Reopen Calgary

Reopen Calgary

We have just learnt that, incredibly, Mayor Naheed Nenshi gave his Chief of Staff and another staff member permission to spend their Christmas break in Hawaii.

Yes, that's right, Calgary's Mayor, who has been the loudest advocate for stricter lockdowns in the entire province, didn't just find out that his staff went away, he actively gave them permission to do so in advance.

Look, at Common Sense Calgary, we don't care where law-abiding private citizens spend their vacation.

But Mayor Nenshi and his senior staff are not private citizens.

They are the architects behind Calgary's lockdown.

Mayor Nenshi and his office have been complaining for months that rules and restrictions were too lax and that more and more of Calgarians' freedoms needed to be taken away.

This is the Mayor that constantly called on the province to do more, to lock down harder, to lockdown for longer.

This is the Mayor that banned every single other Calgary Councillor from even entering the Council Chamber during the pandemic, forcing them to participate via video call while he attended in person, along with his staff.

This is the Mayor that had no problem threatening to arrest people breaking the rules, including skating on outdoor rinks.

This is the Mayor that went so far as to encourage Calgarians to call 311 to rat out their neighbours if anyone visited them over Christmas.

Yet, this same Mayor has just admitted that his Chief of Staff and another of his staff members went to Hawaii for the holidays, that he knew, and that he was fine with it.

He does claim to be sorry he didn't push back against it, but says that there will be no punishment for his staff as "he refuses to fire anyone to save his skin".

This is unacceptable.

No matter what you think about COVID - whether you think there are too many restrictions or not enough - this isn't about the virus, this is about hypocrisy and elitism.

This is the kind of gross hypocrisy that entirely undermines the moral authority of our government.

But more importantly than that, are all of the local businesses suffering while elite government officials take their business to the tropics.

Point blank, these staffers would not be opting to take exotic vacations, if we had sufficient justification for the extent of the restraints Calgary business owners are facing.

Calgarians are literally losing their livelihoods, their businesses collapsing before their eyes, while Mayor Nenshi's taxpayer-funded staff spend their money at businesses in Maui.

If Mayor Nenshi thinks it's fine for his Chief of Staff to shop at small businesses in Maui, maybe it's time to lift the restrictions on small businesses in Calgary.

We need a better strategy - it's time to re-open Calgary.

Sign our petition to Mayor Nenshi and then share the petition with your friends, family, co-workers, and every Calgarian.