Calgary mayor impresses Halifax business crowd
Posted Sep 23, 2011 03:14:38 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgary’s economic development road show made its stop in Halifax Friday afternoon, with the mayor addressing a business crowd about what makes cities great — especially his.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi was elected about a year ago, and he’s making himself known nationwide as a big booster of the importance of cities. He’s a big fan.
“If you’re going to be a nerd about something, you may as well be a nerd about something that has something to do with your actual job,” said Nenshi. “Building great Canadian cities is part of our great unfinished task of nation-building here in Canada.”
“The success of our nation depends on the success of our cities,” said Nenshi to a business audience at the Halifax Club. “The best engineers graduating from the best universities in China don’t say ‘I want to go to the United States,’ or ‘I want to go to the UK,’ they say ‘I want to go London,’ or New York, Chicago or Houston or Toronto or Halifax … or Calgary.”
Some were expecting Nenshi to make a hard pitch for talented Nova Scotians to pick up and follow him west. Yes, he did that, but only in a small part of his bigger speech, which went into more depth about guiding a city with priorities and building for the future.
“Building great Canadian cities is part of our great unfinished task of nation-building here in Canada,” said Nenshi.
