



Word on the street is that you’ve got to be crazy to run for mayor against Naheed Nenshi this fall.

Yeah, Carter Thomson has heard that as he’s brought his nomination papers around for friends and fellow business owners to sign.

“That perhaps might be an opinion some of my friends might hold of me. Well, they told me I was crazy before that,” the Sunalta convenience store owner said.

“But I like to have fun in life, and I’ve never drunk the purple Kool-Aid.”

Nenshi has appeared a shoo-in to cover Calgary in his signature purple in the Oct. 21 election, given constantly high approval ratings, near universal raves for his performance during the flood, and, as of early August, not a single declared opponent.

Thomson is one of six Calgarians who have since told the Herald they’ll fill in that ballot blank and run, trying to knock off a sitting Calgary mayor for the first time since Ralph Klein did it in 1980.

Michael Abramenko dismisses a reporter’s question about the daunting odds he’ll face.

“People told Ralph that, too, didn’t they? And he was the best mayor and premier this province ever had,” said Abramenko, who lives in Pembroke Meadows on a disability pension.

Nenshi’s six declared rivals are an all-male but diverse bunch — a couple candidates with records of last-place election finishes, and another who has walked around downtown in a white lab coat that says, “Mayor Nenshi is brainwashing you.”

Among the half-dozen, there’s currently not a single campaign website or office or organized team of staff and volunteers — the sort of necessary ingredients for electoral success against any incumbent, let alone one with the gargantuan social-media following and ability to fill a room at $450 a head, like Nenshi did in April.

All six have taken out nomination papers, but that’s no guarantee they’ll actually file them on nomination day, Sept. 23.

Nenshi is on vacation and could not be reached for comment. Campaign manager Chima Nkemdirim hailed the prospect of there being choices on the ballot, but he’s not yet sure Nenshi will spend time attending forums against these new and little-known rivals.

“Even if they’re not a big campaign, if they’re taking the issues seriously, then I think that’s worthy of public engagement,” Nkemdirim said.

“But if it’s a one-note protest campaign, then we’ll have to think if there’s any value in attending those forums.”

The six candidates are:

- Michael Abramenko — The Penbrooke Meadows resident is mad about the city’s double-digit property tax increases and hasn’t yet been able to pay his overdue 2013 bill.

“I’ve had 42 years of suffering with Crohn’s Disease, and stress ain’t no good for Crohn’s,” he said. “And if I lose this election, I’m moving out of this damn city.”

He argues it’s ridiculous the city wasn’t better able to mitigate the flood and that so many street lights are out in Forest Lawn, while council is distracted with lesser issues, such as a ban on smoking near sports fields.

“There’s so much s--- going on and they’re worrying about frigging smoking? Come on,” he said.