Yesterday morning, I along with Miranda & Aaron, attended a MaRS breakfast seminar with the Mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi. The topic was “Innovation & the City”, and it was a good Q&A between the MaRS facilitator and the Mayor. There was a short period afterwards where Nenshi took questions from the audience (including myself), all of which he answered quite astutely. There are a number of obvious reactions the event produced in me: - being further impressed by Nenshi’s savvy - being despondent about the state of a Toronto seemingly on the political decline while Calgary seems to be humming along - wondering if we can really call it innovation to ask constituents what they want and then try to do it, etc. But for some reason what really struck me yesterday was a seemingly off-hand comment Nenshi made when giving a robust answer to an interlocutor. “After being in politics this long, you’d think I’d be better at sound bites”, he said. Everyone chuckled. The implication was pretty clear. Sound bites are used by politicians instead of substance. Nenshi, the consummate political outsider, doesn’t do sound bites. He’ll tell it to you straight, even if he might lose some of you in the process. This is a well-worn political trope on both sides of the ideological spectrum. Communication skills – in the form of snappy, memorable phrases or soaring oratory – make you too glossy, and not one of us. The problem with this reflex is that it has the tendency to produce 2 kinds of politicians: ineffective communicators and effective communicators who have to feign as if they aren’t or apologize for this skill. Without going into much further detail, I’ll just say that this is pretty clearly a bad sign for our political culture. Communication – yes, even through sound bites – is integral to effective representation, so can we please quit pretending it’s beneath us (Nenshi), or makes us a big ole fancy pants celebrity and not one of us good common folks (Cons/Dippers talking about Trudeau, GOP talking about Obama, etc.)? To start it out, I present some of the savoury sound bites and tasty turns of phrase Naheed Nenshi uttered after claiming to be inept at their use. He is, of course, an incredibly effective communicator in both bursts and longer, complex thoughts. “Property tax is the most regressive, unfair form of taxation ever invented.” “Residential property taxes in Calgary are ½ of Toronto’s. We know we’ll be seeing you all very soon.” “They’re just figuring it out, but the Conservative government of Canada is an urban government.” “We’re burning the furniture to heat the house” (re: using the Oil Sands without investing proceeds in the future) “90% of Calgarians believe their City is on the rise” “1.4% of Alberta’s GDP comes from agriculture. “ “People don’t move to countries, we move to cities.” “We must rely on the endless resilience & ingenuity of the human being” “I don’t hide behind a district, a ward, or a political party. When you vote, you vote for me.”
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 15:00:10 +0000
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