Mind Your Manners, Mayor Nenshi

In a democracy, as French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville remarked, manners matter most. They act as barriers, he wrote, “between the strong and the weak, the government and the governed.”

Manners protect us from one another, and from those who govern us. They promote a certain neutrality.

On Feb. 22, while trying to defuse a tough situation at a town hall in Ward 13, Mayor Naheed Nenshi publicly referred to a “specific (Calgary) developer” as “jerks.”

While a minor thing need not be exaggerated, the incident offers practical political lessons.

It is true that people are entitled to their opinions, including public officials. People are entitled to dislike others. But let us recall that Nenshi is the mayor of inclusiveness and the mayor who would conduct city hall politics in a different way.

Politicians referring to specific constituents as “jerks” is certainly a way to conduct politics differently, but it does not reflect the language of inclusion that the mayor professes to embrace. Insul…