Frankly, I don't think the arena was as big of an election issue as posters make it out to be. And I don't think that CSEG tried some big organized campaign against Nenshi. I do think they timed their announcement about negotiations to try and create an election issue and put pressure on Nenshi and to the extent they did, it backfired.
I also think a mayor who got the lowest margin of any incumbent since Klein beat one termer Ross Alger shouldn't get too comfortable. The last two incumbents saw the writing on the wall with much higher margins and got out before being defeated the next time (and then couldn't go anywhere else in politics). It doesn't help that Smith was an inept challenger IMO. The result being that, if the City can't get a deal done, for the right or wrong reasons, Nenshi will probably wear it.
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