Regarding calls of political inexperience:
While it is technically true, it can be said that Nenshi knows how city council and the administration works better than even some members of the previous council themselves. He (and some others who don't happen to be running for office right now I might add) is basically a 15th member of council. He attends most of the meetings (or views the online stream), follows the motions made and the votes cast. He reads the reports that the aldermen are given to read (and many don't bother, believe it or not). Although he doesn't have a vote to cast, he will form an opinion on not only the high profile issues, but a lot of the more mundane stuff as well, which he then goes on to share how he would vote in his column or via social media.
He has worked with aldermen and the mayor as a member of the community on various initiatives. A couple of examples are him working with Alderman Stevenson on the airport tunnel motion as well as his own Alderman, Ray Jones on a playground and other initiatives in his community (he lives in Ward 5).
The guy knows how council works (or rather, how it should be working to be more effective). He knows the nuts and bolts of how to get things done in the system. In fact, he knows it so well, that he knows the issues with the system itself, and how to go about fixing them. There will be no learning on the job for this man, or leaning on staffers to brief him about every little thing.
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