Nelson: Calgary can't afford another four years of status quo in mayor's office
Calgary's reputation as one of the world's most livable cities is dropping like a stone.
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It's no surprise, given the shambolic last few years we've suffered through, thanks to the endless machinations consuming city hall.
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This is a civic administration completely out of touch with citizens. It spends way too much on the daftest projects, over-budgets by massive amounts, yet never returns the excess to ratepayers, and steadfastly refuses to accept any responsibility, even when we're subject to water rationing because the mains are bursting.
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It's no wonder, in a globally respected ranking of the planet's best places to live, that Calgary fell further and faster during the past 12 months than any of the other 173 major cities assessed.
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Of course, this can't be the fault of those running Calgary. Heck, it never is. It'll be the province, the feds, Donald Trump or the culture of colonialism to blame. Never them: no way, no how.
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Things have been a tad quiet down at City Hall lately. The eyes and ears of Calgarians were turned elsewhere. We witnessed the demise of the Justin Trudeau regime, the re-emergence of Donald Trump as U.S. president, the renaissance of the Liberals under Mark Carney, the struggles of Premier Danielle Smith to get Alberta's agenda accepted by the rest of Canada and the sharp rise of separatism across our province.
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Not surprisingly, civic affairs took a back seat.
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Such relative anonymity is a godsend for Mayor Jyoti Gondek, whose hopes for re-election looked doomed last fall, with her approval rating scraping the bottom of an awfully deep barrel.
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After all, it's the mayor who is supposed to ride herd on civic administration, a responsibility Gondek seems to have ignored, given the huge annual tax hikes and dreary decline in city services we've witnessed.
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Instead, we got endless arguments with the province over the transit Green Line, the most divisive policy change in civic history with the jettisoning of previous neighbourhood zoning rules, an asleep-at-the-switch moment resulting in a massive cost hike for the planned event centre and the embarrassment of being told we should ration showering when the water main first collapsed.
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Despite this woeful record, Gondek's probably still the favourite to top the municipal poll come October. She faces four strong challengers, and subsequent vote splitting suggests she could be re-elected with less than 35 per cent of the tally. Name recognition, the usual low civic turnout and the backing of municipal unions might prove enough.
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