Nenshi hosts pancake breakfast ‘for the neighbourhood’ as part of Calgary Stampede

Naheed Nenshi hosted a community breakfast Sunday morning at the Calgary Stampede.

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi hosted a pancake breakfast Sunday and when he wasn’t flipping flapjacks or posing for selfies, took the political temperature of the province.

When he was the three-term mayor of Calgary, Nenshi had a habit of breaking political solutions into three things.

Sunday, when asked by CTV News what’s on the minds of Alberta voters this Stampede, Nenshi added one notable thing to his rule of three.

“It’s all the same when we talk to regular people,” Nenshi said. “They always talk about the same four things.

“People are concerned about the cost of living. People are concerned about jobs for their kids now and in the future. They’re worried about public health care. They’re concerned about education -- and of course, this summer, the idea of separatism trumps everything.”

Nenshi had some thoughts about the fourth thing.

“We have so many proud Canadians who just don’t even understand how we got here,” he said, “and my job is to make sure every proud Canadian gets out and votes.

“Here’s the thing,” he added. “There’s not a lot of separatists, and every single one of them will vote -- which means every single proud Canadian has to vote and bring everyone they know to vote.”

It was the third NDP pancake breakfast for Nenshi, who admitted he had never hosted one for the whole 12 years he served as Calgary’s mayor.

“It’s a community breakfast,” he said. “It’s for the neighbourhood, it’s not full of lobbyists,(and) it’s not a political thing, as like many of the Stampede events are.

“This is for real people...who want to know how they can use their own hearts, minds, and hands in the fight to save Canada in this referendum.”

With files from CTV News’ Tommy Osborne