Q & A | Job interview with a twist for Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi

Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi is a friendly guy. He's an engaged and involved spokesperson for the city, spreading the good word despite the economic downtown and high unemployment rates.  

Now or Never's Ify Chiwetelu posed some classic job interview questions to Nenshi, but with a twist: he wasn't answering as the mayor, he was answering as the city itself. 

So, you are the city of Calgary for right now, describe yourself in one word.

Energetic.

Solid. What can you offer that no one else can?

A great place to make a living, and a great place to make a life. That's actually our vision, and that really is something that we can offer. When you come here we say we invite you to be part of our energy, and that doesn't just mean the energy sector, it means the electricity in the air that comes from great ideas, a true meritocracy where nobody cares who your daddy was or where you went to school, they care if you're willing to work hard and if you've got good ideas. 

That is something I think is a very unique thing under this big blue sky, people are willing to think big. If you have big, big dreams and you're willing to work to make them happen, this is the place where we will give you the support to do it.

Calgary, what's the biggest challenge you've had to overcome and how did you do it?

We have been too reliant on our good looks for too long. By that, of course, I mean we've been relying on one sector, the energy sector. Not because there's oil and gas under downtown Calgary, the Calgary Tower is not an oil derrick.The oil sands are a three hour flight away, and the reason all those great head office jobs are here is precisely because people want to live here.

The challenge is that it's been too easy to be able to be great on that sector and we haven't done as good a job as we should have on bridging our real strength in that sector to other areas.

So Calgary, there's no reason we shouldn't be the clean tech capital of the world. We've got all the brilliant environmental engineers here. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to take our geographic location and turn that into and even more powerful hub for agribusiness and for transportation and logistics. There's no reason why our tourism business isn't multiple times bigger than it is now.

It's because we've been relying so much on the oil and gas industry to keep us going, and it's a great industry and we love it and it's going to have many, many years of a positive future, but we also need to be able to bridge from it.

Calgary, if I was talking to your best friend, what is one thing they would say you need to work on? 

I think they would say we need to be more humble. We're very good about selling who we are to the world, but we also have to be realistic about some of the challenges that we face in terms of being focused on one industry. 

What is the most interesting thing about Calgary that we wouldn't learn from your resumé?

The incredible vibrancy of our diverse communities. So, coming out to east Calgary where I live and looking at the amazing variety of yes, shops and restaurants from every part of the world, obviously, but also the real entrepreneurial spirit of new Canadians and first generation Canadians, how much they've contributed to building this community. 

So this next question is one that Google apparently asks perspective employees. If you could only choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, Calgary, what would it be?

Okay it certainly would not be Neighbours of the World, our official song. Well, of course I think it would have to be the great southern Alberta native, Ian Tyson and Four Strong Winds.

Calgary, where do you see yourself in five years?

Even better. We will have been coming out of this economic downturn strong, resilient, diversified. We will continue  to offer great opportunities to young people, and one thing that will be very different, I hope, in five years, is that we will be doing that in a real time of reconciliation, and we will be doing that in a real time when we will be walking together with our Indigenous brothers and sisters on that path.