Approval for Mayor Nenshi continues to drop: poll

A new online poll says Naheed Nenshi's numbers wouldn't lead to re-election.

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – It has been a rough year for Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, and a new poll isn’t helping.

According to a survey from Think HQ, Mayor Nenshi’s approval rating continues to drop.

The poll found that 39 per cent of respondents approve of Nenshi’s performance, with 55 in disapproval.

READ FULL SURVEY

Mayor Nenshi who was at the First Flip Pancake Breakfast Thursday morning talked briefly about the poll, saying council as a whole needs to do better.

“I think a lot of this is stuff we do to ourselves. We beat ourselves up over issues that are solvable. I think my colleagues on city council and myself need to change the channel on this,” he said. “Ultimately beating one another up over stuff that we’re fixing in a self-fulfilling prophecy and we can see that resulting in what people’s attitudes are.”

While his approval rating has dropped by 22 percentage points since June 2018, political scientist Lori Williams with Mount Royal University says it’s unsurprising.

“It’s not surprising that Mayor Nenshi is losing popularity or that council is even less popular than Mayor Nenshi because they are not working terribly well together,” she pointed out. “When any given politician or even party is in power for a length of time they tend to decline in popularity and run out of popularity by about 10 years, on average.” Nenshi is in his ninth year in office as mayor.

Whether this will hurt Nenshi’s chances at reelection is another question.

“Much depends on who might declare that they are thinking of running against him,” she speculated. “Low [approval] numbers — if your opponents are lower — is something that is survivable.”

Despite a failed Olympic plebiscite and disgruntled small business owners as contributing to the low approval rating, Nenshi pointed to a study last year that found Calgary had the lowest taxes and cost of doing business in 10 of the largest urban economies in North America.

He also says he’s felt the disapproval from Calgarians and has had conversations with some who are upset.

“When I explained to him what was actually happening about the downtown and outside of the downtown, and how many businesses in Calgary have seen 75 to 80 per cent tax cuts while others are seeing increases, he was very surprised.”

When it comes to City Council as a whole, the numbers aren’t better. Fewer than one-third or about 32 per cent of those interviewed approve of Council which shows a 16 per cent drop in approval for Council since June 2018.

“Calgarians clearly are not happy with how City Hall is operating today, but most of their ire seems directed at Mayor Nenshi,” said Mark Henry with Think HQ. “You would likely need to go back almost forty years to find a sitting Calgary mayor with approval this low, and the year-over-year drop in his approval is staggering.”

Henry points out that when it comes to individual councillors, about 49 per cent say they approve of their councillor’s work, but 17 per cent were unsure.

The results come out following several controversies with city council including the recent spat over property taxes and debate on how to cut $60 million from the 2019 budget.

WATCH: Selling the tax plan in Calgary

 

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