Nenshi publishes Alberta party leaders' vision for Calgary

Mayor Naheed Nenshi wants Calgarians to think about the city when deciding who to vote for in Tuesday's election.

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Nenshi asked each party a set of 12 questions about how they would tackle Calgary issues,should they become the government, andposted their responses online for everyone to read.

"Last week,I think I called the election Seinfeldian, which isn't really fair. It's not about nothing, but it's been about issues of leadership and trust and accountability," Nenshi said.

"But it hasn't really been about specifics about policy on anything. And I thought it was important for Calgarians to know where the parties stand on issues that are important to the city."

Every party, except the Liberals, replied to the Cities Matterquestionnaire, whichNenshihasdone for two previous provincial elections and one federal.

"Everyone has slightly different ideas, but I'm actually quite happy overall with the responses," Nenshi said. "I think the we could work with any of these folks."

Nenshi met Brian Jean and Rachel Notley for the first time on Thursday.

"I didn't find Rachel Notley at all terrifying. I didn't find Brian Jean at all robotic, I thought they were both very thoughtful."

Nenshisays not all party leadershave the right answers but believes they are all starting from a good spot.

Big issues for Calgary

Two specific issues of not for Calgarians are the Calgary Young OffendersCentre and the Calgary Cancer Centre.

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"ThePCs are promising the status quo, and they defend their decisions on both of them in the survey and the others pretty much say on a spectrum those are bad decisions to close the young offenders centre and to build the two-phase cancer centre," Nenshi said.

Flood Mitigation

Flood mitigation is anissue Nenshi says has been "short shifted"duringthis election.

"[Flood mitigation has]to be the No. 1priority, even above health care and education of whoever becomes premier.The risk is extraordinary."

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He says economicallyanother Calgary flood wouldn'tjust affect Alberta, but the entirecountry.

"If you lose downtown Calgary for a month or two months,not only is the economic impact to the country incalculable but it also means that the insurers for those big multi-national companies won't let them come back to downtown Calgary and if they don't come back to downtown Calgary, they won't come back to Canada," he said.

Each party offered different ideas to to which project they believe would be the best project for Calgary, but no one offered a solid plan.

Nenshi says the PCs supported the Springbankdry reservoir but "were vague on what happened after that." TheWildrose said Springbank was a bad idea, andopted to build McLean Creek but then "they were vague beyond that.The NDP said the province needs to go back to the drawing board.

The candidates

Ultimately, Nenshi says that no matter who is elected"none of them will be bad for Calgary."Something Nenshi says hecouldn't always sayin previous elections.

He says all of the partieswill be able to work with the city and all of them understand the specificneeds ot the city.

"What's been really interesting in this campaign is that there are choices, whether the choice is to go with what you know and a government that has inarguably runthis province reasonably well for the past 43 years or to try something new and take a risk, those options are out there."

Nenshi says he hasn't decided who he is going to vote for but anyof the parties will be able to Nenshi and the council to work make a better Calgary.

"Based on what I'm learning, Calgarians can actually go and vote without fear. And I think that's actually important for people to understand. That you can vote who you believe in."