Dedicated citizens across Alberta will gather this morning in town halls and community centres to submit their nomination forms to become official candidates in this year’s municipal elections.
In the capital city, the excitement is taking place at Edmonton’s downtown City Hall. With three-term Mayor Stephen Mandel not seeking re-election, three Councillors and a handful of other Edmontonians have stepped forward to fill the spot. While Don Iveson, Kerry Diotte and Karen Leibovici are the front-runners in the race, there is always the possibility of a dark-horse candidate stepping out of the shadows and jumping into the mayoral contest today.
UPDATE: The Edmonton Journal is reporting on the results of a Leger survey which shows Don Iveson with 47% of decided voters, Kerry Diotte with 28%, and Karen Leibovici with the support of 25% of decided voters. When taking undecided voters into account, the support is 20% for Councillor Iveson, 12% for Councillor Diotte, and 11% for Councillor Leibovici. While this is only one poll, and I look at all polls with skepticism, I am very surprised at how low Councillor Leibovici’s support is, considering her 20 year career as a politician in Edmonton.
Since early this year, I have maintained a list of declared nomination candidates for Council and the Public and Catholic school boards. I will have the list updated later today when the official list is released by Edmonton Elections.
There will be a few familiar faces missing from the ballot on the October 21 voting day. Six Councillors are not seeking re-election in their Wards. While this is a large turnover, it is not uncommon in recent elections. The last time Council faced such a significant turnover was in 2001, when six Councillors did not seek re-election.
Until this weekend it appeared as if Councillors Ben Henderson in Ward 8 and Amarjeet Sohi in Ward 12 would be acclaimed, but last-minute candidates have announced their intentions to challenges these incumbents. In Ward 9, Councillor Bryan Anderson remains unchallenged. If he remains unchallenged today, it will be the first time in recent memory that a City Councillor in Edmonton has been acclaimed.
#yegvote Google Hangout
Tune in to a special Nomination Day #yegvote Google Hangout tonight at 8:00 p.m. at EdmontonPolitics.com. Mack Male, Ryan Hastman and I will run down the list of candidates and give our analysis of the first official day of the election campaign.
Municipal elections in Alberta are being held on October 21, 2013.
One reply on “Nomination Day: Edmonton civic election official starts today”
It’s clear to me that Don Iveson is the only candidate who can stop loony Kerry Diotte from becoming mayor. I was wavering toward Karen Leibovici but after reading his smart fiscal platform and hearing him speak about the future of Edmonton I am sold on Don Iveson.
Don Iveson’s got my vote for mayor.