Vue Weekly’s Best of Edmonton awards for 2013 were released this week. My blog was named Best Local Affairs Blog for the second year in a row – thank you very much! I was also thrilled to be recognized as a runner-up in the Best Twitterer category, and that What the Truck?! was once again named Best Pop Up Event. It means a lot!
Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
- If you’re looking to get caught up on the election, here’s my latest update. Things got interesting yesterday as Karen Leibovici took a swipe at Don Iveson.
- Alberta’s population has cracked the 4 million mark! That’s double what our population was in 1978. Additionally, Canada’s population has now surpassed 35 million.
- Edmonton Fire Chief Ken Block has been named Fire Chief of the Year by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.
- There’s a new commemorative monument called Memoryscape located on the corner of 99 Street and 103A Avenue. It is designed to “celebrate the long and proud history between Edmonton’s military and the community.”
- The City has adopted a new Open Government License. It contains the terms for accessing and using government data. Now if only we could get a policy in place to require that new data be made available in the Open Data Catalogue…
- The Edmonton Oilers today announced that Andrew Ference will service as the 14th captain in franchise history.
- Good news for Beacon Heights and Beverly Heights: the Oilers Community Foundation and Hockey Canada Foundation are working together on the redevelopment of two new outdoor rinks there.
- The Royal Alberta Museum is looking for your memories as it continues work on the new location downtown.
- Edmonton has now been officially recognized as a “Fairtrade City”.
- Canada’s first naturally filtered swimming pool will be built next year in Borden Park.
- Here’s a nice recap of Alumni Weekend at the University of Alberta.
- There’s a new red panda at the Edmonton Valley Zoo! His name is Kalden.
- Did you know that Edmonton has a full service pro shop and archery lanes at Wyld Archery?
- Apparently there’s a dating website for the wealthy that lists 621 eligible millionaires in Edmonton. Who knew?
- Great news for the Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo which wrapped up its second annual event today: more than 25,000 fans attended this year!
- From the Edmonton Sun: Edmonton Mayor Mandel’s era, recalled.
Here are some upcoming events:
- The Edmonton International Film Festival continues through Saturday evening.
- Monday night is The Mayoral Event, presented by interVivos, at Latitude 53.
- Also Monday are the first two forums organized by Edmonton Elections. The forum for Ward 9 candidates takes place at Lillian Osborne School, while the forum for Ward 1 candidates takes place at Westlawn School.
- The first mayoral forum organized by Edmonton Elections takes place on Tuesday evening at Harry Ainlay School.
- On Wednesday evening, there’s a forum for Ward 8 candidates at McNally School and a forum for Ward 3 candidates at Londonderry School.
- Also Wednesday evening is the election edition of Green Drinks!
- Thursday evening brings us a forum for Ward 7 candidates at St. Bernadette School and a forum for Ward 11 candidates at J. Percy Page School.
- For those of you interested in the school board race, there’s a forum for Ward H candidates at Royal Gardens Community Hall and a forum for Ward C candidates at Laurier Heights School, both Thursday evening.
- The Eskimos host the Alouettes on Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium.
- Saturday evening is the pan-Canadian Pecha Kucha Night organized by Designing Downtown. I’m looking forward to it!
- Watch out on Sunday for participants in this year’s CIBC Run for the Cure. Also Sunday is the Wishmaker Walk for Wishes.
- FC Edmonton hosts the Carolina Railhawks on Sunday.
- Also Sunday is the Edmonton Bridal Expo, at the Shaw Conference Centre.
- Head on down to The Underground on Sunday evening for Politweetup!
- For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.
If you can’t make it out to the forums organized by Edmonton Elections, don’t worry – they’ll be streamed live online!
Here’s a promo video from Designing Downtown:
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