Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith presented two very different approaches on Tuesday morning to address the challenges facing the capital city’s downtown core.
No one will deny that there are big social problems facing Edmonton’s downtown. You can take a walk down almost any street downtown and see people facing mental health or addictions challenges. It’s sad and troubling.
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One reply on “Amarjeet Sohi and Danielle Smith present very different solutions for downtown Edmonton’s problems”
First, I want to say I like that our municipal elected representatives are not party representatives or standard bearers. This can be a good thing as it makes it a bit easier to be less partisan and work with whomever is the provincial government.
Second, I don’t think any one has a monopoly on the truth here. There are merits to each approach and I feel they should be used together. We need to deal with the social issues that are underlying a lot of these problems. We also need to take enforcement and public safety concerns more seriously.
Finally, I say these things as someone who spends a great deal of time in downtown Edmonton. I realize partisanship is hard to eliminate, particularly provincially where there is a very close two party election race. I also realize Edmonton is not a battle ground and its problems may not get as much provincial attention and consideration as they deserve. However, the problems in downtown Edmonton are similar to those in other major Canadian cities, so I expect the solutions are somewhat similar to what has been done or planned elsewhere.