Tag: Calgary Mayoral Election 2025

Top 10 Daveberta columns of 2025

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 29, 2025

Alberta’s Legislature Building through the view of a broken glass panel in summer 2025 (credit: Dave Cournoyer)

It has been a big year in Alberta politics and a big year for Daveberta. Canada had a federal election, there was no shortage of news and (frequently troubling) political maneuvering in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton elected new mayors, and I marked 20 years since launching my original blog and starting to write about Alberta politics online.

I’m taking it easy this week to enjoy the Christmas break with my family and friends but I did take a few moments to look at some of the top columns I published this year and wanted to share that list with you today.

Using Substack’s metrics, which combine traffic, likes and subscriptions generated, here are the top 10 columns I published in 2025.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Andrew Knack is the next Mayor of Edmonton

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 22, 2025

Andrew Knack speaks to reporters after winning Edmonton’s 2025 mayoral election (source: Andrew Knack / Instagram)

Knack bests former frontrunner Tim Cartmell in race to replace Amarjeet Sohi

Results from Edmonton’s low-key municipal election were very slow to trickle in but by mid-afternoon today we learned that Andrew Knack will be the next Mayor of Edmonton.

The three-term councillor has represented west Edmonton since he was first elected in 2013 and jumped into the mayoral race after initially planning to leave municipal politics and not seek re-election to council.

Knack bucked what felt like a strong wave of anti-incumbent sentiment going into the campaign and defeated south side councillor and Better Edmonton Party leader Tim Cartmell by a margin of around 8 points with an abysmal 30 per cent turnout of voters at the polls (at the time I am writing this only 217 of 236 polls are reporting in the mayoral election). Knack ran as an independent candidate.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta NDP, Andrew Knack, Ashley Salvador, Better Edmonton Party, Bill Tonita, Calgary Mayoral Election 2025, Calgary Municipal Election 2025, Caroline Matthews, Cindy Jeffries, Communities First Party, Danielle Smith, Darrell Friesen, Don Iveson, Don Scott, Drew Barnes, Edmonton Mayoral Election 2025, Edmonton Municipal Election 2025, Gabrielle Blatz, Jackie Clayton, Jeff Watson, Jennifer Rice, Jeromy Farkas, Jon Morgan, Julianna Charchun, Jyoti Gondek, Karen Principe, Kent Hehr, Linsee Clark, Michael Elliott, Michael Janz, Michael Walters, Mike Allen, Mountain View County, Omar Mohammad, Peggy Johnson, Rahim Jaffer, Reed Clark, Rob Smith, Sandy Bowman, Sonya Sharp, Strathcona County, Terri Beaupre, Thu Parmar, Tim Cartmell, Tyler Gandam, United Conservative Party, Victor Doerksen, Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi, Ward sipiwiyiniwak

Alberta Politics

Andrew Knack, Jeromy Farkas in the lead in mayoral election polls

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 16, 2025

Edmonton mayoral candidate Andrew Knack (source: Andrew Knack / Facebook)

It’s the gift every election candidate in Alberta dreams of in the final stretch of the campaign: a Janet Brown poll showing you’re in the lead.

That’s what big city mayoral candidates Andrew Knack and Jeromy Farkas got on October 10. Two polls commissioned by CBC and conducted by well-respected pollster Janet Brown showed Knack in the lead in Edmonton’s mayoral race and Farkas leading in the race to become Calgary’s next mayor.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Tags Alberta Politics Substack, Andrew Knack, Better Edmonton Party, Brian Thiessen, Calgary Mayoral Election 2025, Canada Election Substack, Daveberta Substack, Edmonton Mayoral Election 2025, Edmonton Municipal Election 2025, Janet Brown, Jeff Davison, Jeromy Farkas, Jyoti Gondek, Michael Walters, Omar Mohammad, Rahim Jaffer, Sonya Sharp, Tim Cartmell, Tony Caterina

Alberta Politics

UCP and NDP Presidents Rob Smith and Bill Tonita running in municipal elections

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 15, 2025

Bill Tonita (centre) with fellow NDP candidates Chantal Saramaga-McKenzie (left) and Karen Shaw (right) during the 2023 provincial election. (source: Bill Tonita / Facebook)

The introduction of municipal political parties in Calgary and Edmonton has generated a lot of confusion and consternation in this election but lost in the noise of the big city debate is that the presidents of Alberta’s two main provincial political parties are on ballots in county elections outside urban centres.

United Conservative Party President Rob Smith is running as a candidate in Mountain View County council’s Division 6 and Alberta NDP President Bill Tonita is running for re-election in Strathcona County’s Ward 4.

Also, big city mayoral candidates Andrew Knack and Jeromy Farkas got the gift every election candidate in Alberta dreams of in the final stretch of the campaign: a Janet Brown poll showing you’re in the lead.