The Main — August 17: Can You Unmute? Can You Hear Me Now? It’s The Edmonton Mayoral Candidate Forum!
Recap: YEG Candidate Forum
Mary Thomas from Ladies Corner Media, a women-run independent media organization, put together a candidates’ forum and invited everyone running for mayor. The candidates answered questions posed directly to them by the moderator, so not every candidate spoke on every issue. While this gave candidates a chance to speak about issues they were familiar with, the style of the forum didn’t necessarily give voters the chance to see where the mayoral candidates differed in their opinions. The discussion went for two hours, which did allow some fulsome discussion
Amarjeet Sohi, Brian Breezy Gregg, Diana Steele, Cheryll Watson, Michael Oshry, Kim Krushell, Rick Comrie, and Abdul Malik Chuwudi were in attendance. Their cameras turned on and off like sparkling Christmas lights throughout the forum.
The evening started off with candidates introducing themselves and saying why they were running for mayor.
Sohi offered a land acknowledgment and a bit of a pat on the back for himself on his time as the Minister of Infrastructure, noting all the projects he participated in, such as highway renewals and funding for the new Indigenous Pavilion. He said equity is an important factor in why he decided to run for mayor.
This was followed by Gregg. He introduced himself as a lifelong Edmontonian and musician. He called his campaign unconventional because he isn’t taking any donations.
When Oshry was introduced, he coyly asked if the women wouldn’t like to go before him. It was Ladies Corner after all. Oshry was born in South Africa and moved to Alberta as a child. His father was a lawyer who defended people charged under the apartheid regime, and he says this instilled a social consciousness in him.
Watson is also a lifelong Edmontonian who grew up in Beverly. She introduced herself as someone who deeply loves the city and has spent her time working for Fortune 500 companies. She began to think about public service in her work with Innovate Edmonton when she worked with the public sector.
When Steele introduced herself, she talked about her education and background teaching business at Norquest. She has worked as the president of Crestwood Community Centre and that is where she came to love volunteering.
Krushell talked about her time in both the private and public sectors. She said she is returning to local politics because she wants to create a vibrant and connected city. Krushell highlighted her track record of collaboration with different levels of government and non-profits.
Comrie, who appeared to be having some computer troubles, appeared sideways at one point (the things that can happen during Zoom meetings!). Comrie is a local business owner whose family arrived in town in the early 1900s. He said he is running because he is so unhappy with how the city is running.
Chuwudi, is a veteran who served in Bosnia and Afghanistan. He is a well-travelled person who worked in the middle east for seven years. He joined the City of Edmonton after getting a degree in engineering. Chuwudi complained about the amount of red tape working with the City. He complained about corruption, and spending that occurs at the city, but did not provide examples at that point. He said you pay a huge price at the city for speaking up about issues. Chuwudi left the city when he announced his candidacy for mayor.
“The role of the mayor is to be chief collaborator,” said Watson on the importance of building networks across the city. Oshry also highlighted the importance of working with others as mayor. He said, that if elected, he will make sure to sit with all the city councilors to compare notes on what they have heard from constituents.
The need to make difficult decisions with the economic environment loomed large with some of the candidates.
“We can’t say yes to everything,” said Oshry.
“I am not like any of these guys. I don’t know how to play games,” says Chuwudi. “But you do what is right for the company.”
Regarding homelessness, Krushell said she was on council when the city passed the plan to end homelessness in ten years and she has been reflecting on how to deal with the issue. “We have the hard to house that are addicted to drugs, we have the hard to house that are trying to transition. We have students that are using foodbanks and new immigrants who are also struggling… I think we need to do things like community hubs where they have been helping and feeding two thousand families.”
“We should have a tiny homeless shelter in each community,” says Gregg about addressing homelessness. He would develop a 15-minute to social services plan that focuses on distributing services to people in need throughout the city. “We should have teams of two people, three hour shifts a day to manage shelter, food, education.”
“We need to make sure we have a fair and competitive tax structure for businesses. We need to be looking for our Elon Musk’s who can promote Edmonton,” says Steele. “We need to do some economic gardening to grow from within.”
Sohi spoke about the intersectional issues affecting people who experience poverty, saying we need to deal with jobs, the economy, and homelessness but also highlights the importance of caring for the environment. “We can not continue to ignore the impact of climate change on our communities. It is a crisis.”
He also took the chance to expand on his campaign platform about turning the river valley into a natural park. He says he wants to tap into this new funding that would allow the city to upgrade the river valley trails and washrooms and make the river valley more accessible.
“I see chance in hydrocarbons and the fact that we are looking at a hub,” says Krushell about how to use technology to solve the climate crisis. She would work with post-secondary institutions on researching the jobs of the future and develop a technology centre. She would like to see more effort put towards incubating the tech sector.
When the conversation turned to violence against women in the community, Watson said a leader needs to have the lived experience of being a woman in order to make the changes needed to ensure the city is a safe place to be. “My walk to and from work looks very different than the current mayor’s walk. I worry about who is behind me,” Watson says by way of example.
“All of us pay taxes to all levels of government but we only get about six cents of that. With that we have to do a whole bunch of work,” says Oshry. “Garbage… not very sexy but it is pretty important.”
There were some interesting tangents when it came to a question on Truth and Reconciliation question posed to Chuwudi. He says it all looks good on paper, but in practice there’s a lack of application. He raised his experiences with working with the city. He claims that their hiring practices are not diverse. He also takes issue with training that employees have to take. “The city demonizes white people for something that happened 150 years ago that your ancestors did to Indigenous people. You can’t demonize white people and say they took all the lands,” says Chuwudi. He talked about a test that city employees had to take about racism, which some of his friends did not pass.
Sohi, when speaking of the city acknowledged the hard work of the front-line service providers and those in healthcare. “One of the challenges is how we will continue to create economic opportunities so people can have a job that they can raise their family on.”
A tense moment arose when Gregg sent out a plea for people to vote for the New Democratic Party in the next provincial election. He called Alberta an economy that thrives on cheap labour and low taxes. “We have a federal election coming up. Elect NDP candidates please,” Gregg said before being cut off by Thomas.
Steele fielded a question about crime in the city, especially among racialized people. She responded by saying that mental health issues are playing a large role, and she would support more funding to help address this. Thomas asked a follow-up question about Steele’s thoughts on defunding the police. “My opinion is to fund social services properly,” said Steele. She said she wanted to see both police and social services funded.
Krushell said she has been attending rallies against hate crimes in the Asian and Muslim communities, and she thinks that Edmonton needs to strengthen its response against racism. She says all races should speak out together about how racism is wrong.
Sohi finished the night by saying that Edmonton needs someone with the right experience and temperament to guide the city through difficult times. “This is a city that has given me so much. I am ready to work to untap its potential.”
LadiesCorner.ca is running other candidate forums where women are running and are posting them on their Facebook page. Check out Dene, Papastew, Metis, and many others.
Reader’s Note: Rage will be changing our publication schedule leading up to the election. We will be keeping the weekly round-up but the other two newsletters The Main and The Bulletin will be shifting to bi-weekly. This will allow us to focus on more investigative and data-driven journalism. Let us know what you want to read about!
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Top Photo: Screenshot from Ladies Corner Facebook