This is a warning for Alberta, though it’s probably a warning no one needs.
I lived in Calgary during the summit of Naheed Nenshi’s reign. I lived there from 2016 to 2020, and watched helplessly as downtown dimmed, and the streets started to creep and crawl with dangerous life.
Under Nenshi, what once was safe became dangerous. What once was affordable became suffocating. What once was beautiful became socialist.
Think about how much worse it would be for our province if Nenshi sat on the legislature's throne.
But like I said, there's really no need to warn most Albertans about that wolf in wolf's clothing. Almost everyone knows Nenshi's a radical who hates our province, and almost everyone remembers how he butchered Calgary.
Ironically, the only ones prone to forget what Nenshi did to Calgary are Calgarians.
As such, I thought it best to give a quick refresher of some of Nenshi's greatest accomplishments. During his time in office, Nenshi*:
1. Generously supplied Calgarians with a 7.5% property tax increase in 2020
2. Created and defended Calgary’s $100 million slush fund
3. Enjoyed a superior salary compared to the mayors in Edmonton, Vancouver, and Ottawa
4. Was guaranteed a pension that costs taxpayers more than the pensions in Edmonton, Vancouver, and Ottawa, combined!
5. Collected not 1, but 2, public pensions
6. Spent money like no mayor spent before him
He did all this while masterfully manipulating the public. For example, as Nenshi was defending his huge increase in taxes, he reassured Calgarians all of the new spending was necessary, and frugal. He promised the new taxes would help maintain roads, develop law enforcement, and protect infrastructure (you know, like water pipelines).
"Besides," said Nenshi, "I and my council have identified over $740 million in cuts and savings.”
Of course, if I calculate numbers like Nenshi, I too can find tens of thousands of dollars of savings in my home.
As an economist, too me, cutting spending means exactly that – not spending money.
In Nenshi’s eyes, however, a spending cut looks like this:
Suppose you go to the mall with a $5000 budget. At the end of the trip, you only spend $4000. According to Nenshi, that's a $1000 saving! According to me, that's a $4000 spending spree.
Confucius reminds us to, “Study the past if you would define the future.” Anyone who’s studied the fruit of Nenshi’s past knows a future with him in charge is rotten. As a socialist, Nenshi claims to be generous. That's true, it's just that, like all other socialists, he's generous with other people's money. In fact, he's so generous that if he's elected to power, it won't be long until we don't have any money left.
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