Municipal Politics

[Calgarian]

This whole thing is ridiculous! Wenzel made his own bed, now he has to sleep in it, stop trying to blame Nenshi for getting caught trying to buy council.

[Jimby]

Does Bennett Jones get any legal work from the City of Calgary? Will they after this?
I would have thought they would have counselled their client to be reasonable and not to invite ridicule and scorn upon themselves which is what they have done.

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by Jimby

Does Bennett Jones get any legal work from the City of Calgary? Will they after this?
I would have thought they would have counselled their client to be reasonable and not to invite ridicule and scorn upon themselves which is what they have done.

I think you read that wrong. Nenshi's lawyer works for Bennett Jones.

[lineman]

I'm sure Rick Bell and his bellboys will have something to say tomorrow. Likely calling him purple something or another and some bastardization of his surname.

[Jimby]

Originally Posted by Ramsayfarian

I think you read that wrong. Nenshi's lawyer works for Bennett Jones.

. Sorry I thought they were representing Shame homes!

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by Jimby

. Sorry I thought they were representing Shame homes!

I'll sue you in England!

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by Jimby

. Sorry I thought they were representing Shame homes!

Honest mistake, but if they were representing Shane Homes, isn't alluding to them losing City business be similar to what Don Corleone is doing by with suing Nenshi?

[Jimby]

Originally Posted by Ramsayfarian

Honest mistake, but if they were representing Shane Homes, isn't alluding to them losing City business be similar to what Don Corleone is doing by with suing Nenshi?

I was transferring my vindictive thoughts on to the Mayor which isn't fair to him.

[Spring2008]

Nenshi the second most powerful person in Canada:

Defining power is almost as hard as acquiring and keeping it.

Being able to command the spotlight is often an attribute of the powerful, but so too is a knack for operating from the shadows. We tend to closely associate wealth and power, but it would be foolish—and boring—to ignore the clout of those whose paycheques wouldn’t be all that impressive, whether public servant or priest, creative thinker or cultural arbiter. Presiding over the pinnacle of a hierarchy might seem like the common condition of the powerful, until someone inevitably mentions one of those intriguingly influential loners, iconoclasts or introverts.

Keeping all these intriguing contradictions and counterbalances in mind, writers and editors at Maclean’s who cover the Canadian scene compiled the Power List with three broad concepts in mind: institutional clout, capacity for innovation and timeliness. You’ll find the complete list and articles on the 50 most powerful in the current issue of Maclean’s, now on stands. Watch for more stories on our website throughout the week.

Disagree with our list? We also claim there’s power in the ability to start an argument. Join the fray below.

Click here to hear Ottawa bureau chief John Geddes discuss the list.

The 50 most powerful are:

1. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada

2. Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary

3. Jerry Dias, President of Unifor

4. Mark Wiseman, President and CEO of the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board

5. France Charbonneau, Superior Court Judge

6. Ray Novak, Stephen Harper’s Chief of Staff

7. Galen Weston Jr., Executive chairman of Loblaws

8. Justin Trudeau, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

9. Julie Dickson, Superintendent of the office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions

10. Mike Lazaridis, Co-founder of Blackberry

11. Gerald Butts, Justin Trudeau’s top adviser

12. Beverley Mclachlin, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

13. Thomas Mulcair, Leader of the Opposition

14. James Moore,Minister of Industry

15. Christy Clark, B.C. Premier

16. Pierre Karl Peladeau, former CEO of Quebecor

17. Laureen Harper, wife of Prime Minister Stephen Harper

18. Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment

19. Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada Corp. President, energy and oil pipelines

20. Jenni Byrne, Conservative Party national campaign chair

21. Marc Caira, Tim Hortons CEO

22. Steve Yzerman, Canadian men’s Olympic hockey team executive director

23. Heather Conway, CBC executive vice-president of English-language services

24. Anne Merklinger, Own the Podium CEO

25. Andrew McCartney, Tribal DDB Toronto ad firm managing director

26. Suzanne Fortier, McGill University president

27. Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance

28. Pierre Poilievre, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)

29. Preston Manning, founder of the Reform party and the Manning Centre for Building Democracy

30. Jean-François Lisée, Quebec Minister of International Relations

31. Alison Redford, Alberta Premier

32. Stephen Poloz, Bank of Canada governor

33. Michael Ferguson, auditor general of Canada

34. Jean-Pierre Blais, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission chairman

35. Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources

36. Tom Jenkins, Open Text executive chairman and chief strategy officer

37. Tom Lawson, chief of defence staff

38. Marc Ouellet, Quebec cardinal

39. Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations

40. Garry Keller, chief of staff to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird

41. Jennifer Keesmaat, City of Toronto chief planner

42. Jian Ghomeshi, CBC Q host

43. Drake, hip-hop superstar

44. Carolle Brabant, executive director of Telefilm Canada

45. Nancy Southern, Canadian Utilities and ATCO CEO

46. Bob Gomes, Stantec Inc. CEO and president

47. Olivia Chow, NDP MP

48. Gerry McCaughey, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CEO

49. Murray Edwards, Canadian Natural Resources chair and Calgary Flames investor

50. Stephen Bronfman, Claridge Inc. executive chairman and fundraiser for Justin Trudeau

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/11/20/the-most-important-people-in-canada/

[Spring2008]

http://m.calgarysun.com/2014/03/19/calga...out-run-for-vacant-alberta-premiers-seat

Don't know what to think of this. If he does run, he's almost definitely going to win. On one hand we'd lose our greatest mayor ever, on the other hand he can finally get us the provincial funding for big ticket items that the city needs. Definitely a huge unbalance between how much the city pays in taxes vs how much it gets back on both the provincial and federal levels.

[*Stardust*]

Originally Posted by Spring2008

http://m.calgarysun.com/2014/03/19/calga...out-run-for-vacant-alberta-premiers-seat

Don't know what to think of this. If he does run, he's almost definitely going to win. On one hand we'd lose our greatest mayor ever, on the other hand he can finally get us the provincial funding for big ticket items that the city needs. Definitely a huge unbalance between how much the city pays in taxes vs how much it gets back on both the provincial and federal levels.

I would like to think Nenshi is very Liberal compared to most politicians in Alberta. Maybe he can run for the Liberal Party of Alberta to help improve the damaged reputation of the Liberals out west

[MalcolmTucker]

Everyone thought Klein was a liberal too.

The issue with funding comes down to there isn't the money. The province can't even keep up capital spending on health and education. It isn't like there is anything close to an idea to save major cash at the provincial level besides slashing and burning programs. Even wage restraint and pushing the provincial pension retirement age to 60 has met with howls from the Wildrose and other opposition parties.

So where will the money come from? We can borrow, tax, or cut. Or we can wait until more bitumen projects reach payout. (Bitumen royalties are already growing at a healthy pace)

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Everyone thought Klein was a liberal too.

The issue with funding comes down to there isn't the money. The province can't even keep up capital spending on health and education. It isn't like there is anything close to an idea to save major cash at the provincial level besides slashing and burning programs. Even wage restraint and pushing the provincial pension retirement age to 60 has met with howls from the Wildrose and other opposition parties.

So where will the money come from? We can borrow, tax, or cut. Or we can wait until more bitumen projects reach payout. (Bitumen royalties are already growing at a healthy pace)

I for one don't mind moving away from the flat tax structure we have right now, and I know there are significant number of people that wouldn't mind doing it if the government can prove efficiency with the money they are currently getting. Items like a 16k trip to Chicago and the convoluted budget process they have implemented just galvanize people against tax increases because they show that the government can't control spending and is purposely trying to mislead the population into believing that they are. The government needs to maintain the moral authority to govern, in the past 2 years the PC's have lost that authority.

[fusili]

I would support getting rid of the flat tax.

[MalcolmTucker]

The biggest problem is you can't raise that much revenue without raising taxes for the broad middle. And the broad middle all assume they are below the mean.

As for expenses, I know there is a broad perception of a problem - but do we want our politicians to be monastic monks? Traveling at last minute costs money, and you either fly business or bring security. I think if the public knew about the nature and number of threats there might be a different attitude.

[*Stardust*]

How about raising the amount of royalties oil companies pay to the government? They can definitely afford it

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

The biggest problem is you can't raise that much revenue without raising taxes for the broad middle. And the broad middle all assume they are below the mean.

As for expenses, I know there is a broad perception of a problem - but do we want our politicians to be monastic monks? Traveling at last minute costs money, and you either fly business or bring security. I think if the public knew about the nature and number of threats there might be a different attitude.

Fundamentally I think a problem is people don't understand how much things actually cost and how much they cost relative to each other. Opposition parties have easy-win after easy-win playing to the general public's ignorance to how much it costs to run all sorts of government programs and administration through the cry of government waste. It is too easy to be critical and no effort is made to explain necessary (but possibly expensive costs) and wasteful costs. The hope is that the best politicians should know this and minimize obviously inflammatory items like private jets so they don't jeopardize other actual program spending.

Part of the Alberta specific issue is that the general public doesn't understand royalties and how they factor into spending. 20-40% of spending is covered by royalties, meaning to maintain the exact same levels of service through taxation you would require significant tax increases across the board.

The populist claim that says the government is wasting tax dollars is definitely arguable, but only 70% of the waste is actually coming from the public's pocket. Less so if you count corporate taxes etc. Meanwhile taxes are the lowest in the nation by a good margin. People should count themselves lucky to be getting 30% of public funding for nothing.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by *Stardust*

How about raising the amount of royalties oil companies pay to the government? They can definitely afford it

Royalties in the oil sands are already 3 times higher than mining royalties in Ontario. And will grow higher as project payoff continues.

The issue is not that royalties are too low, it is that to encourage more royalties in the long term we decided in the late 1990s with the federal government to collect less in the short term.

But the payoff is slowly coming.


Captureceri4 by Odarwin1, on Flickr

[Fuzz]

I don't think Govt. waste is all perception though. When they cycle through Healthcare Execs constantly while paying out massive severance packages and mismanaging all manner of things, it makes for good news. And it is waste that should be managed much better. I understand a lot of programs take lots of money to run, and I have no problem with that. It just seams this government makes bad decision after bad decision and we have to question why they keep doing it.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Spring2008

Don't know what to think of this. If he does run, he's almost definitely going to win.

IF Nenshi runs for the leadership of AB PC Party, he is very likely to lose (come in second place) and would do the City of Calgary a lot of harm.

The moment he announces or even publicly thinks about running, the City Charter will be tabled until 2015. Any other Provincial and City projects will also get put on hold. Finally and most damaging, Nenshi would have to take a leave of absence from Mayor's office, during this time the civic agenda would get no where.

ETA why would Nenshi lose the PC leader vote; because the rural PC members would see him as too big city and he could never lose the persona of stealing from rural AB to pay of big city projects in Calgary and Edmonton. Also Edmonton PC members would not vote in great numbers as Nenshi would be seen as favouring Calgary over Edmonton.