daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

With four candidates, including two incumbents, running in the October 15 election, the 2007 Ward 1 race is a little quieter than the 2004 race.

In 2004, a vacant seat left by Mayoral candidate Stephen Mandel was hotly contested between former Liberal MLA Linda Sloan (MLA for Edmonton-Riverview from 1997 to 2001) and Karen Lynch (who is now rumoured to be running for the Tory nomination in Edmonton-Calder). Sloan ended up besting Lynch by just over 1,000 votes.

Sloan joined fellow former Liberal MLA Karen Leibovici in representing Ward 1. Leibovici was first elected in a landslide in 2001 after being defeated in the 2001 provincial election. Leibovici served as the MLA for Edmonton-Meadowlark from 1993 to 2001.

In my opinion, both Sloan and Leibovici have done a decent job in representing Ward 1 and have solid records on Council.

My one issue with Councillor Leibovici was her bizarre attempt in Fall 2006 to derail the Universal Bus Pass (U-Pass) project. Leibovici joined right-wing Ward 5 Councillor Mike Nickel in attempting to remove the U-Pass project funds from the City of Edmonton Budget.

She justified her support of the Nickel motion because she was already paying for her son’s tuition, his car, and his parking. I’m sure if all of the +60,000 students who are benefiting from the U-Pass lived in Ward 1, Mr. Leibovici would have some explaining to do.

The Nickel/Leibovici motion was defeated in a solid 11-2 vote.

Challengers Andrew Knack and Betty Kennedy have uphill battles against them if they are to unseat these two well-known and politically savvy incumbents. Knack has some interesting ideas and I encourage you to check them out.

2007 Candidates
Betty Kennedy
Andrew Knack
Karen Leibovici*
Linda Sloan*

Facebook Count
Elect Betty Kennedy for Ward 1 City Council – 84 members
Andrew Knack for Edmonton City Council Ward 1 – 202 members
Re-Elect Karen Leibovici for Ward 1 – 84 members

2004 Election Results
Karen Leibovici – 23,793
Linda Sloan – 12,353
Karen Lynch – 10,909
Charlene Davis – 6,888
Terry Demers – 3,306
Joe Hudson – 3,046
Samir Ghossein – 1,534
Rory Koopmans – 1,332
Trent Soholt – 1,149

You can listen to Ward 1 candidate comments from public forums here.

I have another post up on the CBC Edmonton Votes 2007 blog this morning.

Also on the CBC site, you can listen to audio clips of your council candidates from local forums.

In what is the first profile of various races across the city in the 2007 Edmonton Municipal Election, here are my thoughts on the race for Mayor:

Thoughts…

The 2007 race for the Mayor’s Chair is clearly much different race than the race we saw in 2004.

Three years ago, three-term Mayor Bill Smith was shooting for a fourth-term against second-time challenger and former Councillor Robert Noce, and little known first-term Ward 1 Councillor Stephen Mandel. In what is one of the biggest ‘come-from-behind’ wins in recent municipal election memory, Mandel moved from a distant third in the polls to achieve a sweeping +20,000 victory against Smith and Noce.

Since 2004, it appears to me that Mandel has done a fairly decent job as Mayor, though it’s sometimes difficult to tell whether he is actually being a good Mayor or if the breath of fresh air after nine years of the institutional mediocrity under Bill Smith is helping Mandel out. Whatever the case, Mandel has succeeded in scaring away any serious contenders from challenging his Worship.

Even though there is a thick list of nine candidates in the running for Mayor, none of them pose a large threat to Mandel, which is disappointing if you’re concerned with democratic debate and accountability.

The only semi-serious candidate running against Mandel seems to be hotel operator, self-professed genius, and Ed Stelmach-apologist Don Koziak. Koziak could have been a decent candidate, but his previous three losing Council campaigns coupled with his hasty last minute entrance into the election seriously undermine his credibility against Mandel. Also, Koziak’s complete lack of a platform coupled with his bizarre statement about global warming have to make you wonder what it takes to get into Mensa these days…

Of course, if you are looking for some purely bizarre entertainment, the Mayoral race is where to look – where wingnuts such as Dave Dowling and Bill Whatcott will most likely try to steer the debate away from any real issues.

Mandel has hinted that he would only serve two terms as Mayor, so if this is truth, expect a dogfight in 2010 when challengers could potentially include Councillors Kim Krushell, Mike Nickel, and Karen Leibovici.

The lack of credible candidates in this race has succeeded in halting the serious Mayoral-level debate that is supposed to happen every three years – and serious debates are needed on issues such as infrastructure and urban planning, affordable housing and poverty, and the regional tensions in the Capital City Region. It also leaves Mandel not having to defend or answer for any of his initiatives as Mayor – whether they were successful or not.

With the Mayor’s race being an unfortunate forgone conclusion, let’s hope that voters turn their attention to who they are sending to City Council and their Public and Catholic School Boards.

2007 Mayoral Candidates
Dustin Becker
Dave Dowling
Khaled Kheireddine
Don Koziak
Peter Lefaivre
Robert Ligertwood
George Lam
Stephen Mandel*
Bill Whatcott

2004 Mayoral Election Results
Stephen Mandel – 85,887
Bill Smith – 68,767
Robert Noce – 52,640
Tilo Paravalos – 921
Dieter Peske – 905
Dave Dowling – 858
Thomas “Buffalo Terminator” Tomilson – 768
Jean-Paul Noujaim – 390