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wild goose chase said:
In what way was Miller like Nenshi?
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A "progressive" uncannily elected to lead a city which wasn't supposed to elect "progressives". (In Calgary's case, it's due to long-term political-culture presumptions; in Toronto's case, it's due to "Mike Harris's Megacity".)
 
The conservative reputation of Alberta is overstated. The PC's there were never as right wing as the GOP and Wildrose is still not that far to the right. Redford was actually quite progressive! Also, demographics are changing in the province thanks to urbanization and more ethnic diversity.

Anyway, I don't like how Tory is pandering to the suburbs with his low tax mantra.
 
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King of Kensington said:
So what has Nenshi done that's so incredible?
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Mayor Nenshi is a rare politician who believes the best practice is to always give the public as much information as is possible. Sometimes this is big, such as the multiple daily press conferences during the flood, and other times it is much simpler, such as his frequent use of Twitter and Facebook to connect with citizens. He is also the only person with the password to those social media accounts - so any communication under his name is actually coming from the mayor.
One of his campaign promises was transparency at City Hall - so he releases the names of people/groups with whom he meets, all gifts received and all expenses.

• Leadership:
City council votes during the last council prior to Mayor Nenshi's first election in 2010 were always same 8 to same 7. Decisions appeared to be predetermined before the meetings ever occurred. Under the mayor's non-partisan leadership the councillors now do not always agree but do appear to go into debates with an open mind and will listen to their colleagues and the members of the public whom show up to speak. Cycle track -- worked for a compromise. Working towards same thing right now with secondary suites.

• Not afraid of failure:
In his pre-mayor days Mayor Nenshi advocated for an experiment where a major street along the river would be closed on 1 summer Sunday for a community-building street festival. His attitude was let's try. If it does not work, we'll take what we learned and try something else. In office he used his cut red tape initiative to launch the food truck industry in the city.

• Gives back to the community:
He spends almost every weekend and many weekday evenings at community and charity events around the city. He will often say he had a successful Saturday or Sunday because he attended 10+ events in every quadrant of the city. The mayor then proceeds to spend the little spare time he has out supporting the arts community.

• Inspires Calgarians:
In his first term the Mayor introduced his 3 things for Calgary initiative, encouraging Calgarians to figure out 3 ways in which they could give back to their community and then go out an do them. The ideas could be big, they could be small, it does not matter so long as you are benefitting people in your local community or the larger Calgary community. In the aftermath of last year's devastating floods Mayor Nenshi told Calgarians to just go and help the victims. Don't wait for the city or organizations like the Red Cross, we knew the impacted communities so just put on your rubber boots and go help. People from across the city flocked to impacted neighbourhoods, some they had never visited before, and helped clean out the basements of strangers. This summer saw us mark our first Neighbour Day on the anniversary of the flood, an idea from the mayor's office. The day saw block parties, community clean ups. Every community celebrated differently but all saw neighbours coming together. With the mayor attending about 15 events himself.

• Engaging Youth:
Programs like Mayor Nenshi Reads, the mayor's Environmental Expo and the Mayor's Walk Challenge encourage kids to be good citizens now so they will be better and more engaged citizens as adults.

• Genuine:
I am lucky enough to have met the mayor on a few occasions and he is the same man whether speaking to a theatre full of people, at an event in a room full of people, out on the campaign trail or just hanging out away from the public and media. (By Gerri M, Calgary)
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http://www.worldmayor.com/contest_2014/calgary-mayor-nenshi.html
 
John Tory begins a slow retreat from SmartTrack: James
Rarely has a Toronto politician promoted a transit project with such glee, vigour and surety — minus even a modicum of evidence that the line is needed, will attract riders and fits with other planned projects.

In fact, it is scary how easy it was for Tory to gain provincial and federal support for a scheme that no one had studied and few were convinced would work as Tory has suggested.

City staff are working on a master transportation plan to guide decisions over the next 50 years. Within weeks, city councillors should get comprehensive studies and reports that are to provide guidance on where to build which transit projects — based on objective data and projections.

If Tory truly intends to do what’s right for commuters, he will follow where the evidence leads.

If he applies the same energy to the coming Feeling Congested recommended projects as he’s done to SmartTrack, it is possible that Toronto might get subways where needed, embrace LRTs in the right corridors, and busways where appropriate.

For decades, Toronto’s political leaders have begged the provincial and federal governments to fund the city’s transit needs, citing economic and social benefits. Today, both governments are listening. Blow this propitious period by building transit that gets politicians elected but doesn’t move people, and our children will curse us into the next century.

As such, any pullback from the SmartTrack scheme is a good sign.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...ins-a-slow-retreat-from-smarttrack-james.html
 
Half a dozen replies to my question and almost none much any policy (he was voted as the world's best mayor, he won in Conservative Calgary, he reached out to people, look at his Wikipedia page etc.)

I don't think lamenting "where's our Nenshi?" is very productive, personally.
 
Ari Goldkind could have been a Nenshi type, in some respects; though he (Ari) is more middle of the road, politically.
 
Palma said:
Good one and so true
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Toronto is like a giant airport. I went to a high school (for a couple of years) that was literally 80% Chinese students that came here just for schooling (parents stayed back home). The majority of them didn't even speak English, and the rest barely spoke any. One day in English class we were broken up into small groups to discuss something (I forget what). I was in a group of 3 with 2 Chinese students that didn't speak English and my teacher got on me for not engaging in a conversation. I was thinking to myself: are you serious? What am I supposed to do?

We call ourselves diverse, but we aren't. The majority of immigrants come from China and India, exclusively. Why such a disproportionate percentage compared to other nations? Here's a good representation of what the city is like these days. This is from a recent assembly at Victoria Park Secondary School (I went there for Grade 9). You can count the number of white people on a single hand (it's like Where's Waldo?):
CQzCeBCXAAMhQcf.jpg


https://twitter.com/vicparkci/status/652109867239481344
 
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