When it came down to it, the NDP’s decision to gamble on Naheed Nenshi wasn’t even close. The vote making him the new head honcho was a landslide.

That’s what the lure of power does to folk. It didn’t matter that the former Calgary mayor wasn’t even a party member this time last year or had shown little interest in being an NDP candidate in the previous provincial election, even though he was essentially out of work then.

No, for a party that rules the political roost up in Edmonton but whose popularity ranks slightly below mad cow disease in Alberta’s rural hinterlands, this was a big money bet on Nenshi turning our city — the make-or-break location in any foreseeable provincial election — a bright shade of orange.

Nenshi doesn’t hold a seat in the legislature, but that’s hardly going to be cause for raucous ridicule by the UCP contingent, considering their own leader took the helm as an outsider and had to wait until a........

© Calgary Herald