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Breezy For Mayor
122 Plays3 years ago
Edmonton Public school board trustee Bridget Stirling and Speaking Municipally co-host Troy Pavlek join us to talk about the city council and school board elections in Edmonton coming later this year. With massive turnover coming to both institutions what are the races to keep an eye on and what kind of campaigns are we likely to see? And yes, two-thirds of the panel is on team Breezy Brian Gregg for mayor.
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Transcript
Introduction to Edmonton Municipal Politics
00:00:13
Speaker
Friends and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host Duncan Kinney. We're recording today here in Amiskwichi, Wisconsin, otherwise known as Edmonton, Alberta, here in Treaty 6 territory.
00:00:22
Speaker
Joining us today, we have a couple of incredible guests to talk about a level of government that is both incredibly important and incredibly mundane. Yes, we're talking about the level of government responsible for garbage pickup, gondolas, and graveyards. It's municipal politics time, as well as our mighty school boards as well. To join us to talk about this subject, we have a couple of incredible guests. First up is outgoing Edmonton Public School Board Trustee for Ward G, Bridget Sterling. Bridget, welcome to the pod. Thanks. Good to be here.
00:00:51
Speaker
Is this your like third or fourth time? I can't remember. I should go look this up before. This might be my three key friend of the show at the very least. And our other guest today is Troy Pavlik, co-host of the speaking municipally podcast, a former extra incredibly successful municipal candidate, as well as frequent social media shit poster. Troy, welcome to the pod. Happy to be liked exactly one third as much as Bridget.
00:01:20
Speaker
Well, I mean, whatever. And just for the folks who are listening, this is going to be a podcast focused on Edmonton municipal politics and school board politics.
Voter Turnout and Engagement
00:01:34
Speaker
And so unless you're some kind of like sicko, you could probably skip this one. And just randomly interested in very niche takes on Edmonton municipal politics and school board politics. But
00:01:47
Speaker
With that out of the way. I wonder why local elections have 30 percent turnout. We try the school board numbers sometimes. Yeah, what is school board turnout at? Like twenty five. Yeah, I'm trying to remember from the school board elections, but I know when I run my won my by-election, I won it with one hundred five hundred and twenty one votes. That was a by-election. Wow, someone. That wasn't the margin. That was my gross vote.
00:02:17
Speaker
someone has a lower vote total than me bridget you have a lower vote total than me i got 537 567 yeah but i won my election but yeah well okay fine there's like that's how this is gonna be all right uh eight eight yeah eight candidates you ran against eight candidates wow all right well uh
00:02:40
Speaker
They all count. Every single vote counts.
Mayoral Candidates Overview
00:02:45
Speaker
First up, as far as what we're going to be talking about when it comes to the Edmonton municipal election is the position that gets the most attention, that has the biggest platform, but at the end of the day, it is just one seat and that is the mayor's chair.
00:03:00
Speaker
Troy, you're the person who pays attention to these sort of things. Can you run us down, the folks who have declared, officially declared and filled out their papers, their interest for the Edmonton's Mayor's Chair? Well, so roughly it approximates basically no one and the business people, but that's Mike Nichol, who is a professional buffoon, Cheryl Watson, who was not successful enough to run Edmonton's innovation entity, Kim Crushell, who
00:03:30
Speaker
is for Edmonton. That's all we're able to assess. Michael Oshry who hated the job of counselor so much that he quit and now he's back for mayor now that that obviously is not the chair and breezy Brian Greg who just sounds like a fun guy. That's literally his name. Also assumed to be running is either Amerjeet Sohi or Andrew Knack. Amerjeet Sohi
00:03:53
Speaker
essentially going to be crowned mayor if he decides to run. And if he doesn't decide to run, then Andrew Knack will probably jump in the race. And those are the slightly biased mayoral candidates. I got to say Breezy, Brian Gray gets my vote at this point. He actually is a fun guy. Breezy is cool. You may have seen him around town. He is a busker. And I know Bridget knows him too.
00:04:15
Speaker
Yeah, so far I'm on Team Breezy. You know, it's really got a hurt to be the candidates who have put together these like large campaigns. There's clearly money and organization behind it. And then you listen to the Progress Alberta podcast and say, you know Breezy, he's got this. Screw everyone else. No, Team Breezy for the way, especially over this field. He will be, the council meetings will be the best thing ever with Breezy from here.
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's the subject line for this podcast, by the way. It's just breezy for mayor. No, yeah. I mean, you're entirely correct, right? This is an incredibly uninspiring group of Chamber of Commerce approved candidates. It's funny to see Kim Creschel back. I'm already seeing Cheryl Watson Facebook post ads or Facebook ads. She has money and they're spending money on Facebook ads.
00:05:13
Speaker
There are Mike nickel billboards up, but I don't know this, this mayoral campaign is like, it's fricking February at the moment. We're recording this, you know, the day before the budget drops on Wednesday. And like, it still feels very early to be talking about a mayor's race, but these people have filled out their paperwork. They are officially
Papasteo Ward Progressive Surge
00:05:28
Speaker
official. Um, um, Bridget, what are your thoughts on, on so he slash knack as the kind of like, they haven't officially filed yet, but if they run, what, what do you think of their chances are?
00:05:41
Speaker
You know, I honestly think that either one of them, so he's almost a shoo-in if he declares. But I think Nick has a good shot too. He's probably, you know, he can run still pretty centrist and still come across as the most progressive candidate. I mean, he likes bike lanes, Mike Nichol hates him. Those are some selling points right there.
00:06:07
Speaker
I think the thing with Andrew Knack and Bridget alluded to this is he doesn't you can't really pin down his politics on left to right because frustratingly he is so easily swayed by presentations. He's the guy in the room that will always go in there and decide based on the information in front of him, regardless of his ideology. And, you know, there have been times that that has hurt in the past and there's times where that caused votes to fail that I wished would have passed.
00:06:37
Speaker
But I think exactly that is something that gives him a selling point of, it's really hard to attack Andrew Knack for being a rotten ideologue like you can for someone like Mike Nichol, just because he's not. No, and he never has been. I remember him and his, you know, I think people who remember know that I lost to the school board election in 2013 out in the West End and
00:07:04
Speaker
Andrew Nack and I overlapped in the same area and he just, he's very personable, he's very likable and people just read him as kind of a nice guy to represent you and not somebody who's particularly ideologically aligned. He's probably, if so he doesn't run, he'll be the most interesting guy in the pool for most people.
00:07:28
Speaker
I think it's also really telling, and we'll get into the wards a bit later, but no one has declared for Nakota Isga, which is Andrew Nack's roughly equivalent of his current ward one, because Andrew Nack hasn't decided whether he's going to run. And we all know if he runs again as counselor, he wins. It's a coronation, but I assume we have tons of people waiting in the wings just trying to see what Andrew Nack decides. And if he decides to go for mayor, there'll be a slew of candidates over in the west end of the city.
00:07:58
Speaker
I hate to contradict you, but there is one person who is registered for Dakota East. I'm looking at. Oh, did someone register? Steve Weston. No, no more details beyond the name. But there we go. I mean, I think he invented the hotel.
00:08:11
Speaker
I hope so. No, it's Weston with an O N. Uh, I mean, I think, I think that's enough time. I think that's as enough time as the mayor race deserves again, very early days, you know, so he slash knack, whatever they decide. Um, at that point you can start like a campaign starts once there's like, but at this point it's like four or five candidates with very little between them and breezy who again, uh, team breezy. Uh, I am voting for Brian Greg if, um, at this point, definitely.
00:08:40
Speaker
Um, but I think the more interesting part of this municipal election is the, the massive amount of turnover that we're going to have. Uh, by my count, we are going to have six, maybe more open seats. And on a council of 12, that's just like huge. And so, I mean, I know everyone here has been keeping track of this. Why don't we just kind of, why don't you lead off Bridget? What is a, what is an open seat that you're keeping an eye on?
Métis Ward Boundary Changes
00:09:10
Speaker
Well, I mean, of course, as somebody who lives in the university area, and I am keenly interested in what's happened again, Pappasdale. You know, my, they are current counselor in this part of town, Ben Henderson is stepping down, longtime counselor. And because this is Rachel Notley's seat provincially and Linda Duncan's seat federally,
00:09:37
Speaker
It's perceived generally to be sort of the most progressive voter pool in the city. And so what I'm seeing right now, generally in my neighborhood is a huge rush of prospective sort of center left candidates jumping into the race. So it's probably going to be one of the most heated races in town just for people clawing to be, you know, the most progressive voice in the race.
00:10:07
Speaker
which I think should make for a really, really interesting campaign. Yeah, I think we're definitely gonna see double digit candidate count in Papasteo. And yeah, with Ben Henderson stepping down, definitely one to keep an eye on. I don't live in that part of town anymore, but you're entirely right that it is viewed as this like NDP lefty socialist heartland. And lots of actors are definitely eyeing it up. What are we gonna say there, Troy?
00:10:34
Speaker
Well, Papasteo has actually gotten worse for being the lefty heaven, because in the former Ward 8, you had the university area and Capilano, you know, old people town. But now you've taken from Ward 11, areas like Hazel Dean and Richie, and you have the Queen Alex area from Ward 10. And all of those are now in Papasteo. So it has essentially
00:11:00
Speaker
concentrated all the south of the river progressive districts into one ward. Now whether this is effectively gerrymandering I suppose is up for debate but the result of it is candidates that had declared. I mean you had people like me who ran in ward 11 because my home is there but I was on the progressive side
00:11:21
Speaker
I would never run in Ward 11 because now I'm in Papasteo. And I think there's a lot of people who are going to be in the same boat as me where they wanted to run in what was Ward 8, but they weren't in that ward and now they are. Yeah. And I think people who redraw boundaries always like to talk about is we're just keeping communities of interest together, but it always looks really interesting when you see those sort of groupings up going on. Um, yeah. And we've seen, although I would
00:11:49
Speaker
It would debate a little bit that the those sort of South Central Southeast communities that have now been moved out of the ward are necessarily not progressive. We've got to think about the fact that provincially that's Marlon Schmidt territory. And I think the last federal election he got the largest raw vote other than Rachel Notley.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that's perfectly fair comments. It's easy to broad stroke Capilano. I think it's fair to say that Capilano is probably further to the right on the spectrum than like Strathcona, but the whole ward is an area of degrees. Absolutely. For sure. And I think that's why, I mean, not to jump us onto another ward super quickly, but I think that's why the other place you're seeing a ton of sort of
00:12:40
Speaker
center left to left candidates jumping into the pool as in Métis, right, which includes both Highlands and some of those communities south of the river. And so you've got a whole bunch of sort of progressive spectrum candidates jumping in and outward as well for similar reasons.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah, let's talk about Métis. So this is Tony Katarina's former riding. He is now running in a different riding, which we'll get to in a minute. Uh, it's like, yeah, largely East of Strathcona, East of downtown is the general kind of boundary.
00:13:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's a new one. It's an interesting one in that it crosses the river and we already have seven declared candidates who have filled out their paperwork. It is going to be, again, I think much like Papasteo, a one where we're going to see very likely a double digit candidate count by the time we actually get to a ballot in September or October of 2021. Troy, what is interesting you about the Métis writing?
00:13:44
Speaker
Métis is definitely the most interesting writing, I think, of this entire race for me. I think the things that Métis has going for it is, one, the deluge of candidates, which can be a double-edged sword. We remember the Ward 12 by-election in, what was it, 2016, when Mobenga first got elected, where there was 32 candidates and it was a
00:14:04
Speaker
complete clown show. But with May T, this is both a non-incumbent open ward, but also a brand new ward. A lot of these other wards, they roughly replicate what existed before. May T is a complete like decimation of three wards sort of shoved together. And like you said, it was Katarina's former ward where he lost by or where he won, but only by a sliver and only because of an aggressive vote split on the left.
00:14:34
Speaker
So you have this area that's brand new, new communities coming together, all of which have strongly indicated their desire for change in previous elections and haven't quite got it. So I think like this is going to be the most interesting word to watch in this election. Sure. I think, and they see like a bunch of sort of notable, some of them past city council contenders who performed reasonably well, uh, some new faces in the race and then
00:15:02
Speaker
Most of them, again, those sort of, you know, center to left sort of folks, except for one very notable candidate who's being backed by Kerry Diot. And it's rumored that that may be part of the reason, the other reason that Tony Catarina may have decided to move his campaign downtown is to clear the way for another conservative candidate in that area.
00:15:30
Speaker
you know, looking at that word, there's a very strong chance that you could see a similar split as to last time. Yeah, like we haven't, which is a little concern, but, but I think it's worth running down. There's so many in Métis that it's just like, like James Kotzawan is a guy who ran last time and eight, uh, came in third Liz, John West, I think ran last time and in Katarina's word, right. And came in fourth or something.
00:15:55
Speaker
Um, you know, uh, again, because this is new geography, it's, I don't, I don't think there's a huge advantage for those former candidates. Uh, you know, you have Corey Longo who's, uh, you know, formerly, you know, a nurse and a postal worker used to work for the Canadian labor Congress.
00:16:11
Speaker
Ashley Salvador, who's someone who I think has done a lot of being at council and has done a lot of development stuff. I think she has a garden suite business. Those are just the names that I recognize and there's still a few other ones that I just don't know who they are. Who's the conservative candidate? Is that Caroline Matthews? Yeah. There's been photos of her door knocking with notable conservative figures.
00:16:37
Speaker
She appears to be sort of the conservative candidate in that ward. You know, looking at other names. I think the other name on the list I'd recognize is Steven Townsend, who is a past liberal candidate.
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah. It's already very, very crowded. It's February. People are, but I mean, the funny thing is that you can't really do much campaigning, right? You can fill out your paperwork. You can raise money from, you know, friends, family, people who, who believe in you. But I mean, what exactly are our candidates in Métis doing right now?
00:17:13
Speaker
Well, I mean, some are definitely campaigning and if you follow, for example, Corey Longo, she is out there constantly on the doors. Probably, I would say at this point,
00:17:25
Speaker
too much. I think it's too early to be constantly knocking and fliering all of the words. And that sort of leads to a problem that we're seeing across the city in this election, which is because the nomination period has been made an entire year long rather than a month long. As we've seen in previous elections, we're going to see both candidate fatigue and elector fatigue. I know I'm already sick of this election and it is February. This is not a good sign and
00:17:54
Speaker
I can imagine at prime door knocking time when candidates really want to get out their message, get out their vote, people at doors might be starting to say, stop talking about the election. I'm sick of it. And that's dangerous. Well, and the other thing for me right now is I don't want you to knock on my door right now. Yeah. I don't want you coming to my house. Like we're still in this pandemic situation. We may be for quite some time yet and to see how that affects any
00:18:23
Speaker
One of the big factors in municipal elections is door knocking generally. And with that factor so affected by the pandemic, it's really going to shift the dynamics of this campaign. But yeah, I'm with you. I'm already tired of this election.
00:18:43
Speaker
Well, tough. There's another six, seven, eight, nine months. Another open seat I definitely want to talk about self-interestingly is the one that I reside in, which is Odaemon.
Odaemon Ward Political Landscape
00:18:54
Speaker
This is downtown essentially.
00:18:57
Speaker
And it is Scott McKean's former writing. He's stepping down. We have a couple, this is the one that Tony Catarina is for some reason switching to. I still don't really understand the calculus there, but he's definitely the biggest name. Are we allowed to say things that might get Progress Alberta sued?
00:19:14
Speaker
No, please don't get us sued, but I mean we can edit it if it's that terrible. If I was to speculate and I was to repeat things that were alleged, I would say that allegedly Tony Katarina has a lot of business interests downtown that he is moving to the words explicitly to protect, allegedly. Do without what you may.
00:19:36
Speaker
Well, that sounds like something that the progress report should look into. Uh, and if, and if you have any tips, uh, my email, I tell it at the end of the show, it's Duncan K at progress Alberta.ca. I mean, I think we're going to see a lot more candidates in Odaemon that we have currently registered. Again, I think this is one that's likely to push double digits. Um, you know, Adrian Breff has started early, uh, but he's, he's, you know, he's starting from a very pretty low profile.
00:20:02
Speaker
And then the other two names I don't recognize, but I know that other people are seriously considering this writing and that it is again, likely going to be a very crowded one again, as an open seat. Yeah. Uh, Gina McBarry, I think is a former federal liberal candidate. Um, that's, that's, I don't know much about him other than that. Um, I find it surprising that Katarina is running there. I mean, I think of downtown and.
00:20:29
Speaker
Maybe this is a Scott McKean David Shepard factor, but I think of it as like nerdy guy with a bow tie territory. I also really don't understand Tony Katerina's political calculus here because he is not a well-liked counselor. He eked out a win in Ward 7.
00:20:51
Speaker
But he has been taking from the Mike Nichols School of Thought that like downtown is getting too much. You know, I don't know that if I'm a resident of downtown, which I'm not, but if I was, I wouldn't be voting for Katarina. Even if I didn't like the bike lanes, like I don't see Tony Katarina as my bastion candidate there, probably whatever other conservative business minded candidate that pops up is getting my vote. Well, most of.
00:21:20
Speaker
It's very annoying to me. It's very annoying to me as a, as a voter in this ward, that Tony Katerina is running because it just means that like, I might, um, just have to vote for like a least worst option that's most likely to be Katerina, which is the, like my least favorite kind of voting. Um, you know, I would rather see like an anti-capitalist who is willing to do new and interesting things when it comes to defunding the police and housing the unhoused and blah, blah, blah. But I mean, with Tony Katerina, I am very much not interested in having
00:21:49
Speaker
So, and no, none of those candidates who share my politics are running downtown yet either. So if you are that candidate, uh, please call me. I would love to help you. I would love to get better people elected to the part of the part of town that represents me. What were you going to say, Bridget? Oh, it was an offhand remark about people who are downtown or the people who are mad about the bike lanes. Anyways, it's everyone who yells about how now they won't go downtown where they never went anyways. Cause now they can't park.
00:22:17
Speaker
Fair enough. Another open seat that I think is worth keeping an eye on is South Central Edmonton, Michael Walters' former riding, Ipikoke Napi'etzi, I think is how you say it.
Candidates in Ipikoke Napi'etzi
00:22:33
Speaker
This one has, I would say, probably the most accomplished or experienced field as far as an open seat goes. We've got
00:22:42
Speaker
Um, Scott Johnston, long time, Chad, uh, radio guy who covered city hall for like 20 some years. Um, Dan Johnson, is that the can guy? Yeah, he's still running in elections. God bless him. Yeah. Didn't he get bounced out of an Alberta party nomination a while ago? So when I say God bless him, I mean, not, not really. I don't, I find him pretty annoying actually, but, but bless your heart. Bless your heart.
00:23:11
Speaker
But I think you're right. I think he did get bounced from an Alberta party nomination for God knows what. I don't know. Do you remember? Yeah. So the deal with Dan and his Alberta party nomination is he sort of alleged that the party was rigged against him when actually they seem to just decline to want him as a candidate. And there was a lot of drama and a lot of internal stuff. We never really know exactly what happened. We just got a he said, she said. But the skinny of it is he was not actually a candidate for the Alberta party.
00:23:41
Speaker
Well, and speaking of speaking of Alberta party drama, you've got Rhiannon Hoyle, who was the former party president for the Alberta Party, who was apparently part of the Mandel sort of takeover process. So, you know, which went swimmingly. Yeah, a real sharp political operator there. I don't know, Rhiannon, I've never met her. But yeah, that's that's not a that's not a resume that you definitely that you lead with.
00:24:12
Speaker
My heart is with Glynis. I'm a little biased. We sit on the executive for the same academic association, and she's the executive director at ISMIS at the U of A, and she's brilliant. So Glynis Leib is my fave there. Yeah, she's an acquaintance of mine, and if I lived there, I would vote for her as well.
00:24:35
Speaker
I think the most important, not important, but one thing I'll say about Ipikake, Ipikake Nipyotsi is you have Scott Johnson who's running and he's a really bad candidate. So he's getting a lot of coverage because he has a lot of friends in media because he worked in media for 30 years and was a victim of cuts. But if you worked
00:25:01
Speaker
in media covering City Hall for 30 years and you were not putting together things on your beach to significantly influence policy and really putting together features, that says something about you. If you're running in an election and you had enough media sway that you were really an exceptional journalist,
00:25:25
Speaker
it probably translates into a good campaign. Scott Johnson, we're going to see him be center right, probably more to the right. And most, if not everything he talks about is how he remembers when City Hall wasn't in the City Hall and how things were 30 years ago. And oh boy, wouldn't it be great if things were like that again. Just something to watch that covering something for 30 years does not mean you can do it.
00:25:54
Speaker
Oh, boy, can he not do it. We don't want to go back to late 80s, early 90s, Edmonton. You know, I think for specifically Scott Johnson's demographic, it actually is a benefit to go back to that. I'm just going to say everyone I went to high school with left. I don't know Scott Johnson from a hole in ground. He seemed like a competent be reporter for a long time, but he was never, you know, he was he was just a guy who was at City Hall and now he thinks he can run.
00:26:22
Speaker
I mean, I think as a journalist or God, I mean, a recovering journalist, whatever you want to call it, journalists do not necessarily make very good politicians. And I don't think Scott has actually spent any time in his life, like knocking on doors or being a part of a political machine. He's been busy working as a journalist.
00:26:39
Speaker
And journalists think that by covering power, they think they understand how it works, and quite often they do not. And the realities of campaigning smack you square in the face pretty fast. But I think that's enough about this particular ward. Again, another open ward, another interesting one, and with a good candidate, at least one that Brigid and I like. We have one more open seat as far as I'm aware of, and that's Southeast Edmonton, Mike Nichols, former ward.
Garejo Ward Dynamics
00:27:09
Speaker
Uh, Garahayo, we've got three candidates right now, two that I'm aware of. Uh, one is, uh, Karen Tang, who I believe finished second to Mike Nickel, uh, back in the last election and Shamare Turner. Uh, Bridget, what do you, what, what are your thoughts on, uh, Garahayo? Yeah, I actually don't know a ton about Shamare Turner. Um, unfortunately it's just, I'm looking forward to, to knowing about knowing more.
00:27:37
Speaker
Um, I do know Karen Tang fairly well from the last campaign around, um, she's kind of a, you know, kind of a centrist, uh, does a lot of community work. Uh, we had, I remember having a very strong disagreement about charter schools, but, um, yeah, I, I don't know a ton about Shemera Turner. I think you probably know more about her than I do, Duncan.
00:28:04
Speaker
Yeah, which is actually quite small as well. That's definitely, I mean, I think it's interesting again, open seat. I think we're definitely going to see more candidates, uh, you know, guaranteeing ran a strong campaign in that ultimately lost to Mike Nicole. I know people on our campaign team, but I'm, I'm like not super in love with her as a politician, a little, uh, two centrist for my taste, to be honest. And then I just don't know this other candidate. Uh, but it is, I think geographically it's an interesting part of town like this, uh, Garejo,
00:28:31
Speaker
is, is, um, probably population wise, one of the larger ones. And, uh, is, is just like, I dunno, I think it's an interesting part of town. I think we're going to see a lot more candidates. Um, you know, we saw how many candidates in the Mo Bango one, right? Like 25, 32, whatever it ended up being. I think we're going to see a lot more here. Do you have any Garaheo thoughts before we move on, Troy?
00:28:53
Speaker
Yeah, so I ran against Karen Tang in Ward 11 and I didn't drop out. So I think that will tell you something about what I think about her politics. Shamir has a really strong campaign behind her. I know a lot of the people running her campaign and
00:29:12
Speaker
you don't know much about her i think by design she's keeping a very sort of like low profile she's not releasing a ton of policy and i think that's probably just my design you know it's too early for to make a ton of noise she wants to make more noise later
00:29:27
Speaker
The thing to watch for in Garahayo is going to be Mike Nichols candidate. That's going to be Derek Cockroft, who hasn't yet declared, but he's a standard business bloke. I've chatted with him. He doesn't know much about the city at all, but he's got funding that will be provided by Mike Nichol and Mike Nichol has been organizing constituency events and basically having
00:29:48
Speaker
Derek run the table and get to know everyone. So he's basically been using Mike Nichols' office to really get in with the voters. So he's Mike Nichols' selected candidate in Garahayo, and I think that should speak to what he's going to be, but he's going to be the big challenger from the right, I expect. Well, and one last note about Garahayo, which is the redraw that pretty much consolidates the more conservative parts of Mill Woods, which I know pretty well my
00:30:17
Speaker
My dad lives down there and I lived down there for a lot of years and I represent the north half kind of 34th Avenue and north and it's that's the more conservative part of Mill Woods and combines it with a lot of the outer suburb kind of areas that are also you know not as progressively leaning perhaps as we might see in some other parts of the area so it's going to be interesting to see what kind of candidate
00:30:47
Speaker
does well there, because I think there's assumptions people like about Millwoods based on sort of historical demographics that really don't carry through now for the nature of the communities that are included here in the new ward. And I have had some run-ins with that Derek Cockcroft guy and he he sucks. You said it, not me. Yeah. Lastly, but not leastly, and maybe we have more open words or potentially open words people want to talk about.
North Central Ward Contest
00:31:15
Speaker
but is the North Central Ward where John Zadok is the current incumbent. It's obviously not an open word because I believe John Zadok is going to run again. The word's called a testa, testa, you, you know, walk, you know, walk. Oh man, I butchered that, but you can look it up and I'm going to get better at pronouncing these over time.
00:31:34
Speaker
We have, you know, the incumbent, John Zadok, who I believe is tremendously weak and not very well-liked, but even then still incumbents have such a massive advantage. And then two very interesting candidates. We have Ahmed Nomadic Ali, former poet laureate, and Cody Chicken Nugget Robin Hood Bondarchuk. And if you're not familiar with the story of Cody Bondarchuk,
00:31:58
Speaker
He had a viral social media post that talked about how when he worked at McDonald's, he always put an extra chicken nugget in his 10 packs and it went fucking worldwide. It was a, it was a big deal. And not that I think he was interested in municipal politics before that thing blew up, but uh, but that's what he's known as. So it's going to be inescapable for Cody to, he's going to be chicken nugget Robin hood for the rest of his life. So.
00:32:36
Speaker
Troy. I agree with your assessment that Zadok is generally weak. He eked out a win against an incumbent just because of an aggressive vote split, but he has Northside Hub, the Facebook group that's the cult of worship of everything John D. And if that's not weaponization of Facebook, I don't know what is, that's going to make him a tough incumbent to unseat, I think, alone. I think he's going to get a lot of drive out from there.
00:32:52
Speaker
I'm sorry, Cody, it's both a blessing and a curse. But thoughts on...
00:33:03
Speaker
The most interesting candidate in that word is actually Ali, because in the last election, he ran a pretty exceptional school board campaign and lost handily to, I believe, Bridget, if I'm not mistaken, a candidate that resigned for racism? Yeah, yeah. So he actually had a, you know, considering he was running against a longtime school board incumbent, he had a pretty strong campaign. So
00:33:31
Speaker
A lot of people don't know in school board elections, incumbency alone gives you about an 80% chance of being reelected to school board. So to pull off, you know, he took, I'm looking at the stats right now, he got 23% of the vote compared to Cheryl Johners 35%, which is a pretty strong showing, given how long she's been on the board and knowing
00:33:56
Speaker
Cheryl kind of what she was like as a trustee, she was hyper, hyper engaged with the school councils and those other places where people kind of mobilize their voter basis. But really the thing was that he had an incredibly strong campaign, you know, and a really good campaign team. He's got some name recognition because of his former role as a, you know, poet laureate. So I think he could be a, you know, a strong candidate there.
00:34:25
Speaker
Cody also, Cody Bonnerchek, I mean, people may know he works as a constituency assistant. He's got a lot of connections in the community that kind of come with doing that kind of a job. So, you know, I think both of them could put on pretty strong campaigns. So we'll see how that looks. You know, put both of them in kind of the progressive column. So
00:34:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be an interesting race. And Zadok is a god-awful counselor. And there hasn't been very many incumbents who've lost. But I believe John can step up to the plate and be one of those incumbents who loses. I just got to say, it takes some nerve to pay for grad school on your public dime. I'm paying for my PhD on scholarships, man.
00:35:23
Speaker
Yeah, but I'm grateful that you brought up Ahmed Ali and his school board run and the old Cheryl Johnner racism incident that led to her resignation because Bridget, we brought you on. I mean, obviously you pay attention to municipal politics and we value your contributions there, but you are a sitting and outgoing.
School Board Election Insights
00:35:42
Speaker
You're not going to be running again school board trustee.
00:35:45
Speaker
What is happening at the public school board level? Where are the open seats? We don't, I believe, have very many declared candidates at this point. I don't think we're going to get a nine month campaign at the school board level like we're seeing at the mayoral and the council level. But why don't you run us through kind of the state of Edmonton Public School Board and where are we going to see these open seats and what's the general kind of geographic location of these ones too?
00:36:07
Speaker
Yeah, so a lot of people don't know school board wards are enormous. They are about the size of a federal riding and you're usually running on a shoestring budget. So school board candidates, it really is all about the grand game. And so people often declare late for school boards, but if somebody gets out and gets doing the work early, you know, they can take a campaign pretty easily.
00:36:31
Speaker
Um, but, um, yeah, they're, they're huge geographic areas. So I expect we will probably see two to three incumbents run again only for Edmonton public. So I think there'll be six, probably six out of the nine seats for the public school board open, which is a huge opportunity either for a, um, you know, kind of conservative sweep of the board or a left leaning sweep of the board. But, um.
00:36:57
Speaker
With it being so open this time around, I hope people are paying more attention to the school board race this time because we could see a massive shift in the flavor and the character of the board. So that's my plug for paying attention to your local school board race. So yeah, so Ward A, which is in the Northwest, we saw this probably the most of interest to people. We saw Cheryl Johnner having to resign last year following some
00:37:23
Speaker
very racist remarks about refugee students made during a conversation about school resource officers. So that was a big story at the time. So I expect that race to be pretty interesting and probably include a lot of conversation about racism and representation on the board. Ward B, Michelle Draper, who was acclaimed last time around because she was the board chair
00:37:52
Speaker
and people tend not to run against the current board chair for whatever reason. So Michelle Draper announced recently that she is not running again. Ken Gibson. So Draper's in the northeast. Ken Gibson, who's in the west end, is expected not to run again. Michael Jans, of course, Strathcona area and sort of the central south
00:38:15
Speaker
has announced he's not running again. I made an announcement recently and through some grenades, I think that Troy might have talked about on his podcast recently. But I'm not I've decided not to run again and focus on finishing my PhD and doing some public education advocacy from the outside. And then Sherry Adams, who's sort of in the far south, southeast is also
00:38:44
Speaker
expected not to run again. Sherry Adams, who is probably most noted for her climate change denial comments at the board and some of her other positions opposing issues around LGBTQ students in schools. Yeah, she had a bad record on GSAs, right? Yeah, yeah. She's a pastor at a pretty conservative evangelical church and
00:39:14
Speaker
I think some of those views are sometimes seen in her decisions at the board. So I'm fascinated at this like huge turnover at the school board level and like daydreaming of, you know, a socialist takeover, right? Like workers of the world unite, we could actually run the Edmonton Public School Board. If again, these elections cost less money to run.
00:39:39
Speaker
they, you know, you need a smaller, there's a smaller turnout, there's less turnout. So you need like less margin. I mean, I think for a municipal election, you got to get 10,000 people to like you and vote for you. And probably, you could probably say 5,000 for, uh, if you get 5,000 people to like you and vote for you, you're going to take a, take a, uh, school board election. I mean, those are big round dumb numbers, but is that roughly correct, Bridget? Yeah. If you look at the last, um, school board election, you know, the candidates who
00:40:09
Speaker
You know, we saw people, strong candidates winning with 10,000 votes, but we saw other people winning still quite comfortably with, you know, you know, 8,000 votes can take you a school board election. I think Sheila Dunn, who won her campaign against an incumbent, really impressive, took her race with just under 7,000 votes, so
00:40:38
Speaker
It's very possible to mobilize a relatively small part of the electorate for a school board campaign and very comfortably win. It does give a lot of opportunity for folks on the left to make a really strong push for the board to get some really courageous groundbreaking folks on there. But the other thing to know, and it's something to pay attention to because it is
00:41:04
Speaker
kind of how Sherry Adams has won her elections is that you can also mobilize a relatively small population of conservative voters and win a school board election as well. And so people really need to be mindful that while it might be very easy for a progressive to win, the same thing can happen on the other side of the political spectrum.
00:41:29
Speaker
And in Calgary, we've seen straight up slates on the school board. And in this specific election, we now have packs get like 350 grand of dark money that they can just throw at a thing. And we already talked about school board elections being pretty low budget. If I was a nefarious provincial conservative actor, I might think, well, for the amount of money it would take to swing a single council race, I could swing the entire school board with just pumping money and
00:41:59
Speaker
well, money into the election and calling it, uh, training volunteers. But yeah, but yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um, is that a big risk that we're looking at in the upcoming school board election? Yeah, a hundred percent for sure. Um, you know, whether it happens formally through a pack or even just through sort of a push for donations, you know, you can, um, you can run a pretty successful school board campaign on $5,000.
00:42:27
Speaker
It doesn't take much if you've got a candidate who will go out and doorknock, which really very few school board candidates do. And so if you have a bit of money to print some brochures, maybe some signs, and a candidate who's committed to going out and doing the doorknocking work, you can make a real push on a school board seat, especially in an open ward. Yeah, it's a serious risk.
00:42:55
Speaker
And if you think about the school board, you know, it's one of the places where we've seen some of the most progressive work done in this city in the last few years. If you think about so far, Edmonton Public School Board is the only place where we've seen defunding of police in a serious way, right? You know, the SRO program is suspended. The board is no longer paying for that program, right? We've seen before City Council moved on it, we saw Edmonton Public School Board pass a motion against conversion therapy.
00:43:25
Speaker
You know, we've seen this kind of work happen at school boards in this city before we've seen it happen at city council levels, but we could very easily see all of that clawed back in a hurry if we lose control of the school board.
00:43:44
Speaker
Another thing I want to touch on quickly is because in your post you talked about school board sort of autonomy and how school board trustees are not necessarily the most effective advocates for their constituents anymore due to policy and due for provincial clawbacks of school board powers. How
00:44:04
Speaker
I mean, I get that your answer is probably going to be a lot, but how much does this school board matter in the grand scheme of things? Because school boards, while they control $2 billion of budget, they don't really have full control of it. The province makes a lot of those decisions, right? Yeah. I mean, one of the things, and it was a concern for me when they did it at a time when the NDP centralized teacher bargaining. And I understand some of the rationale for it.
00:44:32
Speaker
But what it did was it put even more power over school boards into provincial hands. We've seen since then the passage of the Education Act, which brings in even more ministerial control over school boards. And it also brings some other things into school boards themselves, which include the ability now of trustees to actually fire a colleague who they
00:44:55
Speaker
don't like. It's very vague. They're allowed to do it through their code of conduct. But if you think back to Patricia Grell on the Ebony Catholic School Board, you know, she was in the situation of being censured by her colleagues. And I think if they had had the ability at the time to kick her off that board, they might well have done so. So we have seen that happen. The thing that school boards do have is they've got a lot of
00:45:24
Speaker
power and voice if they use it. You know, if you think about it, school boards have a big media presence that they can use. They have the ability to mobilize parents through things like school councils, you know, other bodies of that nature. And so while they don't have a lot of power over their own budgets anymore, what they do have is a lot of political clout that they can use if they choose to do so.
Provincial Influence on Local Elections
00:45:51
Speaker
But I think as you probably remember from my post, one of the things we've seen is an increasing reluctance of school boards to actually use that because they're probably to some extent rightly afraid of what happened with CBE, which we've seen a punitive audit. We've seen investigations of the board by the minister, all kinds of actions that are meant to
00:46:19
Speaker
bring that board into line. That said, if all 61 boards across the province got together and started pushing back, they could do a huge amount of damage to a government. And we saw that in the 2015 provincial campaign where the school boards came out, unusually came out with a really strong statement during the campaign that to some extent helped sway that election
00:46:50
Speaker
towards kicking out the PCs. Yeah, I think one of the issues that I think is going to be resonating both across school board and council campaigns is going to be provincial politics. And I think provincial politics is going to be inescapable during this municipal election because of Jason Kennedy's insistence on running some type of
00:47:17
Speaker
referendum on equalization at the same time. In Edmonton, I just don't think we're going to see very many candidates associate themselves publicly with something that is so tied to Jason Kenney. What are your thoughts on this referendum bullshit that we are going to face and how toxic do you think it's going to be for actual candidates?
00:47:42
Speaker
I mean, as bullshit, like let's call it what it is. The referendum is a thing that doesn't matter and is a tool to get stupid people to think stupid things. That's the goal. And, you know, it might work in rural Alberta and it might work in Calgary and it might work a little bit to some voters in Edmonton. But by and large, I don't think you're going to see a single candidate
00:48:07
Speaker
outside of someone like staunchly ucp like trissa velthwizen i don't know her last time the ucp press secretary running in north edmonton um other than like those staunch ucp stalwarts i don't think you're gonna see anyone touch the referendum with a 10-foot pole not in support not in opposition just
00:48:29
Speaker
ignoring it and hoping it goes away. And like, it's a useless thing that I do hope goes away because it doesn't matter at all. So the thing we'll say about the referendum is I don't think you will see any, you know, council candidate particularly take it up. But what it is intended to do, and you know, keep banging this drum, is that it is meant to drive more of the UCP voter base to the municipal polls.
00:48:58
Speaker
Right. So while you won't see council candidates talking about it, what it is, is meant to get conservative voters who are angry about equalization to go out to the polls during a municipal and to drive that voter base to come out and potentially massively increase the conservative vote. Right. So it's not, it's not that you're going to see people say vote for me because I support this position on the referendum.
00:49:27
Speaker
but it is meant to bring a particular population of voters out to the polls, and we really can't ignore the impact of that. It's the same reason that we, you know, and I'm sure we'll talk about this more, but it's the same reason that we see the Senate elections happen, right, is it's meant to draw people out to the polls who think that that's going to matter, and that's a particular voter base.
00:49:48
Speaker
And I think, looking at provincial turnout, it's what, 50-ish to 60-ish percent on a good election. Municipally, it's, you know, 25 to 32 percent on a good election. So you drive an additional five, six percent out and you've probably swayed an election. So you're right that that's like it doesn't take much to sway this. Yeah. And that effect may be smaller in downtown Edmonton, but
00:50:18
Speaker
You look at a seat like John's attic or you look in Calgary or you look at some of the smaller communities in Alberta and you could see this really shift the balance on councils. Yeah, it's an interesting gambit. I mean, I think the idea of this equalization referendum had a lot more purchase and a lot more utility to the conservative, to the UCP and to Jason Kenney prior to COVID.
00:50:48
Speaker
Post COVID, I don't think equalization is this huge deal.
00:50:54
Speaker
Like, I just think it's, it's been surpassed on the priority list of issues. And, uh, and I dunno, I think we're still going to be arguing about vaccinations and, uh, you know, hopefully everyone is vaccinated by October when this thing finally, when this referendum finally happens, maybe we'll all be stopped. Well, maybe we'll all stop thinking about pandemic and how terribly this provincial government handled the pandemic. But I dunno, I, I believe in the. Incompetence of this provincial government, um,
00:51:22
Speaker
to extend how terribly this pandemic is going to be dealt with and its after effects. I think there's a couple of other interesting knock on effects too. Like, are we going to see packs? Like is shaping Alberta's future going to dump a bunch of money into a pro equalization referendum campaign? No one has registered yet. Like right before the podcast, I checked Elections Alberta to see if there was any new political third party advertisers.
00:51:51
Speaker
there aren't. So either they're lying in wait, or they're just going to repurpose an existing provincial one from the last election. It's, uh, I don't know. I think it's, I think it's going to back. I don't think it's necessarily going to help them. I think because it's not tied to a specific candidate, you know, you might see a diffuse effect, but it's on, on races, but I don't know. It might bring out more people who say this is bullshit. You know, I mean, there's, there's a whole bunch of unpredictable stuff that could happen because of the referendum.
00:52:19
Speaker
Well, and I think people's idea of how much the feds has helped us has shifted to, I mean, you look at some of the polling on approval, and even in Alberta, you know, approvals of the federal government's approach on the pandemic are far above and beyond approvals of, you know, Jason Kenny's efforts on it, and that will shift things too. A lot of people in this province might have been angry about
00:52:46
Speaker
equalization, but now their family may have survived through the last year because of CERB. And so I think that may change a bit of how Albertans feel about federal support for people in this province. It's tough to say. I mean, I live in a bit of a bubble. I'll fully admit that, but I think that there has been a shifting perception of the federal government in it. It's likely not going to be a strong effect,
00:53:16
Speaker
Again, even driving a couple more percentage points to the polls of the people on your side can shift things when it's as close as municipal elections can be. Any last thoughts on referendums before we move on to the most important part of this podcast, Trey?
00:53:36
Speaker
Yeah, nothing else on referendums. Well, here we are. Well, then we'll get to the most important part of this podcast, which is Senate nominee races, baby.
Senate Nominee Candidacy Satire
00:53:45
Speaker
That's right. Incredibly important. Very key to our functioning democracy are the bullshit elections that Jason Kenney has revived.
00:53:55
Speaker
where you vote for a Senate nominee. What you were essentially voting for is you were voting to have someone crowned Senator and waiting for the rest of their life. They can put it in their LinkedIn, they can put it in their email signature, Senator and waiting. And until they're appointed, I mean, they could just have it there for the rest of their lives. And folks, I am here to tell you that I want to be that asshole. I want to be a Senator and waiting. I want to put it in my email signatures.
00:54:22
Speaker
And essentially I want to make a mockery of the whole Senate nominee process, to be honest. I have downloaded the forms. I've started the process of collecting nominee signatures. I have four out of 500. So it's a little harder to see 500 people during a pandemic than it would be otherwise. But if you do see me on the street, ask for it. I'm kind of carrying it around in my backpack. Senate nominee race hot takes go.
00:54:48
Speaker
Duncan, I think it's very hard for anyone to care about this race as much as you have just cared in the last 30 seconds. And you cared very little. I just need some theater. I just need some good Senate political theater. Like, please, please, like, do TikTok dances. You know,
00:55:12
Speaker
do some Burma Shaves, maybe drop a banner. Key part of my platform will be abolishing the Senate, of course. I don't believe the Senate should exist. It's a terrible anti-democratic institution. Any other campaign, silly campaign ideas? Bridget or Troy?
00:55:31
Speaker
Well, I mean, I've, I've always long thought about running for Catholic school board trustee on a platform of abolishing the Catholic school board. Um, and I think you can take any number of those same ridiculous concepts and apply them to a Senate race. So.
00:55:47
Speaker
You know, instead of saying, Jesus made me do it, say, you know, Paul assignments made me do it. You know, there's, there's a lot that you can play with there, but I think the main thing that you need to make sure that you do is never at one point take the Senate seriously because you know, you already outlined it. You really need a good campaign photo. Like just, just something just truly above and beyond absurd. I want to, I want to see the best hat ever.
00:56:15
Speaker
Who was the guy who like wore a boot on his head in like the US election? Oh man. One of my favorite joke candidates, joke candidacies ever is Mr. Peanut for mayor of Vancouver, which was a legendary joke candidacy. And there's a video up on YouTube of I think a documentary that was made about Mr. Peanut. He did not say a word.
00:56:36
Speaker
He was in full costume the whole time, dancing when called upon. And then he had a representative play out his platform because Mr. Peanut, of course, does not speak to you. Do you think you can get Henry Mack to be your agent for the Senate election? I was just going to say, can you do like a mashup of like Henry Mack and what was her name, Carla? Carla Frost? Yeah. Yeah. Like just just kind of go and borrow some great, great moments from that.
00:57:05
Speaker
anything is possible. If you want to get on the ground floor of this incredibly important political campaign, again, DM me, send me an email, and also sign my nomination papers, because I do have to go through the physical and mechanical act of collecting those things in order to get on the ballot. Who is Duncan K. Monsigns? Yes, yes.
00:57:28
Speaker
Well, I really appreciate that we got to end it on a lighter note. Uh, Bridgette and Troy, thank you so much for coming on the show. What now is the time to plug, uh, your pluggables.
Podcast Conclusion
00:57:38
Speaker
If there is a way people can follow along with your various social media accounts, the projects that you do now is your time to tell me about them. Bridget, what's the best way for people to follow along with the work you do? You know, I'm, I'm on Twitter because everyone's on Twitter at Bridgette Sterling. Um, I'm on Instagram, but all I do there is post pictures of food and my cat. Um,
00:57:58
Speaker
Otherwise, uh, I guess maybe I might do some more writing on medium, I think, uh, following up on that, uh, my hand grenade election post, I'm thinking about doing some more school board election related writing over the next few months. So, uh, but yeah, yeah, I did not. I mean, follow me on Twitter for salty takes about Daniel Smith appearances on Ryan Jesperson show. Uh, Daniel Smith on this podcast, when Duncan?
00:58:29
Speaker
Yeah, no firm commitment. This is a pot Danielle Smith. This is a Danielle Smith free zone. She will never appear on our podcast. But Troy, plug your pluggables. What do you got? I mean, you can follow me, shitpost on Twitter. I've taken to just equally shitting on every single council candidate and mayoral candidate. There's a lot to crucify about all of them and oh boy, do I find them.
00:58:52
Speaker
And do they DM me very sad about it later on? This gives me life during the pandemic. So you can follow me there. I also somewhat legitimately host a podcast covering municipal news. So if this policy wonkery stuff was interesting to you, one, there's something wrong with you, seek help. But two, download Speaking Municipal. You can find it at speaking municipally.taprootedminton.ca or wherever you find your podcasts. That's it. Please make us more A plus.
00:59:21
Speaker
municipal campaign content this year. You can also go on my Twitter and find the video where I took Mike Nichols' campaign announcement and made him say, hi, I'm Mike Nichol, I like ass. That's a plus. He sued me for it.
00:59:43
Speaker
Not quite. Good luck for that. I mean, you got a nasty letter, right? Folks, thanks again for making it all the way to the end of this podcast. If you like it and you want to keep hearing more podcasts like this, we do want to increase the amount of coverage we are doing in municipal politics. This election is going to be a long ass one. It's going to take time and effort to cover it properly. And we'd love to do it. And so let me know if that's something that you care about. I mean, I think it's
01:00:11
Speaker
I think municipal politics coverage is important. We didn't get to a conversation that I wanted to have about slates and political parties at municipal level, but maybe hit me up and talk me about that. I'm very easy to get a hold of if you have any notes, thoughts, comments, things you think I need to hear.
01:00:26
Speaker
I am at Dunkin' Kenny on Twitter, and you can reach me by email at dunkincayatprogressalberta.ca. One of the big things you can do to help us out non-monetarily is to share this podcast with your friends and family. If you know someone who is interested in media politics, share this with them. I think they will find it both funny and informative.
01:00:46
Speaker
aggressive and irreverent. And if you like this podcast and you want to support it, and actually I just ran the numbers, we have 444 regular monthly donors to this little independent media project. If you want to get us up to 500, it's really easy. You go to theprogressreport.ca slash patrons.
01:01:04
Speaker
Put in your credit card, contribute, give us 5, 10, $15 a month, whatever you can afford. We would really appreciate it. It helps keep Jim and I in groceries with a roof above our heads. Thanks again to our guests. Thanks so much to Cosmic Family Commentists for the amazing theme. Thank you for listening and goodbye.