If only our politicians would spend as much energy investing in our creative economy as it does promoting the oil sands, our province might have different kind of international reputation.
Year: 2010
The petitions have been delivered and it appears likely that there will be a plebiscite deciding the future of the City Centre Airport lands on October 18. After a two-month long petition drive, the Envision Edmonton lobby group claim that they have collected the signatures needed to support a vote on the issue.
If the signatures are successfully validated by officials from the City Clerk’s Office, City Council will likely begin the process of creating a question that Edmontonians can vote on in the October 18 election.
As a citizen who has been involved in this debate for the past two years, I am looking forward to sharing why I support the redevelopment of the City Centre Airport lands and why I believe our City will benefit from this redevelopment.
If a plebiscite is held, it will be a heated debate with passionate Edmontonians on both sides presenting their arguments for and against the closure. Envision Edmonton has talked about turning the Airport into a hub for aviation training and industrial development. Unfortunately, their proposal has largely been overshadowed by a public feud between Envision spokesman Charles Allard and Mayor Stephen Mandel. I disagree with Mr. Allard’s position, but I recognize and respect that the Edmontonians participating in this debate want what they believe is best for our City.
A few months ago, I outlined some of the challenges and positive opportunities facing our downtown and urban core. Over the next two months I will expand on these ideas and the opportunities presented by redeveloping the City Centre Airport lands. We have a unique chance to do something that most similar mid-sized North American cities would envy. The benefits of new smart communities filled with residential and commercial development could reshape our City’s urban core for the positive. The chance to break away from the traditional urban sprawl and reshape the urban core makes me excited to call Edmonton home.
I was glad to read that former City Councillors Michael Phair and Patricia Mackenzie have also shared their optimism for the redevelopment. As the October 18 election approaches, I hope that Edmontonians will look beyond the short-term spin and participate in an honest and positive debate about how we want our City to grow in the coming decades.
Categories
alberta politics notes 8/26/2010
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– Finance Minister Ted Morton is not ruling out the idea of a Provincial Sales Tax for Alberta. Premier Ed Stelmach says it will not happen as long as he is in office. The Government of Alberta remains in a $4.7 billion deficit.
– Over 500 people packed a hall in Vegreville to voice their opposition to the construction of new electrical transmission lines. Although he is the MLA for this area and was invited to the meeting, Premier Stelmach declined to attend.
– Michael Walters is the new Executive Director of the Alberta Party. Mr. Walters previously served and excelled in his role as Lead Organizer for the Greater Edmonton Alliance from 2004 to 2010.
– Former City Councillors Michael Phair and Patricia Mackenzie have written an excellent opinion-editorial in the Edmonton Journal explaining why they believe redeveloping the City Centre Airport lands will benefit Edmonton.
– Reboot 3.0 is scheduled for November 5 and 6 in Edmonton.
– Jeffrey Coffman is seeking election to Lethbridge City Council. Mr. Coffman previously served as an Alderman from 1995 to 1998 and later as Chief of Staff to MLA Ken Nicol. Bridget Mearns, daughter of Lethbridge-East Liberal MLA Bridget Pastoor, has announced her campaign for Lethbridge City Council. Also in the running is long-time conservative activist and college professor Faron Ellis.
– What motivated Wildrose leader Danielle Smith to jump to the defence of a failing private health clinic?
– Quebec Conservative MP Maxime Bernier has recaped his summer visit to Edmonton and his encounters with Wildrose leader Ms. Smith and Edmonton-Strathcona Conservative candidate Ryan Hastman. Mr. Bernier’s former colleague Ken Epp is now the vice-president of the Strathcona Wildrose Alliance association. Mr. Epp represented the Elk Island and Edmonton-Sherwood Park constituencies from 1993 to 2006.
– Michael Butler has been acclaimed as the federal Liberal candidate in Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont. Mr. Butler has ran twice for the NDP in 2008, federally in Mill Woods-Beaumont and provincially in Edmonton-Rutherford. The riding has been represented by Conservative MP Mike Lake since 2006 after the retirement of long-time Liberal MP David Kilgour.
Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.
“Don’t you come into my living room and piss on my rug.”
President Lyndon Johnson to Prime Minister Lester Pearson
I am not sure if Premier Ed Stelmach will feel the same way as President Johnson, but criticism from the leaders of the three main opposition parties might elicit a similar reaction after tomorrow night’s open forum in Vegreville. The growing backlash from rural landowners over the provincial government-supported expansion of electrical transmission lines is an explosive issue that that rural Tories have slowly become more acutely aware of in recent years. The opposition party leaders certainly want some face-time with these groups that have grown independently of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly. It will be very interesting to see what kind of crowd is drawn in this area that voted overwhelmingly for the Premier in the last election.
Political watchers may note the contact name for this event. Shayne Saskiw is the former VP Policy & Resolutions who joined the Wildrose Alliance in January 2010. When contacted via email, Mr. Saskiw told this blogger that “while I am involved with the WAP, this is not a WAP-sponsored event as we have members from all 4 political parties attending and I am merely a member of one of the subcommittees (legal).”
As of last night, the organizers have not received a confirmation of attendance from the Premier or any government designate.
I was pleased to read that Edmonton Public School Trustee Sue Huff is interested in joining the Board of the Alberta Party. Ms. Huff has been a strong voice on the School Board and the Alberta Party will be lucky to have her on their board. At first glance it may seem like something small, but the title of a short news story about Ms. Huff’s blog post reminded me of a larger issue facing our elected trustees:
Having stood in a competitive election and unseated an incumbent, Ms. Huff’s “turn to politics” is obviously something completely foreign (see: sarcasm). While I do not think the next thought applies to the aforementioned Trustee, the title of hints towards one of the largest challenges facing elected institutions in Alberta. Not only do many elected trustees appear to see their roles as administrators or officials rather than politicians, but that much of the media also sees it this way.
The October school board elections present a critical opportunity for elected school boards to prove that they are more than just glorified administrators. Trustees have a responsibility to provide leadership on the board and the connections between the educational institutions and their communities, something that they have not excelled at in the recent past. Trustees need to become relevant to their communities beyond those traditionally interested in education issues (ie: parents, teachers, and students).
Until then I have a difficult time believing that most Albertans would notice much of a difference if elected Trustees were replaced by provincially-appointed boards or civil servants from the Department of Educations.
Yesterday in Edmonton, NDP leader Brian Mason joined retired health care aid Loretta Raiter as she described how funding cuts to long-term care have affected the quality of living for seniors at Salem Manor in Leduc. According to Mrs. Raiter, the funding crunch was so bad that People were sometimes given powdered meal replacements instead of real food and some patients ended up sitting for hours in soiled diapers. It is shameful and embarrassing when short-sighted financial decisions are put ahead of human dignity and quality of care.
An hour earlier in Calgary, Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith stood with the operators of a bankrupt private health clinic and accused Alberta Health Services of reneging on a deal with the facility. Ms. Smith then called on Health & Wellness Minister Gene Zwozdesky to intervene by using taxpayers dollars to prop up the private clinic which is stuck in a $65 million financial hole. In May 2010, Alberta Health Services stepped in to stop the bankruptcy proceedings and pay for the costs of a receiver to keep the centre operating in the interim. Alberta Health Services has many faults, but in this case they made the responsible decision by seeking to bring the staff and services of the private health clinic back into the public system.
I was glad to see Liberal MLA Kevin Taft jump into the fray and insert some common sense into this issue:
“I’m struck with how Danielle Smith jumps to the defence of a corporation instead of a defence of the taxpayer and patients who need quality care.”
The Wildrose Alliance has drawn a line in the sand on this serious policy issue by standing in favor of increased private health care. In a recent letter to the Calgary Herald, Wildrose nomination candidate John Carpay decried the public system and called for increased private-for-profit health care where Albertans wallets are responsible for determining their quality of service (interestingly, in a more recent letter he criticized the PCs support of “corporate welfare”).
Mr. Carpay finds himself squarely on the opposite side of public opinion according to a recent Ipsos-Reid poll which showed that less that 10% of Albertans would support more opportunities to pay for health services out of their own pockets. I understand that Mr. Carpay does not speak for his party, but as a candidate (and potentially a future MLA or cabinet minister) he will help shape his party’s position on health care.
The Wildrose Alliance has shown Albertans that they are not only prepared to stand with private health care operators, but that they are also prepared to use taxpayer dollars to bail them out when faulty business plans go awry.
Related post: David Climenhaga dissects this move by the Wildrose Alliance.
The Wildrose Alliance has attracted its first candidate who I would describe as at least having “medium-profile” presence among Alberta’s political wonk class. Current Constitution Foundation lawyer and former Canadian Taxpayers Federation Director John Carpay announced in today’s Calgary Hearld that he intends to challenge Calgary-Lougheed Progressive Conservative MLA Dave Rodney as a Wildrose candidate in the next election. Mr. Carpay’s Calgary Herald mini-essay decried the PCs for a long grocery list of conservative pet issues.
This is not Mr. Carpay’s first attempt at elected office. As a Reform Party candidate in 1993 he unsuccessfully challenged New Democrat Member of Parliament Svend Robinson in the Burnaby-Kingsway riding. Along with the predictable Taxpayer Federation issues that end up on the public record, in 1994, Mr. Carpay penned an opinion-editorial in the National Post which criticized Premier Ralph Klein for not invoking the Notwithstanding Clause to block the Supreme Court decision which forced Alberta to include protection of homosexuals from discrimination.
In the capital city, the Liberal Party is targeting Edmonton-Mill Woods PC MLA Carl Benito in a weekend pamphlet drop. Mr. Benito’s actions (or lack thereof) have quite possibly made him the lowest-hanging fruit in the PC caucus and the Liberals hope to capitalize on that. Former MLA Weslyn Mather intends to seek the Liberal nomination in that riding and many Liberals are hoping that this call to action could spark a fire that will help the Liberals win back a few of the eight Edmonton-area constituencies they lost in the 2008 election. While the Liberals are facing a lot of serious internal challenges of their own, there is little evidence to suggest that Edmonton will be less electorally competitive as it traditionally has been.
Word on the street is that long-time Calgary federal Liberal organizer Pat Raymaker will be appointed campaign co-chair as her party prepares for the next election. I am told that the Liberals are having a more challenging time finding an Edmonton co-chair and that David Swann‘s Calgary-heavy brain-trust is having a difficult time tapping into the traditional base of loyal Edmonton lawyers and business people which their party have depended on for such roles in the past.
With Kevin Taft‘s retirement, the Liberals could be entering the next election with only two incumbent MLAs in Edmonton (assuming that Laurie Blakeman and Hugh MacDonald seek re-election). The presence of three to five former Liberal MLAs seeking a comeback could buoy their chances in the city, but the absence of an Edmonton-area leader for the first time since the 1970s could have an effect on that party’s support in the capital city.
Even if Mr. Benito’s promise contributes to the defeat of Edmonton PC MLAs in the next election, the political environment is too fluid to assume that the Liberals will be the main benefactor as they were in the 2004 election.
Categories
edmonton brews & alberta views.
With a number of former MLAs having declared their intentions to seek their party candidacies in the next election (David Eggen, Rick Miller, Weslyn Mather, and Mo Elsalhy), I thought it would be interesting to take a look at other former MLAs who launched successful and not so successful comeback attempts. By my count, thirteen former MLAs have attempted a comeback since the 1997 General Election, meaning that most former MLAs stay former. Of this group only six have successfully returned to the Assembly.
| Candidate | Party | Constituency | Vote | Result | Previous Office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 General Election | |||||
| Albert Ludwig | Liberal | Calgary-Foothills | 29.7% | Defeated | Social Credit MLA Calgary-North East (1959-1963), Calgary-East (1963-1971), Calgary-Mountain View (1971-1975) |
| Alex McEachern | NDP | Edmonton-Calder | 27.3% | Defeated | NDP MLA Edmonton-Kingsway (1986-1993) |
| Pam Barrett | NDP | Edmonton-Highlands | 50.6% | Elected | NDP MLA Edmonton-Highlands (1986-1993) |
| Don MacDonald | Social Credit | Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills | 28.1% | Defeated | Liberal MLA Three Hills (1992-1993) |
| 1998 By-Election | |||||
| Nancy MacBeth | Liberal | Edmonton-McClung | 53.6% | Elected | PC MLA Edmonton-Glenora (1986-1993) |
| 2000 By-Election | |||||
| Terry Kirkland | Liberal | Edmonton-Highlands | 18.3% | Defeated | Liberal MLA Leduc (1993-1997) |
| 2001 General Election | |||||
| Andrew Beniuk | PC | Edmonton-Glengarry | 44.9% | Defeated | Liberal/PC MLA Edmonton-Norwood (1993-1997) |
| Len Bracko | Liberal | St. Albert | 41.2% | Defeated | Liberal MLA St. Albert (1993-1997) |
| 2004 General Election | |||||
| Ray Martin | NDP | Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview | 50.8% | Elected | NDP MLA Edmonton-Norwood (1982-1993) |
| Walter Szwender | PC | Edmonton-Decore | 30.4% | Defeated | PC MLA Edmonton-Belmont (1982-1986) |
| 2008 General Election | |||||
| Broyce Jacobs | PC | Cardston-Taber-Warner | 46.2% | Elected | PC MLA Cardston-Taber-Warner (2001-2004) |
| Tony Vandermeer | PC | Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview | 39.6% | Elected | PC MLA Edmonton-Manning (2001-2004) |
| Andrew Beniuk | PC | Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood | 31.9% | Defeated | Liberal/PC MLA Edmonton-Norwood (1993-1997) |
| 2009 By-Election | |||||
| Paul Hinman | Wildrose | Calgary-Glenmore | 36.8% | Elected | Wildrose MLA Carston-Taber-Warner (2004-2008) |
Categories
alberta politics notes 8/14/2010
– A sad so-long to the authors of the Edmonton Journal’s Capital Notebook blog. Legislature Press Gallery reporters Archie McLean and Trish Audette are moving on to bigger and better things. They will be missed. Good luck!
– After three-terms in the Legislative Assembly, former Liberal leader Kevin Taft has announced that he will not seek re-election in Edmonton-Riverview when the next election is held.
– The Pembina Institute says Imperial Oil is being allowed to break rules about tailings for its new Kearl oilsands plant.
– Landowner groups gathered in Red Deer on August 10 for the first ever conference on landowner rights. The United Power Transmission Area Groups hosted the conference which was attended by more than a dozen groups from across Alberta. The main topic of the conference were the legislative frameworks that have reduced or eliminated landowners’ rights in regards to transmission lines.
– The new Alberta Party will be holding its annual general meeting in October in Red Deer.
– The lobbyists behind the Envision Edmonton group are offering cash for signatures for a petition to stop the phased closure of the City Centre Airport. Chris Labossiere broke this news on his blog yesterday.
– Alberta Health Servcies CEO Dr. Stephen Duckett has published a bizarre post on his blog this week taking the Edmonton Journal to task for something they published over a year ago.
– Federal voting intentions in Alberta from the latest Angus-Reid poll: Conservative (61%), Liberal (13%), NDP (13%), Green (13%). Dan Arnold has a good overview of August poll results.
– Michael Cormican has been nominated as the federal Liberal candidate in Lethbridge.
– Naheed Nenshi has released a new video outlining his plan if elected as the next Mayor of Calgary. Mr. Nenshi has also provided some solid responses to Barb Higgins and Alderman Ric McIver‘s “policy framework” and “visions.”
Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.
As the Government of Alberta paid advertisement in the image just to the left suggests, sometimes we forget that Fort McMurray is more than just oilsands and industry. The Executive Director of the Fort McMurray Family Crisis Centre is going through a three-week hunger strike to raise awareness about the need for a new women’s shelter in her community.
Mary-Ellen Proctor is starting a 21-day fast — the number of days that women can stay at the shelter before they are reassessed, she said. The FCS has an emergency shelter but lacks resources in the community to allow the women to stay longer than three weeks. Last year, they had to turn away 400 women because there wasn’t enough enough, Proctor said.
Currently, they are housing three women, who have been staying for seven months. “It’s similar to like being in jail. It’s a terrible place to be,” Proctor said.
The new shelter project is set to cost $50 million, out of which $15 million needs to be fundraised. The rest will come through government grants. The society is in the infant stages of getting funding from government. Read more…
To donate to the Fort McMurray Family Crisis Centre, call 780-750-2530.
The Alberta Legislature will lose one of its brightest MLAs when the next election is held. Three-term Edmonton-Riverview MLA Kevin Taft has announced that he will not seek re-election.
In an election that saw the most high-profile Liberal MLAs go down in defeat, first-time candidate Dr. Taft defeated a Tory star candidate and increased his party’s margin from the previous election. He was the only rookie MLA to be elected in the 2001 election.
As Official Opposition leader and health critic, Dr. Taft has easily been one of the most focused and effective opposition MLAs in the Assembly.
I first met Dr. Taft in 2000 and he played a big role in why I was involved in the Liberal Party for eight years. During my time as Communications Coordinator with the Liberals I worked closely with Dr. Taft and got to better understand his passion for our province’s future. On March 3, 2008, I spent election day in the Riverview campaign office helping get out the vote for Dr. Taft. Both at the doors and on the phone I was constantly surprised at the level of support and respect that he received from his constituents.
With (maybe) two years until the next election, I suspect that the Tories will be counting the days until they no longer have such a focused and relentless health critic in the Official Opposition benches.
What is next for Riverview?
The departure of Dr. Taft in the next election could open up Riverview into a competitive campaign in 2011/2012. Under normal circumstances I would predict that Riverview will remain the strong Liberal-held constituency that it has been since it was created in 1997, but the political environment is shifting and polls are showing that these are not normal political circumstances.
The Liberals will need to nominate a good candidate and run another strong campaign in Riverview in order to fend off a predictably well-financed Progressive Conservative challenge or an insurgent New Democrat candidate. Welcome to battleground Riverview?
Categories
alberta politics notes 8/06/2010
– A promise is a promise, except if it’s a Carl Benito promise. SEE Magazine and the Edmonton Journal are taking Edmonton-Mill Woods PC MLA Carl Benito to task over not fulfilling his election promise to donate his entire MLA salary to a scholarship fund. According to Mr. Benito, when he promised to donate his entire salary, he did not really mean his entire salary. Mr. Benito is having a pretty tough time arguing against his own statements from election night in 2008:
On Monday night, Benito repeated his promise to donate his MLA salary (about $75,000) to a scholarship program. The idea was created to sway young people into more positive areas and away from youth-related crime, he said.
“We’ve put that in writing and we’re 100-per-cent committed to it. I strongly believe in giving back to the community. The young people in Mill Woods are the future of our community.”
Since he was first elected in 2008, Mr. Benito has championed the noble causes of establishing Alberta’s Official Mushroom and trying to bring the Miss Universe Pageant to Alberta. He also described his constituents as “simple people” during a Legislative Committee meeting.
– The Government of Alberta has launched another advertising campaign promoting the oilsands as Greenpeace ninjas grab international attention by hanging a banner off the Calgary Tower.
– Two former Liberal MLAs have announced their intentions to stand in the next provincial election. Rick Miller will stand in Edmonton-Rutherford and Weslyn Mather will seek to reclaim her former riding of Edmonton-Mill Woods against the previously mentioned PC MLA Carl Benito.
– Party Vice-President Debbie Cavaliere has been chosen as the interim President of the Liberal Party, filling the vacancy left by Tony Sansotta. Ms. Cavaliere is a former Trustee with the Edmonton Catholic School District and was the Liberal candidate in Edmonton-Meadowlark during the 2008 election. Ms. Cavaliere joined the Liberals after being defeated by Dr. Raj Sherman in that constituency’s PC candidate nomination.
– The Wildrose Alliance has officially opened up candidate nominations in thirteen constituencies across Alberta.
– Two time candidate Michael Cormican is seeking the Federal Liberal nomination in Lethbridge. Mr. Cormican placed third with 9.3% of the vote in the 2008 election. The Conservatives have nominated Jim Hillyer and NDP Mark Sandilands.
– Edmonton City Councillor Ben Henderson will launch his re-election campaign in Ward 8 on August 9 at the Forest Heights-Terrace Community Hall at 5:30pm. Councillor Henderson was first elected in 2007 and is married to Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman.
– Don Koziak, son of former PC cabinet minister Julian Koziak, kicked off his campaign for Mayor of Edmonton by laying out a bizarre anti-LRT platform. Mr. Koziak ran unsuccessfully against Mayor Stephen Mandel in 2007 and has made three unsuccessful bids for City Council (1995, 1998, and 2004). He was briefly nominated as the PC candidate in Edmonton-Calder in 2001 before resigning for personal reasons.
Read more in the Alberta Politics Notes archive.
In front of almost 200 supporters at a BBQ fundraiser, former MLA Rick Miller announced that he will seek the Liberal nomination in Edmonton-Rutherford in the next provincial election.
The next election will be Mr. Miller’s fourth time standing as a candidate in that constituency. He was narrowly defeated in the race to replace retiring Liberal MLA Percy Wickman by former Reform Party Member of Parliament Ian McClelland in 2001, but trumped Mr. McClelland in 2004 with a 3,048 vote margin.
As MLA he served as Official Opposition Finance critic from 2004 until 2008 and was widely seen to have earned the respect of his caucus colleagues and government members for his respectful questions and intelligent debate. In 2008, Mr. Miller was defeated by PC candidate Fred Horne in a tight race that was decided by a slim-margin of 58 votes.
Mr. Miller is currently the Chief of Staff for the Official Opposition.
Rutherford is a constituency where the Liberals could benefit greatly from a vote-split caused by a stronger Wildrose Alliance in the next election. The cynicism generated by Mr. Horne’s traveling “Alberta Health Act” road show could also take some shine off this government backbencher who was once touted as a future cabinet minister. A Facebook event for an upcoming local New Democratic Party event lists Melanie Samaroden as a prospective candidate for that party in this constituency.
Last Friday afternoon Councillor Don Iveson and I sat down in the radio booth at CBC Edmonton to discuss social media, citizen engagement, and politics with Radio Active guest host Rod Kurtz. During the interview, we discussed the role that social media has played in municipal politics and could play in the October 2010 elections.
Listen to the CBC radio interview
There is little doubt that Councillor Iveson is the most social media savvy politician in Edmonton. Since his election in 2007, he has done a pretty good job at using social media as both an engagement and accountability tool by using his blog to provide the kind of long-form discussion and explanations about the positions and decisions he has made as a Councillor. His list of posts on the proposed downtown arena and the phased closure of the City Centre Airport are two examples of transparency that his Councillor colleagues should strive towards.
Social media tools are great to engage and connect with people and will play a larger role in the October elections, but candidates standing in the October municipal elections should be aware of some of the downsides. Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe shared some common sense advice during an online strategy session with Organizing for America:
“there is no substitute, even in the digital age, to talking to a human being.”
Twitter does not replace door-knocking.
Candidates standing for election this fall should remember this advice. However many “Likes” your Facebook Page has or “followers” you have on Twitter, it does not replace door-knocking and pressing the flesh. Social media is an important additional tool to complement traditional campaigning, but it does not replace actually connecting citizens in-person.
Do not get trapped in the “echo chamber.”
It is my experience that while I have met a lot of passionate and engaged citizens though social media like Twitter, there is also the danger of being caught in what is most easily described as an “echo chamber.” For example, following the hashtag #ecca might easily lead someone to believe that the phased closure of the City Centre Airport is the only issue that Edmontonians will base their votes on in the next election. In reality, when you hit the doors you will be quickly reminded that the vast majority of Edmontonians are not single-issue voters and that they will base their vote on a wide-variety of issues. Twitter attracts many different types of people, including people who are focused (or obsessed) on broadcasting their single-issue campaigns across the internet.
Like relationship building, it takes time.
I have become aware of a number of “consultants” that, like the snake oil salesmen of the old West, are peddling their knowledge of social media for large sums of money. If you are a candidate standing for office in the October elections, my social media advice to you is to avoid the high-cost seminars and learn it yourself (or find someone you know who uses it). Social media is best learned by individuals first hand and, like relationship building, it takes time and effort.
Ask for help.
If you are a candidate trying your hand at Twitter and would like some help or need to ask a question, do not hire a consultant, post a tweet and ask people who already use Twitter how it works. You will more than likely discover a online crowd of people who are eager to engage with you (include the hashtag #yegvote or #yegcc in your tweet to get the attention of people who are already following the 2010 municipal election in Edmonton). Also make sure to check out the list of Council and School Board candidates on Twitter care of @YEGpolitics.
For more coverage of how citizens and candidates are using social media to engage and spark debates, visit EdmontonPolitics.com. Myself and the good citizen contributors of that website are going to be kicking things into high gear over the next few months to provide some on the ground coverage of the October municipal elections.
(cross-posted at EdmontonPolitics.com)