Poke your head into any city hall across the country, and there’s a chance you’ll find a former MP or member of the provincial legislature sitting in the mayor’s chair.
Recent municipal elections in B.C., Ontario and Manitoba saw scores of seasoned politicians making the jump — or the return — to the local level.
Andrea Horwath is among them. The former Ontario NDP leader is the newly elected mayor of Hamilton, Ont.
”Certainly I had accomplishments that really did affect all of Ontario, as an opposition leader,” she told CBC Radio’s The House. ”But the municipal order of government really is the closest to the people.”
Horwath is one of at least a dozen politicians in Ontario alone who previously held provincial or federal seats and last week won their race to become mayor.
CBC News: The House8:11Why are so many federal and provincial politicians moving into the mayor’s chair?
CBC’s Emma Godmere speaks to newly elected mayors and experts about why so many provincial and federal politicians are making the leap to municipal politics.
But why are so many political veterans taking their talents to the local level?
“I understand that folks may have some cynicism,” Horwath said.
“It’s not that you’re in it for any kind of personal aggrandizement or personal agenda. You’re in it to serve your community.”
‘People have a real stake in you:’ former Calgary mayor
According to one of Canada’s best-known former mayors, there’s simply no better gig around.
“It is the only political job in Canada — the only executive level political job in Canada — where you are actually elected by everyone you serve,” said Naheed Nenshi, who served as mayor of Calgary for just over a decade.
“The prime minister is not directly elected, premiers are not directly elected, but the mayor is,” he explained. “Because of that, people have a real stake in you.”
Naheed Nenshi speaks to the media the day after being elected as mayor of Calgary in October 2010. ‘[Mayor] is the only political job in Canada — the only executive level political job in Canada — where you are actually elected by everyone you serve,’ he said. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Even if voters recognize that stake, some might expect mayors to become MPs — and not the other way around.
“I think we’re actually very wrong to see politics as this kind of progression, of city council being the minor leagues and then provincial and federal politics somehow being the major leagues,” said Shannon Sampert, a political analyst and columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press.
Sampert — who just helped guide new Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham’s campaign to victory — is also quick to push back on the idea that politicians hopping from campaign to campaign could be looked down upon.
“I think that we need to think that being a career politician isn’t necessarily bad,” she said. “I think you have a best-before date … constituents will let you know when they’re sick of you as well.”
MPs can face long periods away from home, election uncertainty
Former Conservative MP Alex Nuttall, just elected mayor of Barrie, Ont., is one of several federal representatives who chose to leave Ottawa and switch to municipal politics. Previously a Barrie city councillor, he was first elected MP in 2015 but declined to run again in 2019, opting to spend more time with his family.
“When I made that decision, it was one that I didn’t take lightly,” he told The House.
Nuttall’s father recently dug up an old hockey card from when the mayor-elect was 13 years old.
“And on the back of my hockey card, my future ambitions were to become a member of Parliament.”
Nuttall admits that dream job came with plenty of challenges.
“When you’re elected as a member of Parliament, and really any position — it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle, right? It’s most severe on the federal level,” Nuttall explained.
“I was lucky. I was only a five-hour trip to Ottawa from Barrie. But there were lots of folks who, it’s 12 hours for them to get from their home to Parliament Hill. And you know, that has a humongous effect on family life.”
Ken Boshcoff, right, is congratulated by a supporter after winning the mayoral race in Thunder Bay, Ont., earlier this month. (Marc Doucette/CBC)
Ken Boshcoff remembers those personal impacts well. The newly elected mayor of Thunder Bay, Ont., held the job before, back in the 1990s, before becoming a Liberal MP under the minority governments of Paul Martin and Stephen Harper.
“Every day was the possibility of an election,” Boshcoff told The House.
“You know exactly, right now, when the next municipal elections are — in four years. So it truly makes a difference in terms of stability, and your ability to plan and even act as a human. Whereas in federal Parliament, you certainly wouldn’t be buying a car or a house if you were with the government at that time. It was just not doable.”
Taking the parties out of politics
While remaining an MP comes with obstacles, leaving Parliament Hill can also be difficult for some.
“In our research, we found challenges with transitioning to a non-political career,” said Sabreena Delhon of the Samara Centre for Democracy.
The non-partisan group has spent years holding exit interviews with MPs to get a sense of why many choose to move on from federal politics.
“Once you have been a politician, it’s quite difficult for your community to see you as anything else,” Delhon explained.”So a cynical view might be that there’s this insatiable appetite, a narcissism related to being elected. But it might also be that political life has closed other professional doors for you.”
Nuttall, the mayor of Barrie, said he left a successful business career to return to municipal politics.
“I’ve been very blessed in my private sector career,” he said. “And I’m going back to public service, taking a pay cut, and wanting to contribute.”
The former Conservative MP said it can be easier to make that contribution without the partisanship Parliament often brings.
“You take the political parties out of it, and the reality is that there’s a lot more opportunity for consistency, for continuity on the items that are being worked on.”
Horwath announced her resignation as NDP provincial leader on June 2, 2022, after leading the party through four elections. (Tara Walton/The Canadian Press)
Horwath agrees.
“I have to admit that when I left municipal politics to become an MPP, one of the things I missed the most was that idea that we’re all in it together and we’re all working from the same space, or the same imperative,” she said.
Whether they make the jump for personal reasons or political reasons, former Calgary mayor Nenshi will tell any veteran-politician-turned-mayor that they made the right choice.
“I always joke — and I’ve been doing it for years — that if the federal government disappeared while we were talking, it would be a week or two before anyone noticed … but if your municipal government were to disappear, you’d have no roads, no parks, no transit, no emergency response,” he said.
“The issues that we are working on at the municipal level are the cool ones, the interesting ones. And I think more and more politicians are figuring out — that’s really where it’s at.”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Official Opposition BC United party says it will run some candidates in the Oct. 19 election despite the recent suspension of its “full province-wide” campaign to throw its support behind the surging B.C. Conservative Party.
A letter to party members Friday said the move is intended to leave open a door to the party being resurrected for future elections.
It said despite last week’s campaign suspension by Leader Kevin Falcon “we intend on running a select number of candidates in the upcoming election.”
The letter said the move ensures BC United, formerly the B.C. Liberal Party, remains a registered political party with Elections BC.
“Again, I want to reiterate that we have simply suspended the full province-wide BC United campaign for this upcoming provincial election,” BC United executive director Lindsay Cote said in the letter.
“This does not fold our party or erase our organization,” she said. “Our intent is to ensure that following the October 2024 election, we will be able to have a thorough discussion with our membership about the future of BC United. If there is a desire within our membership to rebuild the party, and a plausible path to do so, we want to be in a position to act on this.”
Cote said the party has yet to decide how many of its candidates will stand in which ridings.
Falcon announced last week he was suspending the campaign and withdrawing the party’s candidate nominations and instead urging support for the Conservatives to prevent a vote-split that would help the New Democrats win re-election.
“Kevin Falcon, as leader of BC United, had the power under our party constitution to revoke nominations of all candidates for the upcoming election,” said Cote. “While he did not need support of the provincial executive for this decision, he sought it and it was granted. We are now in the process of revoking these nominations with Elections BC.”
Cote said the decision to suspend the campaign was difficult for party members, candidates, MLAs and staff employees.
“While we know this decision was gut wrenching, we strongly believe it gives British Columbians the best opportunity to defeat the NDP and secure a free-enterprise victory in the provincial election this October.”
Adam Wilson, BC United communications director, said in a statement running some candidates ensures the party name is available in future elections.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
OTTAWA – The New Democrats used a stock image from Russia in a recent video, weeks after the party criticized the Conservatives for doing the same.
On Wednesday NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh announced in a video message that he was ending the supply and confidence deal with the Liberal government, while accusing Conservative policies of hurting Canadians, including retirees.
The video then flashes to a stock video of two seniors sitting at a table looking at their laptop.
The Canadian Press independently verified from several stock images sites, including Getty Images, that the video originated from Russia.
The two seniors are also featured in photographs on a website for a Russian university, which says they are faculty members there.
“We obtained the image from a North American stock image service,” New Democrats said in a statement,
“Nowhere did the service mention where the video was taken. We’ll take better care in the future.”
The NDP video remains up on all their social platforms.
Last month New Democrats denounced the Conservative Party of Canada after it used non-Canadian stock images in one of their videos, including Russian fighter jets.
The Conservative party deleted the video after online criticism, saying “mistakes happen” while pointing out that a Liberal ad from 2011 was scrutinized over its use of stock images.
At the time, deputy critic for ethics MP Charlie Angus criticized the use of non-Canadian images in political messaging.
“I love Canada. I want the next election to be run in Canada, for Canada,” Angus said in a statement on Aug. 19.
New Democrats went on to condemn the use of “phoney, fake, bogus” digital content.
“I find it very strange that two major Canadian political parties – the NDP and the CPC – are not taking more care in their communications to Canadians about Canadians,” said Government House leader Karina Gould in a statement.
She said both parties will have to explain why “neither could be bothered to use images of actual Canadians.”
While the NDP and Conservatives are “focused on promoting their own political interests,” she said the Liberal government is “squarely focused on delivering important measures and programs for Canadians that meet their needs.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hours after ABC News released the rules for next Tuesday’s presidential debate, resolving a final dispute in Donald Trump’s favor, the former president was on the attack — against ABC News.
“I think a lot of people will be watching to see how nasty they are, how unfair they are,” he said Wednesday on a Fox News town hall.
It was an unsubtle reminder that Trump and Kamala Harris aren’t the only ones with a lot at stake next week. The same is true for ABC News and moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, in what is the only scheduled debate between the presidential contenders this fall.
Multiple outlets will televise and stream it. But unlike in past years, when presidential debates were organized by a bipartisan commission, this is solely an ABC News production. It won’t include a live audience.
“This is a huge opportunity for ABC News,” said Ben Sherwood, former ABC News president and now publisher & CEO of the Daily Beast. “It’s like getting to host, moderate and produce the Super Bowl of politics. It gives the network luster at a time broadcast television is in decline.”
That is, of course, if things go well.
ABC sees it as a ‘huge responsibility’
The ABC debate was set last spring, when President Joe Biden was the likely Democratic nominee. When he dropped out, it was unclear if the debate would go on. Harris and Trump eventually gave the go-ahead, although the Republican’s repeated criticism of ABC last month raised questions about it again.
It all had little effect on ABC’s planning, said Rick Klein, the network’s Washington bureau chief. “It truly wasn’t a lot of turmoil on our end of things,” he said.
Biden and Trump debated on June 27 — what seems a lifetime ago. That event was put on by CNN, although it is remembered more for Biden’s shaky performance that eventually led him to end his campaign than for anything done by the network or its moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper.
“At the end of the day, this is about helping to create a forum for the candidates to communicate with the public,” Klein said. “It’s a huge responsibility. It’s a humbling responsibility.”
An estimated 51.3 million people watched Biden and Trump in June. But that was before many people were truly tuned into the election, and the potential rematch of the 2020 campaign was drawing little enthusiasm. Tuesday’s debate will almost certainly reach more people, whether or not it approaches the record debate audience of 84 million for the first face-off between Hillary Clinton and Trump in 2016.
Muir’s “World News Tonight” has led the evening news ratings for eight years, making him effectively America’s most popular newscaster. Many nights “World News Tonight” has a bigger audience than anything on prime-time television.
One secret to his success has been ABC’s efforts to craft an apolitical image for him. Tuesday’s audience will be his biggest ever — including people largely unfamiliar with Muir because they seek news elsewhere — and it’s for a political event in polarized times.
Davis has a lower profile, though she hosts ABC’s nightly streaming newscast, fills in for Muir and has moderated presidential nominating debates in the past. Many will be seeing her in action Tuesday for the first time.
Although more complicated in the Trump years, the role of debate moderator is often akin to baseball umpires — it indicates they’ve done a good job when you don’t really notice them. If Muir or Davis figure prominently in Wednesday morning’s stories, that’s probably not a good sign.
“It’s absolutely a minefield,” said Tom Bettag, former ABC News “Nightline” producer. “Ask Chris Wallace.”
Wallace was well respected, considered even-handed and, in 2020 when he moderated the first Biden-Trump debate, was working at Fox News “so the Trump people couldn’t accuse him of being a liberal hack,” Bettag said. “And it still blew up pretty badly. ” Trump’s frequent interruptions exasperated Biden and led to criticism that Wallace lost control of the evening.
The moderators will be ‘there to facilitate’
There’s less of a chance of that happening this year because debate rules call for a candidate’s microphone to be muted when their opponent is speaking, something Trump’s campaign sought because interruptions turn many voters off.
An open mic led to one of Harris’ most-remembered exchanges in her 2020 debate with Vice President Mike Pence. “Mr. Vice President, I am speaking,” she said when Pence interrupted one of her answers, a moment many women could relate to in business situations with men.
While Bash and Tapper occasionally tried to steer Trump or Biden back to the questions when the politicians ducked in CNN’s June debate, they would not correct any lies or misstatements, many of which were pointed out in post-debate analysis. While Klein would not commit to the same policy, he did say that “it’s a debate between them and we’re there to facilitate the conversation.”
Even before his Fox News appearance this week, Trump had repeatedly criticized ABC News, even though he agreed twice to participate in a debate on the network.
He has targeted network political journalists George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl specifically. The former president last spring filed a defamation lawsuit against Stephanopoulos over comments the journalist made about Trump being held liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. ABC has said Stephanopoulos is not involved in debate preparation.
Trump has also spoken about the reported friendship between Harris and Dana Walden, a top executive at ABC’s parent Walt Disney Co., whose oversight has recently expanded to include ABC News. ABC has said Walden is not involved in any news coverage decisions.
To a certain extent, Trump’s comments can be seen as “working the refs,” or appealing to supporters who don’t like the press. A nightmare scenario for ABC is Trump lashing out on Tuesday if he feels things aren’t going well for him.
“From our perspective, we just have to do our job and do it as well as we can,” Klein said.
He wouldn’t give any details about how ABC’s preparations are going, such as what figures have been assigned to portray Harris or Trump in mock debates.
Bettag, a University of Maryland journalism professor who is teaching a course this fall on covering the presidential campaign, has been involved in these preps before. He advises Muir and Davis to take some deep breaths.
“The most important thing is to stay cool, which is hard to do since they’re likely to get yelled at,” he said. “It’s really important to try to keep their voices down and stay steady.”
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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at