He may be the “World’s Best Mayor,” but Naheed Nenshi’s popularity appears to be slipping in Calgary.
According to results of a new survey by Mainstreet Technologies, Nenshi’s approval rating has dropped to 57 per cent.
Nenshi, who was re-elected to his second term of office in 2013, has typically enjoyed an approval rating around 70 or 80 per cent.
Earlier this year, Nenshi was named the world’s best mayor by an urban research institute, after thousands of people wrote letters of recommendation.
But according to the new survey results, nearly 40 per cent of the 1,319 Calgarians polled disapprove of the way he’s running city affairs.
Support for Calgary city council as a whole was lower too, at 51 per cent.
Calgary Councillor Richard Pootmans told CTV Calgary it’s hard to sustain high approval ratings.
“It’s hard to keep one’s popularity high and indeed, making decisions for the city all the time it’s not easy to keep everybody happy all the time,” Pootmans said.
Nenshi said he is taking the results in stride.
“You know these things don’t really matter so much, but I will note that it makes me the second most popular politician in Canada after (Saskatchewan Premier) Brad Wall – I’ll take it,” Nenshi told reporters.
The survey also asked Calgarians’ about their support for secondary suites in residences, an issue that has divided the city for years.
The poll was conducted by phone on June 14, and surveyed a random sample of 1,319 residents. According to Mainstreet Technologies, it is accurate within 2.7 percentage points.
With a report from CTV Calgary’s Alesia Fieldberg
