In the wake of this month's civic elections, Calgary and Toronto have received a lot of attention -- Calgary for electing Naheed Nenshi, the city's first Muslim mayor; Toronto for the election of Rob Ford, who hails from the right.
And consider: in the House of Commons, all the political leaders outside Quebec hail from Calgary or Toronto too. But oddly, Toronto now seems to have a mayor more similar to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while Calgary has a mayor that would be more at home with the liberal/social democratic leanings of Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff.
A casual observer of Canadian politics might wonder if there was some mixup in the delivery room of the new mayors. Somehow, Calgarians got Toronto's mayor, and vice-versa. And what is it about Calgary and Toronto that makes them so dominant/interesting in politics these days? Theories welcome.