Nenshi gives PC leadership hopefuls low marks on city issues

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he is disappointed with the views of all three contenders for the Progressive Conservative Party leadership when it comes to city issues.

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Nenshi asked Jim Prentice, Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk for their positions on a number of issues important to the city, including a new charter framework for cities, infrastructure funding and support for the arts.

But aside from promising to work with Alberta municipalities, all three candidates outlined few actual policies on the issues, Nenshi said.

One of them suggests that the answer to municipal financing is greater revenue sharing. It's not a bad answer. I'd like to know what revenues we're talking about, Nenshi said.

Nenshi posted a link on his website to the candidates' municipal positions.

But in the very next question, what do you think of the Wildrose's revenue sharing plan, he says that'll never work because it's unpredictable. We need a little more than that.

Nenshi said he was particularly surprised McIver, a former city councillor, isn't better prepared than his competitors.

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I will say that I would have expected that someone who had served so many years on city council would have a more nuanced view of city issues, and so perhaps I'm grading him on a curve a little bit, he said.

But no, I think that when you read the actual content, you'll see that the same things are said by all of them.

Speaking at an Economic Club of Canada event at the Palliser Hotel on Wednesday, McIver complimented Nenshi for grinding his axe and beating the drum for his city.

A municipal leader's job is to put pressure on the leaders, including me, to get as much for their municipalities as they can. And I never criticize anybody for doing their job right," McIver said.