2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

The election is really dominating the headlines lately – you can see my latest #yegvote update here. The race is starting to heat up! You’ll be able to cast your vote as early as Tuesday when advance voting begins.
Even though new voter identification requirements mean you need to have something with your name and current residential address, the City and service agencies are working together to ensure the homeless can vote.
Another hot topic of discussion this week was the welcome sign prank. It’s unfortunate that some damage was caused to City property (estimates peg the amount at $14,000), but I have to admit it’s pretty funny.
For the third year in a row, the City of Edmonton has received an AA+ credit rating from Standard & Poor’s.
Vital Signs 2013 was launched this week by the Edmonton Community Foundation and the Edmonton Social Planning Council. This year’s report focuses on Food Security.
Student achievement results for EPSB were released this week. Growth in the five year high school completion rate continued with a 2.8% increase.
The Parkland Institute released a report called “Wrong Turn” this week, calling the plans for a P3 to build the southeast LRT a mistake. Here’s what I wrote about the issue back in March.
P3’s were also a major topic of discussion at the Province’s most recent economic summit.
Have a library card? Great! Now upgrade it to a ME Card, which entitles you to borrow items from any library in Metro Edmonton.
A voluntary buyout program at the University of Alberta will see 121 staff members, including 77 faculty members, leave next summer. It’s part of efforts to find $56 million over two years to deal with budget shortfalls.
ETS commemorated 20 years of accessible bus service and 35 years of LRT operations at a celebration at City Hall this week.
Employees at Superstore locations across Alberta went on strike at midnight, so shopping there will mean trying to get past the picket lines, at least until the strike is eventually resolved.
Here’s a look at the Kelly-Ramsey block demolition currently taking place downtown. It’s fascinating to see the building torn apart.
As the temperatures continue to drop, EPS is asking Edmontonians to winterize their homes against crime.

Benches have been installed on Jasper Avenue. Why some face traffic, I’ll never understand.

Here are some upcoming events:

There are lots of forums this week, starting with the next mayoral forum at lunchtime Monday at the Shaw Conference Centre. The third and final mayoral forum organized by Edmonton Elections will take place on Thursday night at the Italian Cultural Centre.
There will be lots of other opportunities to see the mayoral candidates though, including the Housing & Homelessness Forum on Tuesday at lunch, and the Your City, Your Vote forum on Tuesday evening.
There are forums for Ward 2 and Ward 5 candidates Monday night as well. On Tuesday night there are forums for candidates in Ward 4 and Ward 10. Candidates in Ward 12 and Ward 6 will have their forums on Wednesday.
Fruit Loop returns on Friday evening at the Yellowhead Brewery downtown.
The Mercer Collective Makers Market is back on Saturday!
Saturday is also the final outdoor date for the City Market Downtown – it’ll be in City Hall for the winter.
There’s a cool new music festival taking place on Saturday and Sunday called Up+Downtown.
Head over to Wunderbar on Sunday for Beer n’ Politics, yet another opportunity to chat about the municipal election.
For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

It’s probably time to update this map…

Edmonton Election 2013: Update #8

Tonight our guest on the EdmontonPolitics.com #yegvote Hangout was mayoral candidate Kerry Diotte! It was a great opportunity to dig into some key issues with him, including the arena, debt, and taxes. You can watch the archive here:

Thanks for joining us tonight Kerry!

These updates are starting to get pretty long as the election heats up! For ongoing news items, be sure to check out my #yegvote Flipboard.

Here’s my latest election news roundup:

For the list of candidates complete with contact information and social media links, check out ShareEdmonton. You can also find out about upcoming events and more.
Every day it seems there are multiple forums happening, and the official City of Edmonton ones are well underway now too. Turnout has been great, and you can watch them live online too. Failing that, all of the archived video is available online. Here is Global’s piece on the first mayoral forum.
If you’re planning to watch more of the forums, be sure to play Edmonton Election Bingo.
In a pretty surprising turn of events, Edmonton Sun columnist Lorne Gunter all but used the word “endorse” in his latest piece on Don Iveson. Gunter wrote: “Don Iveson is the only candidate with the intellectual heft and personality to be mayor of Edmonton for the next four years.”
The election took a negative turn this week as Karen Leibovici went on the offensive. She called Iveson’s tax increase plan flawed, and at a fundraiser this morning she said Edmonton will “grind to a halt” if either Iveson or Diotte is elected mayor. Earlier this week a 14-year-old article written by Don Iveson when he was at The Gateway made the rounds online. Don laughed it off as satire, but Kerry said he has “to do a bit of explaining there.”
Karen Leibovici also talked about polling station cuts for seniors, bringing diversity back to City Hall, and released her resume online, “applying to Edmontonians for the job of Mayor of the City of Edmonton.”
Don Iveson posted this week about smart cards, parking, pride, and downtown revitalization, about prosperity for the Capital Region, and about building our LRT network. He also posted his second week in review and debuted a new video:

In comparison with his primary competitors, Kerry Diotte had a relatively quiet week. He did share his speech from the mayoral forum and posted a number of photos from events.
From the Edmonton Journal: Ballot-box blues. Nice visualization of voter turnout.
Global Edmonton is wondering about the importance of social media in political campaigns.
Changes to polling station locations for those in assisted living have caused some concern.
Have you been enjoying the Edmonton Election Tumblr? It’s written by the very funny Tim Mikula.
Former City Councillor Alan Bolstad says Edmonton is “growing in an unsustainable way” and says we need candidates with new vision.
Dave Cournoyer wrote about some comments that EPSB Trustee Orville Chubb made about the LGBTQ anti-bullying policy.
Here are some new responses to The Local Good’s questionnaire: Andrzej Gudanowski in Ward 6, Dennis Gane in Ward 11, mayoral candidate Kristine Acielo, and mayoral candidate Don Iveson.
David Staples wrote about the strong business candidates vying for the Council seat in Ward 5.
Ryan Hastman wrote about St. Albert candidate Cathy Heron.
Here’s a recap of the interVivos event that took place on Monday.
Omar Mouallem asks a question that many have wondered about over the last few weeks: could Karen Leibovici and Don Iveson split the vote?
Here are six awesome reasons to run for municipal office.
Can Twitter be used to predict the outcome of the election?
If you’re looking for something a little lighter, here’s a look at the fashion and style approaches of the three main mayoral candidates.

From Edmonton Elections, here’s everything you need to know about voting:

You can follow Edmonton Election news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegvote and you can see my coverage here. Also be sure to check out the #yegvote flipboard for curated election-related stories on a daily basis.

What have I missed? Let me know!

Disclosure: I’m actively volunteering for Don Iveson’s mayoral campaign.

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #90

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

Linda Hoang was let go from the Edmonton Sun today. They are “making changes to columns” apparently. Unfortunate news, but ultimately it’s the Sun’s loss. I’m sure Linda will be snapped up by someone quickly! Either way, she promises to “continue to tell stories of Edmontonians doing awesome things with social media” through her blog. Here’s her final column, on engaging voters.
I also wanted to mention Linda’s previous column on Brittney Le Blanc’s quest to meet 5,000 people in 365 days. “It’s a truly unique social experiment reinforced by regular and social networking and something that could have easily failed but didn’t.”
And another Linda item: she’s doing the Alberta Primetime #PopCulturePanel!
For a little while, Paula Simons had a parody account on Twitter called, appropriately, @Perlatiks. Sadly the account has since been suspended. I love Paula’s reaction to it:

@Perlatiks Have fun being me. I know I always do.

— Paula Simons (@Paulatics) September 26, 2013

Did you have problems receiving your copy of the Journal recently? It could be because they had some challenges with the new printing presses.
Here’s an update on some AM radio dial changes taking place here in Edmonton: CKUA’s AM signal will soon be turned off, and TEAM 1260 will now be TSN Radio. Here are some additional details from TSN on the switch.
There are two positions open at Metro Edmonton: Special Sections editor and Reporter/Photographer.
The Edmonton Broadcasters Club Fall Luncheon is taking place on October 16 at the Norwood Legion and features Danny Hooper as the guest speaker.
This is great: Busy control room as NAIT NewsWatch students record the first newscast of the semester!
Congratulations to Chris Scheetz who won a cookie eating contest that I and some other local personalities competed in for charity. He won by eating five cookies!

“I may have won the contest, but Cookie Monster stole the show! #cookiestacking danirohs: “@jonnysullivan82: pic.twitter.com/E48GwnETGh”

— Chris Scheetz (@ChrisScheetz) September 27, 2013

There are two new additions to the CTV Edmonton team to mention! Kimberly Wynn joins on October 15 to do the traffic for CTV Morning Live, and Sarah Richter joins tomorrow from Regina.
I just have to link to this: Lloyd’s List, the world’s oldest newspaper, to give up on print.
If you haven’t already watched it, check out this hilarious video from Todd Babiak promoting his new book Come Barbarians:

I’m going to end this week with Vue Weekly’s Best of Edmonton 2013. Congratulations to all the winners in the Media category:
- Best Radio Station: SONiC 102.9
- Best Radio Hosts: Crash and Mars from 102.3 NOW!
- Best Morning Radio Host: Garner Andrews from SONiC 102.9
- Best Afternoon Radio Host: Lane Mitchell from SONiC 102.9
- Best Late-Night Radio Host: Fitzy from 102.3 NOW!
- Best TV Station: Global Edmonton
- Best TV Morning Show: Breakfast Television
- Best TV Newscast: Global News Hour
- Best TV News Anchor (Individual): Gord Steinke from Global Edmonton
- Best TV News Anchor (Team): Jennifer Crosby & Shaye Ganam from Global Edmonton
- Best TV Sportscaster: Kevin Karius & John Sexsmith, both from Global Edmonton
- Best TV Weatherperson: Josh Classen from CTV Edmonton
- Best Podcast: The Movie Jerks
- Best Twitterer: @creoleenvie
- Best Local Affairs Blog: MasterMaq’s Blog
- Best Arts/Film Blog: Fish Griwkowsky
- Best Food Blog: Only Here for the Food
- Best Fashion Blog: Dress Me Dearly
- Best Music Blog: New Music Michael

UPDATE: I complete forgot to mention that CJSR’s FunDrive 2013 is now underway! Click here to donate!

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

Edmonton Notes for 9/29/2013

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:

Edmonton Election 2013: Campaign Colors

In one of our earlier #yegvote Hangouts, my colleague Ryan Hastman remarked on the similarity of colors between the three primary mayoral candidates. We joked about his color theory and moved on, but recently I found myself looking at campaign colors again. What colors are most common in this election? What do they mean?

That color grid represents the primary color of all 119 campaigns. They were generated by: taking a screenshot of the candidate’s website and/or Twitter page; identifying the primary color of each using Color Thief; and doing some post-processing on the results. The white boxes are for candidates that either do not have a website or Twitter page, or that have a Twitter page with the default settings (a shockingly large number fall into this category).

While it was a fun exercise, this also serves a purpose for me. ShareEdmonton’s list of candidates has now been updated with colors, and where appropriate/possible, I’ll use these colors to represent candidates on the election night results dashboard (you can see the 2010 results dashboard with color-coding here).

There are a lot of blues, greens, and purples. Fewer red, yellow, and orange. Does this mean anything? Let’s look at Paper Leaf Design’s handy color theory quick reference poster:

Check out the full poster for all the detail, but here are some election-related highlights:

Red often means intensity, strength, and energy.
Blue often means depth, stability, and trust.
Purple often means power, ambition, and nobility.
Green often means growth, freshness, and safety.
Yellow often means intellect, cheerfulness, and energy.
Orange often means enthusiasm, creativity, and warmth.

Do candidates and their campaign teams think about these things when choosing colors?

Perhaps more importantly, do campaign colors matter to you as a voter?

Edmonton Election 2013: Update #7

We were very happy to have Deb and Breanna from The Local Good on last night’s #yegvote Hangout! We discussed the latest election news plus candidate questionnaires. You can watch the archive at EdmontonPolitics.com:

Here’s my latest election news roundup:

Monday was nomination day of course, so we now have the final list of candidates running in the election. Check out my coverage here. Here is Dave’s roundup of municipal election races across Alberta.
Monday was also the day a new Edmonton Journal/Leger poll was released. It found that among decided voters, 47% support Don Iveson, 28% support Kerry Diotte, and 25% support Karen Leibovici.
Slowly but surely the 2013 election centre at ShareEdmonton is coming together! Check it out for your list of candidates, plus upcoming events.
Mayor Stephen Mandel made his first endorsement this week, throwing his support behind Ward 10 candidate Michael Walters.
Don Iveson posted a few things this week, starting with his first Week in Review. He also followed Karen Leibovici’s lead in making his first campaign donor disclosure. On Tuesday he wrote about renewing our roads and pipes, and yesterday about entrepreneurs and supporting small business growth.
Kerry Diotte had a relatively quiet week, starting with the removal of the “arena deal stinks” video that had caused so much controversy. Earlier today he posted the results of a survey on photo radar, Whitemud speed limits, and debt.
Karen Leibovici called for an overhaul of the city’s budget process this week. On Tuesday, she announced a new plan to clean the sidewalks of seniors in the winter. In response, Kerry Diotte suggested the City just pay for everyone’s sidewalks to be cleared, something Don Iveson pointed out has already been looked. On Wednesday, Karen announced a new plan to review servicing gaps facing small and medium sized businesses, and today said it’s time to “get smart” on transit smart cards.
There was an interesting uproar yesterday over a PC Party fundraiser that was going to feature the three main mayoral candidates. After everyone denied everything and tried to distance themselves from the debacle, the mayoral forum element of the event was cancelled.
Want to dig into campaign donations a little more? Michael Ross has done the math and analysis, and it found the numbers don’t always add up.
Metro is looking to investigate “campaign claims that seem a little off-base” and they want your suggestions on what to look at.
Here’s one of the more bizarre statements to be made by a candidate. Ward 6 candidate Dexx Williams suggested mayoral forums should involve lie detector tests.
Dave took a look at some other candidate videos this week.
Ward 6 candidate Melinda Hollis has been really active on Twitter this week, getting into some interesting conversations and posting some bizarre tweets. Deb captured some of them here.
In their latest politics podcast, the Journal discussed the civic election.
David Staples says school trustees must fight harder for quality education. So far, he says, they “haven’t done a good enough job to ensure our kids are getting the best education possible.”
Here are some new candidate profiles from Ryan Hastman: Michael Oshry in Ward 5, Amarjeet Sohi in Ward 12, and Rob Bernshaw in Ward 3.
ActivatED has endorsed Michael Oshry in Ward 5.
Ward 4 incumbent Ed Gibbons blogged about great expectations this week.
Here are some new questionnaire responses from The Local Good: Amarjeet Sohi in Ward 12, Terry Rolls in Ward 7, and Erin Northey in Ward 6.
This is pretty interesting – some candidates are using Segways to go door knocking!
Here are some responses to the Vote Zombie Wall questionnaire: Don Iveson, Kyle Brown in Ward 6, Candas Jane Dorsey in Ward 6, Sam Hachem in Ward 4, David Dodge in Ward 3, Heather MacKenzie in Ward 6, Bryan Anderson in Ward 9, Derrick Forsythe in Ward 6, and Melinda Hollis in Ward 6.
From Danielle Klooster: Five terrible reasons to run for municipal office.
There has been lots of Mayor Mandel-related news this week. For example, here’s a day in the life of the mayor.

Love the Walters campaign shirts!

What have I missed? Let me know!

Disclosure: I’m actively volunteering for Don Iveson’s mayoral campaign.

Edmonton’s Food Council is now real

The inaugural meeting of the Edmonton Food Council took place on Monday night at the Commonwealth Recreation Centre. I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work with fourteen passionate and dedicated Edmontonians to move this initiative forward!

Photo courtesy of the City of Edmonton

In November 2012, City Council approved fresh, Edmonton’s Food and Urban Agriculture Strategy. It called for an Edmonton Food Council to be established, a process which began in earnest in May of this year. By early June, 57 citizens submitted their applications to the City, a great show of interest. Interviews with 22 of them took place in mid-July, and finally on July 26 the City announced the names of the 15 citizens selected to serve on the inaugural Food Council. Here they are:

Mary Bailey – Co-Chair
Stuart Cullum – Co-Chair
Brent Swallow
Christopher Sikora
Dustin Bajer
Hilton Dinner
Janelle Herbert
Jennifer Fisk
Kevin Kossowan
Kirsta Franke
Mack Male
Marjorie Bencz
Mark LaRue
Megan Stevenson
Meghan Dear

Some folks I know fairly well, others I look forward to getting to know over the months ahead. There’s a really great mix of perspectives and backgrounds, and I think we’re going to have some fascinating conversations as a result.

Photo courtesy of the City of Edmonton

Mayor Mandel kicked the meeting off with some introductory remarks, and made it clear that we should feel empowered as a group to decide how best to contribute to the implementation of fresh. He put a nice spin on the Food Council’s elevator pitch:

As a committee of the City’s administration, the Edmonton Food Council’s primary role is to advise on matters of food and urban agriculture and to take an active role in supporting the implementation of fresh. Other core jobs may include providing advice, undertaking research and evaluation, coordination, engagement and education.

For the rest of the evening, facilitator Beth Sanders led us through a helpful process to tease out desires and perspectives. It was great to hear from everyone and to realize by the end of the night that we had already come to some consensus on how we’ll interact as a team. I can’t say it any better than the newsletter that went out today:

What became clear is that there is no shortage of energy with this group. When discussing when monthly meetings should be held, the group quickly came to consensus that monthly meetings would not be enough to maintain momentum. They wanted to meet sooner than later. No doubt that the commitment and enthusiasm of this group will have a lasting effect on Edmonton’s food and urban agriculture landscape.

Energy is a great word – there was lots of it on Monday night! We’re all eager to get to work, and we want to actually get things done. Being nomination day, I couldn’t help but think of the phrase that so many candidates had remarked to me after filing their paperwork – “now it’s real!”

Photo courtesy of the City of Edmonton

Edmonton Food Council meetings will be open to the public, and there will very likely be opportunities to get involved. You can get all the information on the City’s website, and I’d also encourage you to subscribe to the Food In The City newsletter.

Edmonton Election 2013: Nomination Day Recap

Yesterday was nomination day at City Hall, the day that all candidates running in the municipal election needed to file their paperwork and pay their fees. As many of them remarked after making it through the line, “now it’s real!” It was exciting to be there to see the dozens of Edmontonians that were willing to put their names forward, not to mention all of their supporters. Of course, there was real business to be done.

Returning Office Alayne Sinclair speaks to the media on Nomination Day

Dave Cournoyer and I were at City Hall for all the action, and last night along with Ryan Hastman we held a special edition of our EdmontonPolitics.com hangout to discuss nomination day. Here’s the archive:

Let’s take a look at the nomination day statistics (here are the 2010 stats). There are 119 candidates total, an increase of six from 2010. Here are the numbers broken down by race:

And here’s a closer look at the Council races in particular:

I wanted to include that chart to show just how different some of the races will be. Ward 6 has a crazy number of candidates at 16, whereas both Wards 4 and 9 have just one other candidate aside from the incumbent. The big surprise was Ward 8, which basically went from 1 candidate to 5 in a day.

Here’s a look at the candidate breakdown by gender:

Roughly 32.7% of the field is female, which is actually the same percentage as 2010. While there were no female candidates for mayor in 2010, there are two this year (including one viable candidate). The number of female candidates for Council has decreased slightly from 22.6% in 2010 to 21.7% in this election.

Here’s a look at how many candidates had contact details available on nomination day:

I was a little surprised to see email above phones, actually. And to see Twitter above Facebook. Of course, there could be more candidates with Twitter and Facebook accounts, but they hadn’t been discovered by myself or on Dave’s list by today at noon.

Speaking of email, here’s a look at which email domains candidates are using:

I am pleasantly surprised by the number of candidates that are using vanity domains! The reality is that not everyone is going to spend the $10 or so to get a vanity domain, but at least they outrank Gmail.

No candidates had withdrawn their candidacy by the deadline today, so those 119 names will all appear on ballots come October 21!

If you’re looking to browse through the candidates, ShareEdmonton has you covered:

You’ll find contact details for each candidate, related tweets, and more. Stay tuned as ShareEdmonton aggregates everything you need to know about the election races.

For more photos from nomination day, check out my photoset and Dave’s photoset.

UPDATE: The original version of this post incorrectly stated that the number of female candidates was slightly higher in 2013 than in 2010, when in fact the percentage is the same.

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #89

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

In case you missed it: here’s a profile on Ryan Jespersen in Gig City. “Breakfast Television is no ordinary morning television show – it never has been – and Jespersen is no ordinary morning television host.”
Speaking of Ryan, he and Marty Forbes collaborated on this Edmonton Sun column.
We’re losing two journalists to Calgary this month! Both Annalise Klingbeil from Metro and Jenna Bridges from Global are heading south. I’m not sure what the Global Edmonton folks did for Jenna, but look at the ice cream cake (for breakfast!) that Metro got for Annalise. Best of luck to you both!
CTV’s Sean Amato is taking a break from his job to run for City Council in Ward 1.
Congratulations to Ryan Cormier on having his new book published!

Journal court reporter (and Crime Bureau alum) @el_cormier‘s new true crime book, hot off the presses! #yeg #abcrime pic.twitter.com/aWDmAlTrp5

— Jana G. Pruden (@jana_pruden) September 23, 2013

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Breakfast Television has made some changes to its format recently. News is now every 20 minutes, Say What runs at 6:30, and Social Bytes runs at 7:10.
Did this actually happen? Did Charlee Morgan get botox live on the air on Up! 99.3?
Here’s a look at the new Alberta Primetime set.
Russell James has left Edmonton for SONiC out in Vancouver.
Some of this may be old, but here’s an update on media moves from MediaMag.
Congratulations to Global Edmonton’s Su-Ling Goh on being honoured by the Canadian Medical Association with an Excellence in Health Reporting award.
Lots of local male media personalities participated in the YWCA’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event a couple weeks ago. Here’s a photoset.
Former journalist Todd Babiak spoke to Metro about his new book.
Congratulations to Kathleen Smith – she’s now a regular on Alberta Primetime’s Friday panel.
Here’s the latest Relinked column from the Journal.
A group of children from the Kids with Cancer Society got to be reporters for a day at Global Edmonton recently!
It’s official: the deletion of CKUA’s AM transmitter has been approved by the CRTC.
Did you fall for the fiery twerking video? I sure did. Turns out Jimmy Kimmel was behind the whole thing.

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

Edmonton Notes for 9/22/2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

The final meeting of the current City Council took place on Wednesday at City Hall. It was an emotional affair, filled with tributes to Mayor Mandel. Here’s the letter to citizens that Mayor Mandel published that day.
City Council this week directed Administration to proceed with a full closure of the City Centre Airport at 11:59pm on November 30, 2013.
Edmonton was the first major city in Canada to implement curbside recycling way back in 1988. The City is celebrating 25 years of recycling!
Here is President Indira Samarasekera’s State of the University address.
From Gig City: Does public art improve life for Edmonton’s homeless?
Here’s the latest update on the Walterdale Bridge project. Queen Elizabeth Park Road is slated to reopen to traffic in early October.
Have you been using the on-street bike parking corrals this year? Let the City know your feedback by taking this online survey.
Speaking of surveys, the City is also doing a survey on 107 Avenue.
Here’s another blow for supporters of the Cloverdale footbridge: Council accepted an environmental impact study that allows the southeast LRT to be built as planned.
At the same time, the City is exploring a new, multi-million dollar footbridge near Terwillegar Park.
New data shows what you probably already suspected: class sizes at Edmonton area schools are really large.
A new report suggests that police use-of-force incidents have dropped considerably in recent years. This is despite the number of police calls going up.
Well this sucks. Sam Gagner suffered a broken jaw on Saturday night against the Canucks and is out of the lineup indefinitely. The Oilers won 5-2.
Here are the latest urbanism headlines from Spacing Edmonton.
There is of course a lot of election-related news, but I have a separate update for that!

Bay/Enterprise Square LRT Station, by Michael Chu

Here are some upcoming events:

Tomorrow is Nomination Day! Candidates will be posted on the Edmonton Elections site sometime in the afternoon (and I understand, will also be available in the open data catalogue).
Alberta Culture Days take place throughout the province from the 27th through the 29th. The kickoff takes place on 104 Street on Friday night.
Come on down to the 124 Street Market on Thursday to see me and other media personalities compete in a cookie-eating contest!
The Bloom YEG event taking place at the Art Gallery of Alberta on Friday night sounds pretty cool.
Love LEGO? Then don’t miss the Edmonton 50 Years From Now competition taking place at the Art Gallery of Alberta.
Sunday is the 2013 edition of Free Admission Day at City of Edmonton attractions!
Also taking place this weekend is the Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo!
There’s another Mercer Collective Makers Market on Saturday.
The Eskimos host Toronto on Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium.
The Edmonton International Film Festival kicks off on Thursday and runs through October 5. In case you missed it, the 24/One Challenge kicked off yesterday at the City Market!
For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Guy Kawasaki with an Oilers jersey at E-Town

To help kick-off EIFF, I have a prize package to give away! To have a shot at winning two all-access passes and a gift basket, a prize valued at more than $260, simply leave a comment below with your favorite movie by 11:59 PM on Tuesday. I will randomly choose a winner and contact you on Wednesday. Good luck!

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