDP leader was also asked if the mayor was concerned if she might play favourites, given much of her support may be in Edmonton after election day.

“Absolutely no concern like that expressed and there shouldn’t be concern like that expressed,” she said.

The long-time politician admits it’s possible that she’s being taken more seriously these days given some of the momentum we’re seeing in the polls.

“I’m very confident in the team of candidates that we have running for us. I believe we are reflective of Alberta, Albertans will see themselves reflected in the NDP caucus that they elect to the Legislature in Edmonton and should we have the greatest number. I have absolutely no problem being very confident that we will have incredibly competent leadership type people who will be able to form a cabinet and more.”

“What I’ve been saying since I first started in this campaign is that I’ve been running for premier, I said that at the very outset and I meant it,” she adds. “And what we’ve heard from our volunteers, people on the door step, people in the street frankly who have come up just when we’re walking down the street is that people are looking for something different, they’re looking for an alternative.”

Wildrose leader Brian Jean left his meeting with the mayor also feeling optimistic.

“We didn’t have talking points; we just talked about something things that are going on around Alberta right now,” he said. “And just some different priorities he had for the people of Calgary, and we talked about how we can work together in the future. It was a very good conversation.”

Jean says their plan for municipalities is something that cities will want, referencing how cities will be given the money to spend it how they see fit.

They’re also planning on doubling the amount of infrastructure funding in metropolitan centres like Calgary and Edmonton.

“We’re going to work with all the mayors, especially Mayor Nenshi here in Calgary, to make sure that we deliver the goods that Albertans need which is all of those priorities I have mentioned along with good infrastructure projects.”

“I would say we had a great conversation; I enjoyed it very much.”

Nenshi later told reporters Notley and Jean were the last two political leaders in the province that he had yet to meet.

“I’m feeling really good about the choices Albertans have in this election,” he said. “We have sincere, thoughtful people who appear to understand the needs of the municipality.”

“Today I met Rachel Notley for the first time; she did not terrify me at all,” he jokes. “I met Brian Jean for the first time. I didn’t try to cut him to see if he would bleed but he was not in any way robotic. And both of them actually came off extremely sincere, extremely thoughtful, extremely willing to work with the City of Calgary and I appreciated that from both of them.”

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