Mayor Gondek is author of her own unpopularity

Recent ThinkHQ opinion polling shows Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek to be very unpopular.  It is unusual to see such unpopularity so early for a new Calgary mayor, observers say. Why is she so unpopular?

Gondek's unpopularity is not alone the result of troubled times and voter crankiness, as the mayor tried to explain--which is not to say that times aren’t troubled or voters aren’t cranky. By contrast, however, Edmonton's mayor, being of similar political vintage and in the same province, does not stimulate the same unpopularity.  

The well of Gondek’s problems is not circumstances but Gondek herself. It’s her unwillingness to adhere to basic political wisdom. Gondek bucks at tradition and established processes intended to organise and constrain power. Rather, she goes by her personal instincts, rashly reacting to things. That might be okay if she had good political instinct, but her instinct is terrible. She doesn’t know how to “read the room” that is Calgary, and she doesn’t have the humi…