Canada's first Muslim mayor takes office in cowboy town

By Levon Sevunts Oct 28, 2010, 13:28 GMT

Montreal - He's Muslim, dark-skinned and has a Harvard degree, but Calgary's newly elected mayor still packs a Stetson cowboy hat in his closet. After all, Naheed Nenshi was elected mayor of a city that prides itself on being the home of the Stampede, the world's largest rodeo show.

Nenshi's election in a city that desperately clings to its roots as a frontier outpost in the Canadian prairies, even as waves of immigration and oil wealth have transformed it into a modern cosmopolitan metropolis, made front page news across Canada.

'It's been a bit crazy,' Nenshi said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp on the eve of the election. 'Who knew that (a) mayoral election in the middle of the Canadian prairies would cause national and international waves. I'm told I was trending worldwide on Twitter.'

As Nenshi was sworn in on Monday, he became the first Muslim to head a major Canadian city. At 38, Nenshi - the son of Ismaili Muslim immigrants from Tanzania - is also one of the youngest mayors in Canada.

Speaking to the Globe and Mail newspaper on election day, Nenshi admitted that unlike his rivals he feels the weight of expectations of an entire community.

'It is true that I have an additional responsibility,' Nenshi told the Globe. 'But you know, I do a good job and it's like brown guys are okay. Muslims can do a good job. I do a bad job, and I take people down with me.'

He brings a unique set of qualifications to the job. Nenshi has worked at the international business consulting firm McKinsey & Co, advising telecommunications, banking, retail and oil and gas companies in corporate strategy.

He also worked at the United Nations and ran his own consultancy business, working with non-profit organizations. Until his election on October 18, Nenshi had taught non-profit management at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

'Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, but we had a lot of opportunity,' recounted Nenshi's older sister, Shaheen Nenshi Nathoo, in a Youtube video biography prepared specifically for the campaign. 'Our parents always instilled in us the need to do community service and Naheed took that lesson to heart.'

His involvement in the community paid off smartly when the time came.

At the beginning of the race Nenshi was considered an outsider and a long shot to win. An early poll had him sitting at just 8 percent of the popular vote. But Nenshi's astute use of social media and his Purple Army of volunteers - purple was the colour of his campaign - carried his message, mobilizing public opinion.

'We also realized early on that a lot of people live online, or they live on their mobile devices and this was remarkable opportunity to start engaging in two-way communications with them,' Nenshi said in the CBC interview.

'It sounds weird right? Twitter is 140 characters, but we used it to bring people into a much broader conversation that was impossible to do in the traditional media.'

His promise of reforms, innovation and sustainable development resonated with voters. But most importantly for Nenshi, who's been dubbed Alberta's Obama, they came out to vote.

Voter participation jumped from about 30 per cent in the 2004 municipal elections to 53 per cent on October 18.

Nenshi said his faith or racial background were never an issue in the campaign, which he deftly focussed on the problems facing the city. But his victory also shows how far Canada has come in integrating its immigrants, he said.

'Just last week we had the chancellor of Germany suggesting that multiculturalism in her country is a failure,' Nenshi said. 'And when I heard that, the first thing that I thought was, 'She needs to come to Calgary'.'