Calvary-like, the mayor of Calgary will be riding into town Oct. 21 to rescue us from the puerility of our own mayoral tumult.
Given his own relative political maturity, however, he won’t be throwing any mud himself. The event is called
Big Cities, Big Ideas.
“I can say that the focus of the questions will not be on Toronto or the mayoral race,” says Professor Mark Stabile with the school of public policy at U of T and professor of economics at the Rotman School there, which is sponsoring the talk that will take place in the form of an on-stage conversation, “but rather on what has happened in Calgary, what he hopes will happen, the challenges that are common to big and growing cities everywhere, and the particular challenges in the Canadian context.”
Nenshi, currently serving his second term as mayor, was actually born in Toronto, and has a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard.
“In terms of value for the people of Toronto, I think that we should always be ready to learn from the success and mistakes of others and that there are likely lessons from his experience that apply here,” Stabile says. “But perhaps more importantly, Calgary is a large and growing part of our country and economy and I believe many will be interested in his story as a Canadian success story. I know that at our school we have many students from Calgary and they are delighted that we are interested in hearing what their mayor has to say.”
Previous speakers in the series, which sponsors such talks several times a year, include Meric Gertler and Richard Florida.
You can register to attend
here.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Mark Stabile