We did not host a #yegvote Hangout last night, but we’ll be back next week with a special Nomination Day episode, so stay tuned!

Here’s my latest election news roundup:

• Monday is nomination day, but until then be sure to check out Dave’s list of declared candidates. It’ll be interesting to see how many more people show up to City Hall on Monday. Ward 6 is up to 14 candidates now that former candidate Carla Frost has thrown her hat into the ring. Ward 10 candidate Zack Siezmagraff has withdrawn from the race due to his health.
• Wednesday was the final Council meeting for the current City Council, and it was filled with emotional goodbyes and tributes to Mayor Mandel. Earlier that day, Mayor Mandel had released a letter to citizens. I wrote about Mandel’s impact on Edmonton back in May.
• Some interesting news from Ward 5 yesterday! Dan St. Pierre has decided to withdraw from the race and will instead be supporting rival Michael Oshry. “While [Dan] feels that he is a strong contender, he believes there are others who are not and that his continued presence in this campaign may allow those individuals to benefit from a vote splitting situation.”
• Karen Leibovici has released her campaign donors list and is encouraging her rivals to do the same. Thus far she has raised an impressive $365,000.
• Kerry Diotte continues his attention-grabbing approach, first announcing a tax freeze and then releasing an awkward video on the arena deal:

• Here’s one humorous response to the video. Here’s what the Sun wrote. Here’s a response from David Staples.
• Diotte’s approach notwithstanding, we’re starting to see some policy announcements. Don Iveson yesterday announced goals around how we fund Edmonton today and in the future. “Property taxes are inherently unfair and regressive,” he wrote.
• Don Iveson also tackled restrictive covenants this week, with support from EFCL.
• The three top mayoral candidates took part in another forum last night hosted by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association. CBC has a recap here.
• Here’s a look at how the top three mayoral candidates differ on money issues.
• Hey Edmonton, use your braaaiiinnns! The Vote Zombie Wall! campaign is picking up steam. Watch for “Citizen Zombie” to file his nomination papers on Monday.
• In case you missed it, here’s my recap of the OCL/DECL Ward 6 Candidate Forum that took place on Tuesday night.
• David Staples is planning to meet with councillors from the most hotly contested wards, and has begun his investigation with Ward 10. He’s also been writing about the public relations battle.
• The Gateway published an article this week alleging that Karen Leibovici had ties to Daryl Katz. They were forced to retract it.
• Councillor Sohi has released a slick video as part of his re-election campaign:

• Here are some new responses to The Local Good’s questionnaire: Alla Ternikova in Ward 5, Bev Esslinger in Ward 2, Hafis Devji in Ward 10, Richard Feehan in Ward 10, and Michael Walters in Ward 10.
• Shocker: ActivatED has endorsed Don Iveson for mayor. They also endorsed Andrew Knack in Ward 1 and released statements on Ward 4 and Ward 11.
• Ryan Hastman has a couple of new profiles: Scott McKeen in Ward 6, and Bev Esslinger in Ward 2.
• Stratyos has been conducting a questionnaire for candidates with seven questions. He’s got ten responses so far.
• Ward 3 candidate David Dodge wants to start a winter festival in Edmonton.

Great fall photo of Edmonton by Paul.

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.

I was unavailable for tonight’s #yegvote Hangout but Dave and Ryan kept the show going along with special guest Steven Dollansky. The guys talked about regional cooperation, Edmonton’s debt levels, expanding the LRT, and other big issues of the election so far. On debt, Steven said the next mayor “isn’t going to have as much room on the credit card” and will have to make some tough decisions. On the LRT, he said the next mayor is going to have to go the province and “be more creative” to bring ideas beyond grants to the table.

You can watch the archive here or at EdmontonPolitics.com:

Here’s my latest election news roundup:

• Now that Dave is back he has updated the list of declared candidates. There are currently 6 mayoral candidates and 53 candidates for Council. Ben Henderson, Bryan Anderson, and Amarjeet Sohi all remain uncontested.
• There’s an app for everything these days, and Edmonton Elections is not going to be left out. You can download an app for your iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry, plus there’s a mobile website. Maybe one day you’ll be able to vote from the app too.
• Edmonton Elections still needs approximately 700 more workers to help run voting stations on election day. Wards 11 and 12 are in the most need of workers.
• Kerry Diotte found himself with a Twitter backlash after sharing a new slogan, “Diotte or Detroit”.
• On the topic of municipal debt, I shared some data and thoughts yesterday. Global News also allowed a few candidates to weigh in and tonight they spoke to the three big mayoral candidates and even surprised them with a pop quiz.
• This post from Adam Rozenhart was really well-received today: My democracy isn’t better than yours. “For me to presume that I see the world the way everyone else does is hubris,” he writes. Mark your ballot your way!
• I have no doubt you’ll enjoy these election memes from Chad Huculak.
• Karen Leibovici says Edmonton’s LRT development is at a crossroads. She also wrote about Make Something Edmonton, and says that Edmontonians will benefit from FCM’s push for infrastructure funding.
• Don Iveson also wrote about Make Something Edmonton and he answered some questions that he received via social media.
• If you haven’t already checked out the Edmonton Election Tumblr, you must. It’s hilarious. Here’s the Ward 6 post: There Will Be Blood.
• Here are some new candidate profiles from Ryan Hastman: Shelley Tupper in Ward 2, Andrew Knack in Ward 1, Dan St. Pierre in Ward 5, and Derrick Forsythe in Ward 6.
• More candidates have responded to The Local Good’s questionnaire: Javed Sommers in Ward 6, Mike Nickel in Ward 11, Sam Hachem in Ward 4, Jamie Post in Ward 1, Hakin Isse in Ward 3, and Dave Colburn in Ward 7.
• ActivatED is back and has endorsed Ted Grand in Ward 2.
• Ward 5 candidate Michael Oshry wrote about community policing yesterday.
• David Staples says we should be taking note of the political movements taking place down in Calgary.
• Lorne Gunter says the mayoral candidates need to get down to specifics. I suspect the policy game is going to ramp up starting next week.
• Must be hard to work with magazine deadlines – Avenue Edmonton has a feature on mayoral candidates and it includes Curtis Penner, who withdrew from the race a couple weeks ago.
• Edmonton’s NextGen has two candi{date} events coming up on October 16 for wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and October 17 for wards 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Mayoral candidates are slated to be at both events.

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.

On tonight’s #yegvote Hangout we had special guest Kathleen Smith join us! You’ll probably know her better as KikkiPlanet, her sassy online persona. We talked all about signs, the race in Ward 5, candidates’ use of social media, and Kathleen’s own political ambitions. It was a fun hour – thanks for joining us Kathleen! Check out the video at YouTube or embedded here:

Here’s my latest election news roundup:

• I’ve started curating election-related news using Flipboard. Check out the #yegvote 2013 magazine and let me know if you have any feedback!
• I’m also aggregating election-related events over at ShareEdmonton. If you have an event to add, let me know or use the form.
• There are a lot of little tidbits in this article from the Journal: First week in September marks unofficial start to Edmonton election season.
• Did you catch Karen Leibovici’s Telephone Town Hall tonight? I listened in for a bit. There were concerns about roads, lack of public consultation, public transit safety, and much more. It was interesting that they used the opportunity to capture quick polling information from callers. If you missed it, there’ll be another in early October.
• The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce has surveyed their membership to identify their key issues: Infrastructure, Debt/Fiscal/Taxes, and Regional Cooperation.
• It feels like the big thing to happen this week was signs. We’re seeing a lot more of them popping up around the city. And we’re also hearing more and more about sign theft.
• Jamie Post has announced he is running in Ward 1. Here’s the Journal article about it.
• Ward 11 candidate Max Merrett has dropped out of the race due to personal health issues. Hope you’re ok Max!
• Ward 5 candidate Dan St. Pierre posted an interesting piece today on transparency and expenses. “If I am elected to City Council, and if the current Council has not yet addressed the issue of expense disclosures, I will reach out to and work with my fellow City Councillors to put into place bylaw and policy that makes it mandatory for the Mayor and Councillors to publicly disclose their expenses.” Hey Dan, please make sure that mandatory disclosure happens via the Open Data Catalogue!
• CBC is looking for your feedback. What would you ask the mayoral candidates?
• There’s a couple new responses to The Local Good’s questionnaire: Tish Prouse in Ward 7, Jim Gibbon in Ward 5, and Candas Jane Dorsey in Ward 6.
• Here are some new profiles from Ryan Hastman: Nita Jalkanen in Ward 2, Kyle Brown in Ward 6, and St. Albert City Council candidate Gilles Prefontaine.
• Mustafa Ali launched his campaign in Ward 2 recently. He’s focusing on crime.
• It seems the Edmonton Sun will print just about anything. Here’s a piece by Lorne Gunter: Edmonton does not need another ‘big spending visionary’. I couldn’t help myself and wrote a quick response last night.
• Keep an eye on this student-related website: Your City. Your Vote. Should be launching later this month.
• Here’s another blog post on a topic we’re going to hear much more about during this election – urban sprawl. “Who wants to make Edmonton not only one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, but also one of the SMARTEST growing cities in Canada?”
• Nomination day is just over two weeks away. Check out the latest list of declared candidates here.

Photo by Paul

You can follow Edmonton Election news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegvote and you can see my coverage here.

What have I missed? Let me know!

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

Today’s guest on the EdmontonPolitics.com #yegvote Hangout was Councillor Don Iveson. As you know he’s running for mayor this time, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to grill him on a number of subjects. Here’s the archived video:

We look forward to chatting with the other mayoral candidates in upcoming episodes!

Here’s my latest election news roundup:

• Mayoral candidate Curtis Penner dropped out of the race yesterday. “I have decided that I can better pursue my passion and serve the Edmonton community by focusing my efforts solely on the fight to retain our rights to our parkland,” he said.
• Check out Dave’s list of declared candidates, last updated today. Councillor Ed Gibbons now has a challenger in Ward 4 as Sam Hachem has declared his intention to run. Still no challengers for councillors Henderson, Anderson, and Sohi.
• The first major mayoral forum took place on Tuesday night! Hosted by the Urban Development Institute and the local chapter of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, the forum had some particularly memorable moments. Kerry Diotte declared: “I don’t believe there is any real form of urban sprawl here.” Karen Leibovici took a similar stance: “I don’t believe we’re an example of urban sprawl. We’re an example of responsible urban growth.” Both candidates were roasted on Twitter for the statements, and in the blogosphere too. CBC has a Storify of all the action here.
• One of the things Karen Leibovici announced during the forum was her Red Tape Elimination Commission, intended to “clean up unnecessary and costly barriers” for developers. She also talked about a Mayor’s Development Forum.
• Though it’s extremely unlikely he’ll lose his seat, Amarjeet Sohi is going to be campaigning just the same. He launched @VoteSohi on Twitter this week.
• Don Iveson wrote a surprisingly hopeful entry about LRT expansion, urging transit advocates “not to lose heart”.
• Here is Paula’s take on the LRT decision Council made this week (to continue lobbying the feds and province for money). I don’t think there will be a lack of discussion about the LRT during this election, but Paula’s right – the problem isn’t with our municipal representatives. We need to find a way to get the other orders of government on board and contributing their share.
• Kerry Diotte wrote about fixing Edmonton’s drainage systems this week. “City Hall has to better address core services such as drainage and the terrible condition of our streets,” he wrote.
• See, ActivatED aren’t the only ones making endorsements! Kathleen Smith, better known as KikkiPlanet, announced on Sunday that she’ll be supporting Karen Leibovici for mayor. “I truly believe she is the only candidate that can both build AND safeguard our future,” Kathleen wrote.
• ActivatED has announced they are not endorsing Bryan Anderson in Ward 9 because he does not meet the group’s definition of progressive. They did endorse Dan St. Pierre in Ward 5, however. 
• Could the new Council reverse course on some contentious issues? Sure, but it’s highly unlikely in my opinion. Our next mayor is almost certainly going to be one of the three current councillors who are running, which will make it difficult for a rookie councillor to steer the group in another direction.
• Do you think it’s easy to make priorities? Ryan Hastman tackles that question in a recent post. He’s also got new profiles: Heather MacKenzie in Ward 6 and Ted Grand in Ward 2.
• Here’s a new post from Ward 10 candidate Michael Walters on Fairness for Edmonton.
• There are new candidate responses to The Local Good’s questionnaire! Here they are: Ted Grand in Ward 2, Ed Gibbons in Ward 4, Dan St. Pierre in Ward 5, Dan Johnstone in Ward 10, Bryan Anderson in Ward 9, Dexx Williams in Ward 6, and Andrew Knack in Ward 1.
• Check out the Edmonton Wayfinding Project’s challenge for mayoral candidates.
• I’m not really sure why she chose a Facebook event to do so, but Linda Sloan has decommissioned her public Facebook account.
• Like many others, I was unhappy with the decision Council made this week on the old Molson Brewery site. Jamie captured it well. “Don’t be afraid, current and future Councillors, to say ‘no’ once and awhile, and show them that the risk they perceive, might just be a great development that a community wholeheartedly wants.”

You can follow Edmonton Election news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegvote and you can see my coverage here.

What have I missed? Let me know!

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

Here’s my latest election news roundup:

• Pretty shocking news last Friday when Councillor Linda Sloan changed her mind and decided not to seek re-election in Ward 1. She has been on Council since 2007. Her departure leaves Andrew Knack as the frontrunner. Barely an hour after the news broke, Sharon Maclise switched her candidacy from Ward 6 to Ward 1. Let’s hope no other candidates try to top that opportunistic and self-serving move. Here is Paul Simons’ column on Linda Sloan.
• Dave’s list of declared candidates was updated yesterday. Still no challengers in Wards 4, 8, 9, or 12. Arif Khan has dropped out of the race in Ward 5, while Nathan Ip is a new candidate in Ward H for Public School Board Trustee.
• This is really great news for vulnerable Edmontonians: the City is adding a polling station to the Boyle Street Community Centre, allowing staff to vouch for individuals who don’t have ID but who still want to vote.
• While Mayor Mandel’s busy schedule hasn’t changed much (he’s still very much the mayor, active around town at dozens of events) he has become a little more openly critical of City Administration. On Wednesday, he called the transportation department a “dictator”.
• Here’s a profile of Ward 11 candidate Harvey Panesar. Asked about what Edmonton should look like in a decade, he said Calgary: “we have to have that vibrancy that Calgary has.”
• ActivatED has decided against endorsing a candidate in Ward 10. They have endorsed Heather MacKenzie in Ward 6, and Max Merrett in Ward 11.
• Here are some additional candidate profiles from Ryan Hastman: Mike Nickel in Ward 11, Hafis Devji in Ward 10, David Dodge in Ward 3, and Mimi Williams in Ward 7.
• The Local Good has received more questionnaire responses! Read answers from Jason Millar in Ward 2, David Dodge in Ward 3, Rob Hennigar in Ward 5, Michael Oshry in Ward 5, and Derrick Forsythe in Ward 6.
• Terence Harding says “civic politics in Edmonton aren’t transparent” and encourages you to tweet questions to candidates.
• Will everyone on Council continue working until October 21? It’s business as usual, they say.
• Thinking about hosting an election forum in your ward? EFCL wants to help.
• Ward 6 candidate Scott McKeen doesn’t have a campaign office, he has a campaign gallery.
• Ward 5 candidate Dan St. Pierre has posted about why he’s running for Council.
• Ward 7 candidate Dave Colburn is running a survey on campaign finances.
• From Ward 10 candidate Zack Siezmagraff: I Don’t Have All The Answers (and neither does anyone else).
• Head over to City Hall on Tuesday for a spin class with Councillors Don Iveson and Amarjeet Sohi!
• Kerry Diotte is hosting a tweetup tonight at O’Byrne’s Pub on Whute Avenue.
• Don Iveson was recently at the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Shapers conference, sharing Edmonton’s story. He’s also got a public event tonight with an open house at Duchess.
• Karen Leibovici says Edmonton is a national leader in reducing light pollution.
• Both Karen and Don have written about the Rossdale Power Plant recently.
• I’m currently building an “election command centre” in my home office, but I’m not the only one redecorating before October 21!

How does a #yegvote geek decorate her home? Well, maybe like this. New addition to the photo wall. pic.twitter.com/lDiS5P62GW

— Julie Rohr (@JulieRohrYEG) August 20, 2013

 

You can follow Edmonton Election news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegvote and you can see my coverage here.

What have I missed? Let me know!

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