Article content

Is a hockey team trying to run Mayor Naheed Nenshi out of City Hall in the Oct. 16 election?

It sure looks that way, after a week in which the Flames backed out of arena talks and blamed the mayor for the breakdown.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Braid: Arena faceoff turns into political power struggle Back to video

Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., via CEO Ken King, insist it wasn’t political. He says owners were upset when the mayor tied his campaign to the assumption of a future deal in Victoria Park.

That wasn’t right because there was no chance of an agreement, King says.

But he picked a brutal way to disagree. If the sports group doesn’t want Nenshi sounding positive about the project, it suggests limited enthusiasm for helping him win. And that’s political.

Nenshi’s campaigners, livid, believe the goal is to defeat Nenshi. The mayor himself is equivocal in public, but doesn’t exactly deny it.

His voice dripping with sarcasm, Nenshi said in an interview Friday: “Mr. King very clearly said this has nothing to do with the election, it has nothing to do with the Seattle deal, just purely a coincidental thing. I’m a trustworthy guy, I guess I’ll have to take him at his word on that.”