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Calgary Mayor Gondek, council get failing grades in first-year report card: poll

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A new poll released Thursday suggests support for Mayor Jyoti Gondek and Calgary city council is sliding.

The one-year report card, released by ThinkHQ Public Affairs, shows Gondek's approval rating dropped to 35 per cent, with 55 per cent of respondents expressing disapproval of the job the mayor has done to date. That marked a three per cent decline from the spring, when Gondek received a 38 per cent approval rating.

A ThinkHQ Public Affairs poll suggests support for Mayor Jyoti Gondek has dropped from 38 per cent approval in the spring to 35 per cent approval.

There were a lot of strong feelings expressed toward Gondek, most of it negative: 35 per cent said they strongly disapprove of the job she's doing while 11 per cent said they strongly approve.

Gondek did not answer questions about the poll results on Thursday. The mayor's office said it would not provide a statement regarding the poll after CTV News asked for one and posed questions.

Gondek did better among residents of northwest Calgary and inner city residents, especially women.

She did worse with men, particularly those over 55, who live in south Calgary.

NEW LOW FOR COUNCILLORS

Councillors didn't fare much better.

Collectively, councillors received 39 per cent approval, with 35 per cent disapproval. While they tracked slightly ahead of Gondek, the numbers mark a new low for Calgary councillors, with positive sentiment down six per cent since March 2022.

"It's not something we should be proud of, that's for sure," said Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp

"For me to see the numbers like that, I'm a bit surprised. Is there (negative) perception? Possibly. There's been some things percolating – that doesn't help," she said.

Since being elected, several councillors have had to issue apologies or have been removed from council committees.

Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu was recently allowed back on city committees after a one-year censure following allegations of sexual assault involving a 16-year-old girl in 1997.

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean recently stepped away from committee duties after racist videos emerged in which McLean's voice is allegedly heard imitating an Indigenous accent.

And Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra resigned from the Calgary Police Commission as he remains under investigation for an alleged assault.

"I'll be honest, we have to start parking the drama to the side and do our job – and that's governing," said Sharp.  

While the ratings were relatively consistent across a variety of demographics, one number that stood out was that men had more negative feelings toward their councillors, as did people living in the inner city.

"As a new councillor, it's hard to walk into work and see new scandals about individual people. I think that affects the public's perception," said Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian. 

'IT'S CHALLENGING'

In an interview with CTV News, ThinkHQ president Marc Henry said the numbers were bad.

"It's challenging," Henry said. "This has been a difficult year. I think for all of council, and not just the mayor.

"Most of the council is brand new. They've never been on council before, you've got a new mayor (and) they're dealing with some contentious issues, some divisive issues."

Henry pointed to a trio of examples: the declaration of a climate emergency, a tax increase, and the unravelling of the event centre deal.

"This sends a notice to council that from the public's perspective – or a sizeable number of voters – they feel disconnected from what council's doing," Henry said. "And the decisions that they're making. 

"There's a bit of disconnect in terms of what priorities they see council focusing on versus what's important to them."

Henry said what's important to voters are things like the cost of living, inflation, public safety, policing, transit safety and community development.

On the upside, he said council and the mayor still have time to turn things around.

"They're about to go into a four-year budget, which is a real opportunity to sort of reset with the public in terms of showing what are your priorities, and how are you performing," he said.

"There's an opportunity there for council, but by the same token, there's also a risk – a bad budget, or a bad budget process would mean they'd be reinforcing pre-existing negative feelings that voters already have."

For the veteran pollster, the numbers were unlike anything he's seen. He said Mayor Dave Bronconnier never received such low numbers, and Mayor Naheed Nenshi only dipped into the 30s once, before climbing again.

"This is more than bumpy," he said. "These numbers are really not good" – before adding that it's still not too late to turn things around in the eyes of the public.

"It's only the first year," he added. "And it's a four-year term – so there's still 1,000 days or so before the next election."

The survey was an online poll of 1,172 adult Calgarians conducted between Oct. 17 and 20. It was weighted to reflect gender, age and region of Calgary population according to Stats Canada. A random stratified sample of panelists was invited to complete the survey from the Angus Reid Forum panel. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of this size is +/- 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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