Calgary mayor’s solution to fractious city council – call in a shrink

Naheed Nenshi is an unconventional politician. The Calgary business consultant and academic waged a social-media campaign to become Canada's first Muslim mayor in 2010.

City councils are often fractious places but Nenshi now has taken an unconventional approach to getting councillors to work together - he's brought in a psychologist.

Nenshi made them to take part in a closed-door psychology session, the Calgary Herald reports.

The mayor says he's surprised some aldermen balked.

"I would find it extraordinary if any member of council did not want to attend a meeting on how council can work together better," Nenshi told the Herald, adding if members were interested "in a dysfunctional group that is not working well together, it was absolutely their prerogative."

Aldermen at an open council meeting tried unsuccessfully to quash Nenshi's idea. One tried to alter the agenda for the closed-door session.

"You can't," the mayor said.

Nenshi enlisted Ivan Zendel, whose web site says his organization, Paradigm Solutions helps "people and organizations create change in ways that are both productive and fulfilling."

Zendel sent council members an email asking them how they felt they worked together and how it could be improved, the Herald said.

Former alderman Ric McIver, who lost to Nenshi in the 2010 mayoral race, called the idea "extremely silly" and unnecessary.

"Friction's a good thing, as long as everybody's intention is to create a better city, then that's all fair enough," he said.

Alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart pointed a finger back at the mayor.

"It's not that we don't get along," she said. "It's about leadership and how you chair a meeting."

But Nenshi said it was some council members who had asked for a special meeting to discuss decorum after some stormy sessions and tight votes.

The meeting with Zendel itself apparently was anti-climatic.

"It was fine, and remarkably non-dramatic," the mayor, who has more than 43,000 followers, tweeted. "A couple of members made what was actually a routine meeting into a big deal."