The Manning Centre has come under intense scrutiny and criticism this week after home builders revealed they’ve given the centre $1.1 million to help train candidates who can block Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s agenda to better control the pace of suburban expansion.
At a news conference Thursday in which Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart said the centre’s municipal director deemed her not conservative enough — a claim that director disputes — Nenshi upped the political heat and accused the centre of “intimidation” against his colleague.
Colley-Urquhart isn’t the only one running in this October’s election who’s spoken to the think-tank and felt shunned, however.
Manning has said he’s not supporting a slate of candidates, and suggested he’d be open to training multiple “market-oriented” candidates in one ward.
But that’s now what Bernie Dowhan, a Ward 2 candidate, concluded after meeting last month with Dimitri Pantazopoulos, the same director Colley-Urquhart complained about.
Intrigued after the Herald reported in March about the training courses for civic candidates, Dowhan said he tried contacting the centre, and then visited Pantazopoulos in person. They had a brief conversation at the Manning office, and Dowhan said he never heard back.
The group currently has three candidates in its new training program, including Joe Magliocca. the 2010 runner-up in Ward 2 — where Ald. Gord Lowe hasn’t yet said if he’ll run again.
“I was intrigued and interested as a first-time candidate,” said Dowhan, who describes himself as centrist but fiscally conservative.
“Obviously, they’re not ready to train everybody or more than one person in the ward.”
The Manning Centre did not reply to a query about Dowhan’s bid to join their program.
Cal Wenzel, Jay Westman and other leading executives in the development industry have donated heavily to the Manning Centre as part of a campaign against what Wenzel was caught on tape calling the “dark side” of council that doesn’t show sufficient support for their policies.
Colley-Urquhart this week chastised Wenzel for telling his colleagues he expected her to be consistently on his side. On Thursday, she and the mayor held a news conference to further criticize the Manning Centre, based on comments she said Pantazopoulos made to her in a recent meeting.
“I was left with the impression that I wasn’t conservative enough,” she said. “That I’d lost my way in the last year and a half, was I serious about running and maybe there’d be candidates that were more conservative than myself.”
Pantazopoulos had replied a day earlier when she’d made similar complaints to the media, saying Colley-Urquhart had mischaracterized their chat.
“We had a very positive meeting where we discussed various civic issues and we left on very positive terms. I am puzzled at what might have changed between then and now,” he said in a written statement Wednesday.
Nenshi, who has argued the conservative centre might be breaking rules for non-profits with its political activity, accused it Thursday of partisan politics and running a slate. Referring to a call Colley-Urquhart claims she received later: “I think phoning someone and telling them they shouldn’t talk to the press is intimidation.”
Colley-Urquhart added that she didn’t feel threatened, and that it takes a lot to intimidate her.
Meanwhile, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce confirmed that economist Ben Brunnen this week has cancelled a speech on municipal development that he was scheduled to give Tuesday at a Manning Centre breakfast.
Brunnen could not be reached for comment, though a Manning spokesman said he’d cited a scheduling conflict.
Original Article
Source: calgaryherald.com
Author: Jason Markusoff
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