 Our Speaker Mayor Naheed Nenshi  Jeremy Mroch Thanking Our Speaker | Madeleine King introduced the Mayor of the City of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, who delivered his annual address to the club. Departing from his State of the City format, the Mayor described his recent attendance at the Big City Mayors' Caucus, recently held in Ottawa. This caucus, organized by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, works with the federal government to strengthen Canadian cities. Madeleine and the Mayor announced the city's donation of a firetruck to Guatemala. This donation further strengthens the partnership between our club and the City of Calgary built through our shared participation in projects such as the Rotary Mattamy Greenway and the Community Hubs initiative. The Mayor began by noting that people have been living here, near water, for a long time. Located at the confluence of the Elbow River with the Bow, Mohkinstsis (Calgary) has long been a place where people come together to live and prosper. He also described how the approaching tenth anniversary of his first run for the mayorship had led him to reflect on how the optimism of those days has given way to the toxic polarization of today's political discourse. Ten years ago, the framing for political discussion revolved around how Calgary could transform itself from a large small city to become a world city. The emphasis at that time was on how Calgary could become a great city for all or its residents. |
The Mayor is profoundly disappointed in the devolution of public discourse, and how people will say things online that they would not repeat in person. Voices of divisiveness, anger and mean-spiritedness dominate today's dialogue where we no longer speak to each other. As a nation, we no longer understand each other's needs and desires, and the resulting bitterness has led to a genuine crisis of national unity.
The Mayor stated there is a great misunderstanding about what is currently going on in the country. He described how he explains Alberta and Albertans to Canadians from other parts of the country. Mayor Nenshi noted that Albertans are proud of our prosperity and proud of how Alberta's wealth has contributed to the wealth of the country as a whole. He has also told Canadians how Albertans are experiencing profound feelings of dislocation, having transitioned from the lowest to the highest unemployment rates in the country in just 18 months. Mayor Nenshi has come to understand that politicians from all parties have entirely missed the significance of this.
The stakes are high, and everyone must find ways to move forward together. We must leave personal attacks behind. The Mayor remarked on how the most recent provincial and federal elections were two of the ugliest in recent memory, and his 2017 re-election campaign was just as harmful. When we view our political challengers as "enemies," we are saying that the contest of ideas does not matter. When we say that political campaigns are about releasing our base instincts, we feed cynicism within the population towards the entire political process. Additionally, strong symbolism now imbues every political discussion. The Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion and Teck Frontier mine projects drive debate through the lenses of climate crisis or disrespect towards Alberta and its residents.
Fatigued by these unproductive discussions, the Mayor resolved to live 2020 in gratitude. We still live in a fantastic place, but our position is delicate. Today's public discourse bears a strong resemblance to the discussions in Quebec leading up to the sovereignty referenda in 1982 and 1995. We must think about the things we can do as individuals to make our community better.
After an informative question and answer session, Jeremy Mroch thanked Mayor Nenshi for his presentation.