Nenshi falsely blames Smith for Calgary’s decline in livability ranking

Former Calgary mayor and current Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is taking heat for falsely blaming Premier Danielle Smith for Calgary’s drop in global livability rankings.

Source: Facebook

Former Calgary mayor and current Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is taking heat for falsely blaming Premier Danielle Smith for Calgary’s drop in global livability rankings, despite the mayor and city council being responsible for the vast majority of the city’s performance factors.

“When I was mayor, Calgary was ranked the 5th most livable city in the world,” Nenshi said in a post to X. “Under Danielle Smith, it’s dropped to 18th. Leadership matters.”

The replies were flooded with comments pointing out that Smith is Alberta’s premier, not Calgary’s mayor, who is Jyoti Gondek.

“Ummm, Danielle Smith is not, nor has she ever been, the mayor of Calgary,” wrote one user. “You, however, don’t even hold a seat in the legislature, and you’re the ‘leader’ of Alberta’s radicalized NDP party.”

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index 2025 confirms that Calgary fell from 5th to 18th place, the biggest decrease among the 173 cities analyzed. Three other Canadian cities are in the report: Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, which were ranked 10th, 16th, and 19th, respectively.

The index scores cities across 30 factors grouped into five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

In 2024, Calgary scored an overall 96.8 index score. The city had perfect 100s in stability, healthcare, and education. It scored 90.0 in culture and environment and 96.4 in infrastructure.

In 2025, the city’s overall index score fell to 94.7. Because it was no longer in the top 10, individual scores for each section were not provided in the study.

However, “this year (like the other three Canadian cities in the survey) it saw a decline in its score for healthcare as strains in the country’s national health service infrastructure, making it the biggest faller in the rankings.”

Therefore, the study itself attributed the decrease primarily to healthcare services falling nationwide, signalling that, unlike Nenshi’s claim, both Gondek and Smith might be off the hook.

Zurich, Switzerland, landed in second place, scoring a perfect 100 in healthcare.

A recent study highlighted that Switzerland’s universal healthcare system offers far better service to its citizens than Canada’s, despite having a similar cost for taxpayers.

The city that rose the most in rankings was Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia, rising 13 places, thanks to big improvements in healthcare and education rankings.

Still, the replies to Nenshi’s post raised concerns about Gondek’s performance.

Gondek’s approval rating has not fared well over the past year. In a previous poll, Gondek and her city council reported the lowest approval rating among major cities. During the handling of the city’s water crisis, she reached an all-time low approval rating of 26 per cent, even below that of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s at the time.

“These ratings are unprecedentedly low,” said ThinkHQ President Marc Henry. “It seems driven primarily by negative public reactions to policies like the single-use bag bylaw and blanket rezoning.”

Meanwhile, Gondek presided over the Green Line LRT’s ballooning cost—rising from $4.65 billion to $6.2 billion—while cutting its distance by 78 per cent and its number of stations by over 75 per cent.

Alberta’s Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen also put some of the blame on Nenshi for failing to oversee the planning, design, and implementation of a cost-effective transit plan.

Despite rising affordability concerns in Calgary, Gondek voted against freezing pay increases for councillors. The vote to freeze the increase was a 7-7 tie, resulting in it being defeated.

While Nenshi attempts to link the city’s decline to Smith, a recent poll highlighted that the premier is gaining support faster than any of her colleagues.

A recent CBC poll showcased that compared to Rachel Notley’s final months as leader, Naheed Nenshi is polling worse in both favourability and electoral support. He has higher disapproval and waning enthusiasm even in traditional NDP strongholds.

Nenshi will be running against UCP candidate Darby Crouch for a byelection in Edmonton-Strathcona on June 23. The Conservatives have not held the riding since 1986.

In an exclusive interview with Crouch, which will be published on Saturday, she said her chances of winning the riding are much higher than they’ve been in previous years.

“If we win, I think we might go down in history in Edmonton-Strathcona,” she said.