Archive for Barb Higgins
Politics in full sentences
Posted by: | CommentsAn item by Chris Turner from Saturday’s Globe and Mail on Calgary and the election of Naheed Nenshi.
Why Calgary chose Naheed Nenshi
Calgary City Hall
The failure of Barb Higgins
Posted by: | CommentsThe celebrity candidate got creamed, and rightfully so.
In her concession speech on election night, Barb says she would have regretted not running.
Okay, my question is – why would you be proud of running for Mayor when you have such a poor grasp of the issues?
A cynical attempt
to screw Calgarians
Will we ever get the full story on who “drafted” Barb Higgins to run for Mayor of Calgary?
Barb’s first failure was thinking she didn’t need to actually show up in person at city council meetings.
The second was the day she finally announced she was running.
It was a huge free public relations bonanza and she really, really blew it!
Barb said she wanted to stop being neutral and then immediately gave mushy answers to key questions. In a city where people were fed up with what was going on in city hall, Barb said she thought city managers were doing a fine job.
A chance to lay out a strong platform and instead, she laid an egg.
Ducking debates
highlighted Barb's key weakness
The third failure – the deliberate campaign strategy of ducking as many debates as possible. Keith Brownsey of Mount Royal University confirmed this strategy during election night coverage on Shaw TV.
This strategy highlighted the key weakness that Barb didn’t know the issues. If you’re avoiding debates in a civic election, the question needs to be asked, why are you running?
As the Calgary Sun’s Rick Bell put it –
Barb Higgins was a political experiment. Here was somebody who had no grasp of what goes on at city hall. She was supported by those who wanted the least upset at the big blue playpen, including backers of Bronco.
She had name recognition. Wasn’t she on TV forever? Didn’t she have a nice smile?
For her handlers and backers, Higgins was a person who could instantly challenge McIver in the polls and actually stay up in the polls offering up the bare minimum.
But that was it, an obvious ploy, a cheap way to the mayor’s chair, an underestimation of Calgarians.
This obvious ploy was swamped by the purple wave and I’m very happy with the result.
Conventional wisdom gets a smackdown
Posted by: | CommentsFour weeks before Calgary’s civic election, conventional wisdom said it was a tight two-way race between Ric McIver and celebrity candidate, Barb Higgins.
I was telling folks that a guy named Naheed Nenshi was building huge momentum.
Naheed Nenshi
140,263 votes and 40% of the vote
A week before the election, a poll in theory showed Barb Higgins leading in what conventional wisdom still called a tight two-way race between Higgins and McIver.
Meanwhile I was pointing out that the polling method would overstate Higgins’ and McIver’s support while understating Nenshi’s.
I said that Nenshi was on track to winning the election.
The momentum was clear on Facebook
Five days before the election, another poll forced conventional wisdom to declare a “dead heat” three-way race between McIver, Higgins and Nenshi.
I had been running into mostly Nenshi supporters all over the city, a few McIver supporters and no Higgins’ supporters.
I was saying that Nenshi was on track to a win that wouldn’t need any recount and that Barb Higgins would finish a distant third.
Nenshi campaign headquarters
Nothing fancy, but it got the job done
The day before the election, conventional wisdom was still touting a “dead heat” three-way race.
I went with my official prediction that Naheed Nenshi would get 41% of the vote. He ended up getting 40%
My bad!
Barb Higgins did indeed finish a distant third.
My good!
Naheed Nenshi finished with 140,263 votes which was 27,877 votes ahead of Ric McIver and 48,904 votes ahead of Barb Higgins.
Congratulations to Naheed Nenshi and the purple wave!
My Calgary Mayoral prediction…
Posted by: | CommentsAs I’m starting this post, Naheed Nenshi has just passed 9,000 supporters on Facebook.
That is an incredible gain of 1,300 in about 28 hours. In contrast, Barb Higgins gained 65 in the same time and Ric McIver gained 355 supporters.
The Purple Wave
should soar to victory.......
The Calgary Herald has endorsed Ric McIver. The Calgary Sun has endorsed Naheed Nenshi.
Both Sun columnist Rick Bell and the Sun editorial quite rightly castigate Barb Higgins’ “…superficial grasp of the complex issues facing the city.”
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict Naheed Nenshi will
get 41% of the vote, Ric McIver will get 36%, Barb Higgins will get 19% and all the others will combine for 4%.
The Purple Wave sweeps on
Posted by: | CommentsAs I’ve been going about my life the last few weeks, I’ve found that whenever talk turns to Calgary’s civic election campaign, 95% of time we’re all Naheed Nenshi supporters.
Yes, it’s true!
5%, it’s someone supporting Ric McIver. I have yet to meet someone who will publicly admit to supporting Barb Higgins.
What’s been happening on Facebook?
One week ago Barb Higgins was at 1,217 supporters, now she’s at 1,578 which is a gain of 361.
Ric McIver was at 2,741 supporters, now he’s at 3,484 which is a gain of 743.
Naheed Nenshi was at 4,000 supporters, now he’s at 7,726 which is a gain of 3,726
One week gain of Facebook supporters
Higgins 361
McIver 743
Nenshi 3,726
The purple wave sweeps on and all indications are that it will show up at the ballot box.
Barb Higgins – Diary Excerpts……
Posted by: | CommentsDear Diary,
The parade of non-political Calgarians begging me to run for Mayor and save Calgary is relentless.
I’m going to flip a coin to make up my mind……
Diary, I’m going to do it! I’m going to run for Mayor and save Calgary.
Everyone loves me!! This should be pretty easy.
Barb Higgins sees herself as a 'people person'
Dear Diary,
Some people are suggesting I should show up in person at every city council meeting between now and the election.
I don’t see why. Watching on TV should be okay. I’m a great people person, I’m even-tempered and I can handle all the tough questions.
What could go wrong......
Dear Diary,
Some people are saying that Bob Hawkesworth will jinx my campaign. They say his campaign was a complete disaster and that it was based on lies and smears.
I don’t see the problem. It’s only a few days to the election, what could go wrong?
I need to get a good nights sleep. I have a busy day tomorrow starting at City TV. I’m sure Mike McCourt will appreciate my innate ability to lead.
The Last Calgary Mayoral Forum – 2010
Posted by: | CommentsWednesday night, the last forum in the Calgary Mayoral campaign. Whoa! Who’s that? It’s, it’s……Barb Higgins. She’s come out of hiding.
East Calgary Mayoral Forum
in Marlborough Park
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
Now I know why Barb has avoided so many debates. On most of the issues, she can’t answer with any specifics.
Celebrity candidate, Barb Higgins
On improvements for 17th Avenue SE, she attacks the previous council for spending all the money. Naheed Nenshi knows the issue so well he can tell you which specific recommendations are his priorities. And on it goes all evening.
It was mentioned that Barb Higgins has never, ever attended a city council meeting in person, and she didn’t deny it.
Remarkable!
Naheed Nenshi, the informed outsider with huge momentum
I’ve been to five Mayoral Forums.
Naheed Nenshi is the superior candidate.
He knows his stuff. He knows the issues. He has good solutions and good ideas.
Naheed Nenshi has earned the trust and faith of Calgary voters on October 18th, 2010.
But, Craig Burrows has impressed me, and Joe Connelly, and Jon Lord, and Wayne Stewart. Even Ric McIver has done well.
Barb Higgins has been a huge disappointment.
I’m left with the impression that Barb Higgins thought her celebrity status would make becoming Mayor a cakewalk.
Barb’s entry into the race has unfairly overshadowed four candidates who are all much more qualified for the job that she is.
Shame on you Barb for being so unprepared.
The curse of Bob Hawkesworth
Posted by: | CommentsBob Hawkesworth must be the person most looking forward to the end of Calgary’s 2010 Civic Election Campaign!
I'm Bob Hawkesworth
and I'm very angry!
Back on September 26th, I referred to Bob’s Mayoral campaign as “Crash and Burn”. A few days ago, on October 10th, I said that Bob’s entire campaign was built around bad judgment.
Today, Wednesday, October 13th, Bob Hawkesworth pulled out of the Mayoral race and tossed his support to…..Barb Higgins.
Barb Higgins??
- Barb Higgins
be worried, be very worried!
Yes, in keeping with “Crash and Burn” and bad judgment, Bob Hawkesworth, 30 year career politician, picking from among the three front runners, chose the person least qualified and least informed on the issues.
Barb Higgins should be worried. Bob Hawkesworth’s campaign was built around lies, smears and misrepresenting the facts.
Bob made a lot of people mad. And now he’s connected himself to Barb.
Bob’s endorsement of Barb Higgins will likely add more votes to Naheed Nenshi and Ric McIver that it adds to Higgins. Don’t be surprised if Barb Higgins finishes third. More and more people are getting concerned about having Barb as Mayor and they’re going to vote to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Nenshi has huge momentum. Barb can rely on her “Celebrity” only so far.
On Facebook, Nenshi added 1,721 supporters in the time Higgins only added 140.
Momentum!
Another Mayoral Forum, another Barb Higgins no-show
Posted by: | CommentsBarb Higgins….where are you?
I’ve been to three Mayoral Forums. Naheed Nensi has attended all three. Ric McIver has made it to two. Barb Higgins has missed all of them with Saturday afternoon’s forum in Deer Run being the latest.
The "Just Vote" Mayoral Forum in
Deer Run, Saturday, October 9th, 2010
Naheed Nenshi was the star of the forum. Jon Lord, Joe Connelly, Barry Erskine and Ric McIver did well.
Click on any photo to go through them.
Will there be a “Facebook” effect in Calgary’s election?
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s a large purple wave flowing through Facebook.
How will it translate into votes?
The Nenshi campaign is
all powerful on Facebook
In the time it took Naheed Nenshi to go from 4000 FB supporters to 4667, an increase of…667, Barb Higgins went from 1217 to 1278, an increase of……61
Ouch!
Ric McIver has 2741.
