Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Calgary Civic Election Poll #1: Who do you support for Mayor?

Bunk · 07-23-2010, 08:55 PM

Regarding Barb Higgins, if she's entering I'd imagine her biggest impact right away will be to erode the support purely from name recognition that Ric McIver is currently riding.

The "hey, I've actually heard of that person" vote (when asked in a public opinion poll) from the average Calgarian that pays very little attention to civic politics will then be split between Higgins and McIver.

People will only really start paying attention to actual issues, policies and leadership qualities much closer to the election. As clearly the most substantive candidate Nenshi has managed to gather a lot of support from the so-called "super-engaged" which is his necessary first step. He has the pool of volunteers and fundraising momentum that can propel him to be viewed as one of the contenders come the later stages of that campaign, at which point people will start paying greater attention and align their support with one of the leading contenders whom they agree with most and think can actually lead the city. People like Higgins and McIver are in the opposite position - starting from a position of being well-known and having to prove themselves under greater scrutiny as someone who actually knows what their doing being leader a city of a million + with multi-billion dollar budgets.

It will be an interesting campaign.

07-23-2010, 08:55 PM	#171
Bunk Franchise Player Join Date: Jul 2006 Exp:	Regarding Barb Higgins, if she's entering I'd imagine her biggest impact right away will be to erode the support purely from name recognition that Ric McIver is currently riding. The "hey, I've actually heard of that person" vote (when asked in a public opinion poll) from the average Calgarian that pays very little attention to civic politics will then be split between Higgins and McIver. People will only really start paying attention to actual issues, policies and leadership qualities much closer to the election. As clearly the most substantive candidate Nenshi has managed to gather a lot of support from the so-called "super-engaged" which is his necessary first step. He has the pool of volunteers and fundraising momentum that can propel him to be viewed as one of the contenders come the later stages of that campaign, at which point people will start paying greater attention and align their support with one of the leading contenders whom they agree with most and think can actually lead the city. People like Higgins and McIver are in the opposite position - starting from a position of being well-known and having to prove themselves under greater scrutiny as someone who actually knows what their doing being leader a city of a million + with multi-billion dollar budgets. It will be an interesting campaign. Last edited by Bunk; 07-23-2010 at 08:58 PM.