Janz Running For Edmonton Council

Says Ottawa may be the city-building partner in future

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Current Edmonton Public Schools Trustee Michael Janz is running for city council in ward papastew.

Janz said in an interview with Rage Against the Municipal that he’s reflected over many months about Edmonton’s future and has decided to run. He said he sees the city facing a fork in the road, with one direction pointed at austerity and “managing the decline,” and the other being “to think like owners.”

Down that fork, he said, Edmonton asks itself what it wants for its future.

“I’m optimistic,” he said about that future, adding that the province may play less of a role in building Edmonton, but that the federal government — which has been investing heavily in cities of late — may at least partly fill the gap.

It’s rare, at least for now, for Rage Against the Municipal to break news. We took the opportunity here as it aligned with our newsletter publication schedule. We hope to speak to interesting candidates in different municipalities in future but do not endeavour to report on every new candidate entering the election. We’re not a newspaper. And our coverage is not an endorsement.

Janz, who’s 36, was first elected to the Edmonton Public School Board in 2010, and has won re-election in 2013 and 2017.

In 2007, Janz was the president of the University of Alberta Students’ Union when his government relations director at the time, Don Iveson, approached him for help on his upcoming run for city council. Iveson eventually went on to be a two-term mayor.

“That was one of those moments that showed me the potential for making change in cities and municipalities,” Janz said.