Nenshi weighs in on Calgary Centre byelection

Tory byelection candidate Joan Crockatt will not be attending this Sunday's forum being put on by the mayor's office.

Naheed Nenshi invited all of the candidates running in the Calgary Centre byelection to the debate.

He says he wants to give voters a chance to ask questions related specifically to the needs of the city.

But Crockatt declined the invitation. She says she'll be busy door knocking. Plus, she's already committed to two other debates.

"One's on either side of the riding so we feel very comfortable that'll give people who want to go to a debate that that's the kind of thing they'll want to see, an opportunity to go. We just didn't get the mayors request in time, it just came this week."

Nenshi stressed the purpose of the forum.

"The point is not for her to tell me what she thinks it's to tell VOTERS what she thinks," Nenshi said.

Meanwhile, political blogger Joey Oberhoffner says this is typical Nenshi.

Oberhoffner says even though he's not endorsing a candidate, his words may hurt one Tory representative Joan Crockatt.

"A lot of people who would be inclined to follow a call to action from Mayor Nenshi aren't necessarily the type of people who would go in and vote for a candidate that doesn't seem to be engaging with the public, the antithesis of type of politics mayor Nenshi practices," Oberhoffner says.

Advance polls in the Calgary Centre riding opened Friday.

The other candidates include Liberal representative Harvey Locke, Libertarian Tony Prashad, Green party pick Chris Turner,Dan Meades for the NDP's and Antoni Grochowski as an independent.