Why I Voted for Nenshi

LET ME BE THE FIRST TO ADMIT A FEW THINGS...

1. I'd never heard of Naheed Nenshi until purple lawn signs started replicating everywhere about 4 weeks ago
2. I didn't know anything about Barb Higgins until her interview on BT
3. Ric McIver hit my candidate radar at a stampede party at Bookers Crabshack
4. I'm not very politically minded.  I didn't follow any of their campaigns
5. I  made my voting decision 1 hour before I voted 

WHY NENSHI GOT MY VOTE...AND THE OTHERS DIDN'T

I viewed this election as a advertising event with lots of competition (15 candidates on the ballot).  In short, the most fascinating candidate would get my vote.   Sally Hogshead wrote a book & speaks on this very topic and the importance fascination has on brands in a competitive environment.  I've archived her presentation notes here.  Since the candidates missed reaching me through traditional marketing platforms ie. news paper, TV, radio I went to their websites to research their brand.   

I made the assumption that mayoral candidates site's are a good representation of the them.  I wanted to learn about who these people are, what they stand for and why they should get my vote.   I figure that the way their websites interacted with me, would be representative of how the candidates communicate and inform the voters as a whole.  So, I browsed each of their websites to look for their key platform issues...in my preferred form...video.   

• Nenshi made it easy to find his key platform issues, in video format.
• The others frustrated me before I could even hear what they had to say. Don't you think?  Ric vs. Barb vs. Naheed
• All of the candidates key platforms issues were virtually identical.  SO, my decision couldn't be based solely on the words they used.  I expected this since I feel that most politicians generally say nothing real.   
• My decision came down to the candidate who seemed the most genuine.  In other words, it wasn't what they said, but how they said it.   
• Nenshi's spoke passionately on his video.  Ric, you should take some notes from both Naheed & Barb.
• Nenshi's delivery gave me the confidence that he could do the job
• Nenshi's content delivery was compelling and made me want to learn more about him.   Ric, I could barely get through your video and after hearing you speak found you incredibly boring.   Barb, yours content delivery was pretty good, but didn't give me confidence in how you would perform on the job.
• The final piece of the puzzle was in Nenshi's bio.  I'm very impressed that Naheed was an author of the Building Up: How to make Canada's Cities an engine of Growth.  Though I've never read this document (i plan to), just seeing this link gave me hope that Naheed has actually thought about the challenges of implementing change and specifically how those ideas can be put to use to to make Calgary an even better city.

Congrats, Naheed.  I'm looking forward to hearing more from you!