The last sessions of the current city council in Edmonton have wrapped up. Mayor Don Iveson and three city councillors decided not to seek re-election.
Rage thought we’d have a look back on Iveson’s time on city council, but we also want to thank councillors Scott McKeen, Michael Walters and Ben Henderson for their efforts to make Edmonton a better place.
In 2007, then Edmonton Journal columnist Todd Babiak remarked on the campaign of a young up and comer who had challenged incumbent Mike Nickel for his seat in Ward 5. Babiak noted the number of signs popping up between the Whitemud Equine Centre and the Quesnell Bridge. It was a sea of Mike Nickel.
But Don Iveson, then 28, was running his campaign a little differently. He still had the traditional lawn signs, although he told the Journal he was trying to make them smaller for environmental reasons. But he also had a series of videos on YouTube where he talked about his policy platforms that included affordable housing and reigning in sprawl.
That October, Iveson won handily over Nickel by 2,000 votes and claimed the second seat of Ward 5, alongside incumbent Bryan Anderson.
Mayor Stephen Mandel asked Iveson to look at environmental concerns. Iveson spent his time, in part, requesting reports on peak oil and tried to warn Edmontonians that we may have a false sense of security about fossil fuels based on our proximity to the oil sands.
Then in 2013, Iveson announced that he would run for mayor. He won and maintained connections to the public by taking public transit to work and engaging online. He trended in Canada after not receiving funding from the province for southeast-to-west LRT line.
Iveson has been outspoken on gender-based violence, reconciliation and has taken action on affordable housing during his time as mayor. Rage wishes him the best of luck for what comes next!
Watson’s Public Service Expenses Surface
This Thursday, a story in the Western Standard (I know, they’re a PPC ad-riddled site but hear me out) shared the results of a freedom of information request on expenses during mayoral hopeful Cheryll Watson’s expenses from her work at the City of Edmonton.
In response, Watson tweeted that she had released her expenses without prompting. The expenses do not appear to be posted on her website, but rather were released in an August 11 email to supporters, with the subject line “Actions Speak Louder Than Words”. The email had a link to her expenses. According to Watson’s campaign, the expenses totaled $231,918.80.
The FOI documents released by the Western Standard however provide far more details on how money was spent. The Western Standard article, however, does not mention that a line item for over 40 000 for a trip to SXSW, a film and media event in the US was refunded to the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation because it was cancelled due to COVID-19.
The Western Standard places the total for “items like client diners” at. $229,286.00. Unfortunately, the PDF they have posted has blurred sections of the document which makes it impossible to read. Rage has reached out to get more information.
- Danielle Paradis
None Of Your Business
One third of what happens in St. Albert council isn’t your concern, mmkay?
Wait, What?
A Calgary councillor mired in an expense scandal and under police investigation is nonetheless going to run for re-election. Many did not expect this.
Wait, WHAT?
Rage is co-written and co-edited, but we have clear rules because we take the idea of conflict of interest seriously. Co-editor Paradis writes about Edmonton and other areas. Meanwhile, since May 1, I now write about Calgary and anywhere but Edmonton, as I have to remain non-partisan in the municipal election in this city. I have a job, like most of our readers. My job has ground rules.
But there’s that term — “non-partisan.” We’ll get to it in a moment.
First, rather than have co-editor Paradis write about herself and her experiences on Twitter over this past week, I’m going to do so. There’s a clear conflict otherwise. We take journalism seriously at Rage. We subscribe to the idea that those who talk or act like journalists should not have clear (or obscured) stakes in the stories they discuss — personal or partisan.
Anyway, co-editor Paradis took to the Rage Twitter handle and tweeted this. Then things were said:
- Tim Querengesser