A new Think IQ poll shows that Gondek’s approval rating has tanked since becoming mayor, with most Calgarians disapproving of her performance thus far.

Since being elected in October 2021, Gondek’s net approval has dropped 15 points to 38 per cent, while her disapproval rating has shot up to 53 per cent.

Conversely, Calgarians are starting to see their personal councillors in a better light, with approval ratings for “my councillor” rising by 45 per cent. That’s right, many individual councillors already have better approval ratings than the mayor, and it’s been less than half a year.

Additionally, despite sharing many of the same views and policies as the previous mayor, Naheed Nenshi, Gondek’s approval rating has dropped to less than half of her predecessor’s.

As Think IQ reports, “Gondek’s rating [is] unusually low for a new mayor this early in their first term. By comparison, Naheed Nenshi finished his first year in office with approval in the mid-eighties, while Dave Bronconnier’s first few months in office yielded approval in the mid-seventies.”

Additionally, as many councillors are not only better liked than Gondek but also stepped up to stop her from forcing masks on Calgarians, there could be a serious internal battle for hegemony in Gondek’s future.

“Five months into her first term, and it’s clear that Mayor Gondek is having a rough ride. A Calgary mayor below 40% approval? That’s happened only once in the past two decades, and it’s particularly unusual this early on,” writes Think IQ President Marc Henry.

“… The first five months of Gondek’s administration have been eventful, but perhaps not in the way a new mayor would want. The arena deal fell apart with the Flames, protests in the beltline, a ~4% tax increase when it was supposed to be zero, etc. There are certainly circumstances outside of the mayor’s control, but others are entirely of her own making.” 

Of course, while Gondek is well known for having ruined a multimillion-dollar arena deal with the Calgary Flames over her climate change hysteria, asking the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation to pay more than their fair share, this isn’t the only extremely unpopular decision made by Gondek since her election.

Indeed, she started on a less-than-optimistic note (to say the least), declaring a climate crisis on her first day in office. This let Calgarians know loudly and clearly that she would spend her reign attacking the oil and gas industry.

And that’s just what she’s done.

Amid the ongoing fuel crisis, with record-breaking prices steadily rising to the $2.00 mark, Gondek announced that Calgary needs to stop being an oil and gas town and “lead by example” in the quest to reach the mythical “net-zero” carbon emissions that no one on the planet has or probably ever will achieve.

Overall, there are more than a couple of reasons one might attribute to Gondek’s rapidly tanking approval rating in Alberta’s most populous city. And while hindsight’s always 20-20, you can’t see your mistakes clearly if you never look back on your relentless march towards ‘progress.’