Naheed Nenshi was not supposed to become the mayor of Calgary in 2010. Polls predicted he’d finish a distant third and a Calgary Herald poll, taken a few weeks before the election, gave Nenshi only nine per cent of the popular vote. “Recent history in polling has not been strong in this country,” he told students in Toronto recently. In fact, Nenshi won the 2010 Calgary election with 40 per cent of the vote.

Canadians feel increasingly concerned about the possibility of an Ebola outbreak, but are more confident...