Mayoral candidate Naheed Nenshi has long been a vocal critic of Calgary’s Wild West campaign disclosure rules — or lack thereof.
The university professor has written and was quoted in dozens of articles on the need for campaign finance reform, including disclosure of donors before an election.
When he announced his mayoral bid on May 27, Nenshi told Fast Forward Weekly he would “lead by example,” disclosing “donors as I get them” on his website “on a weekly basis.”
“You know, a lot of people who are helping on my campaign have said, ‘Naheed, don’t be too pedantic about this. Don’t stand on principle,’” Nenshi said in May. “But some principles you’ve got to stand on in the openness of elections.”
That was three months ago. Yet, to date, Nenshi has not posted a single campaign donation. In fact, it’s looking like voters will now have to wait until late September to see this pledge fulfilled.
When this discrepancy was raised on Twitter, Nenshi’s communications manager, Stephen Carter, came to his boss’s defense with this retort: “The promise was very clear. The start of the campaign is Sept. 20. Looking forward to disclosing your name as a donor.”
While several mayoralty candidates also indicated they would release their donor list prior to election night, only Liberal MLA Kent Hehr has done so to date.
Email: thowell@ffwd.greatwest.ca
Comments: 1
Silas M wrote:
on Sep 22nd, 2010 at 1:32pm Report Abuse
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