Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi not running for re-election

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi will not be running for re-election this fall.

Nenshi made the announcement Tuesday afternoon on Twitter.

Today, I'm sharing my decision about the 2021 election.

I will not be running for Mayor this October.

Calgary, thank you, for everything. It's been the honour of my life. pic.twitter.com/CT2xFGbbPA

— Naheed Nenshi (@nenshi) April 6, 2021

Nenshi deciding after more than a decade, it was time for a change.

“Maybe it’s time to make some space for these different perspectives and different voices to be in place,” said Nenshi during his Facebook Live on Tuesday.

As a pair of councilors submitted their bid to run for the city’s top office, many waited to see if Nenshi would follow suit.

Nenshi became the first Muslim mayor of Calgary when he was elected in October 2010.

The 49-year-old, who has a master’s degree from Harvard University, has served as mayor for three terms.

RELATED: ‘Learn the lessons of 2020’: Mayor Nenshi looks back on a challenging year

He has served through some of the best and worst moments in the city’s history in just 11 years, including the 2013 floods and the current pandemic.

Even winning the “World’s Best Mayor” award in 2015 from the City Mayors Foundation, a London-based research and public affairs group.

He says the city is better off than on the October night back in 2010 when he was elected.

With just 6 months left in office, Nenshi says he still has a lot of work to do, but is looking forward to his next chapter.

“A lot of folks have been asking me ‘Are you okay? Are you going to be alright?’ And yeah, everything is going to be great.”

– With files from the Canadian Press