Looks like the United Conservative Party’s scheme to encourage civic political parties and allow big corporate money to make it easier to elect ideologically simpatico mayors and councillors in Alberta’s big cities was a bust in Edmonton and not much better in Calgary.
At any rate, while the ridiculous manual vote count the UCP insisted on plodded onward yesterday, neither of the UCP’s favoured candidates in Monday’s province-wide municipal elections made it into the mayor’s offices of the province’s two biggest cities.
Indeed, unofficial council results in Edmonton also suggest independent candidates, most with progressive sympathies, beat those who ran under the banners of conservative leaning civic parties in eight of the city’s 12 wards.
“We saw a very clear rejection of party politics in Edmonton,” the city’s low-key mayor-elect, Andrew Knack, observed accurately after it became clear yesterday he’d defeated Better Edmonton civic party standard-bearer Tim Cartmell and 11 other mayoral candidates.
Mr. Cartmell conceded to Mr. Knack yesterday afternoon, although four Better Edmonton council candidates were listed as winners in the city’s unofficial results.
Mr. Knack, a former three-term city councillor who until departing Mayor Amarjeet Sohi made it clear he was leaving civic politics had been contemplating quitting himself, can be expected to lead the city competently without a lot of drama. He’ll doubtless respond diplomatically if the UCP tries to goad him into a confrontation. Mr. Cartmell had served two terms on council.
In Calgary, meanwhile, the MAGA-adjacent operators of pro-UCP bots and trolls who spent the past four years relentlessly attacking Mayor Jyoti Gondek, succeeded in blocking her re-election bid. But instead of their favoured candidate, Sonya Sharp of the Communities First civic party, Calgarians appear to have elected former councillor and former mayoral candidate Jeromy Farkas, who campaigned independently on a more moderate conservative platform.
The vote was tight – 75,123 votes for Mr. Farkas to 73,957 for Ms. Sharp early Tuesday – so the latter has asked for a recount, as is her right. Assuming that Mr. Farkas emerges as the winner when the dust has settled, which is what usually happens with such recounts, I suppose the MAGA crowd will spend the next four years fervently bad-mouthing him too.
With the caveat that I have paid very little attention to Calgary civic politics since I left that city more than a quarter century ago, it seems to me that many of the same lessons about the UCP’s machinations can be drawn from what happened there. The Calgary Herald had some background coverage on the city’s ward races.
Be that as it may, the UCP strategic brain trust’s notion that the route to re-election runs through the province’s two biggest municipalities’ City Halls is dead on arrival. Fortunately for them, though, the Opposition NDP appears to be still dozing at the switch. Naturally, many Albertans are hoping they will awaken when the Legislature resumes sitting on Thursday.
The goal of the UCP’s legislation last year opening Edmonton’s and Calgary’s election races to political parties and big corporate money was clearly to help get rid of progressive councillors and mayors who have been a thorn in Premier Danielle Smith’s side.
Then municipal affairs minister Ric McIver said in 2024 that the government’s intent for the legislation was “to increase accountability, transparency, and public trust in local elections.” Ironically, this may have just happened – only not in the way the UCP intended.
For his part, Mr. McIver is now Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, so he can probably dodge any smart-alecky questions about what he had to say back then.
As an aside, I was delighted to see that progressive activist and skilled rabble-rouser Michael Janz, a stone in the shoes of the UCP government and its allies in the capital city, absolutely crushed all opponents with 58.16 per cent of the vote in Ward papastew.
Mr. Janz accumulated more votes in his single ward than all but four of the candidates for mayor did in the entire city – and that included former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer, to whom the media devoted undue attention, presumably thanks to his insignificant history in federal politics.
The vote has been taking forever to count as a result of the provincial requirement that electronic tabulation technology no longer be allowed in municipal elections. This was apparently done as a sop to the governing party’s influential MAGA base, which apparently doesn’t understand the difference between vote counting software and U.S.-style voting machines.
New identification requirements in Edmonton and Calgary also resulted in long delays for voters, likely contributing to the low voter turnout throughout the province Monday, as was doubtless intended by the introduction of the blizzard of UCP red tape.
Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams had the cheek to blame the municipalities for the long lineups. There were still no election results available from several Alberta cities and towns, including St. Albert, when your blogger put this post to bed last night.
NOTE: This is a proverbial hot take. The author reserves the right to change his mind about literally every conclusion drawn here with no more shame than you’d expect from a UCP cabinet minister and no apology whatsoever. DJC
The NDP isn’t dozing at the switch. There are only two reasons why the NDP were defeated in the 2023 provincial election in Alberta. The media lied about Rachel Notley and the NDP. Nor would the media take the UCP and Danielle Smith to task for their epic boondoogles and massive failures. To this day, the media will not acknowledge Naheed Nenshi, and the NDP. Instead, the media goes right along with Danielle Smith and the UCP, without questioning them. The NDP also can’t be blamed for Danielle Smith reducing the Alberta Legislature sessions to practically nothing. Also, the NDP can’t be blamed for Danielle Smith holdig off the by-election for Edmonton Strathcona until the very last possible moment. Now that the Alberta Legislature has some sessions, watch Naheed Nenshi wipe the floor with Danielle Smith. It has also backfired on the UCP to mess with municipal politics.
I have been keeping a running mental tally of NDP appearances on local media on Edmonton.
I’m seeing an uptick in Nenshi coverage, and more interesting, starting to see other NDP critics too, namely Pancholi.
Another thing I have seen is the NDP youtube presence is almost daily releases, and they are not all short videos. Far more like extended director cuts of campaign sound bites, and some ranging up to 20-30 minutes.
Gerald: What I am still seeing is limited coverage of the NDP. The media representatives from Postmedia are still glorifying Danielle Smith and the UCP. For example, the MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal, had a misleading headline, as if Raymond Wyant (the ex Manitoba judge that Danielle Smith hired to investigate herself) completely cleared her of any wrongdoing. That matter isn’t over yet, as there are still two ongoing investigations. One from Doug Wylie, the Alberta Auditor General, and the other from the R.C.M.P.
It troubles me greatly as well , that Danielle Smith is in front of the media daily with a new suit every time and the media gobble it all up with their cameras and microphones, and there are no questions asked. What’s going on here? Do they not see through the bullshit? Are the reporters not smart enough to think of some very legitimate and obvious questions, or does ‘Slippery Dani’ not permit questions? It’s truly sickening!
Yes, the experiment with municipal parties sure hasn’t turned out well for the mad political scientists of the UCP. Of course, being never admitt a mistake MAGA types, they seem to insist it went fine, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
In Edmonton in particular, Cartmell was branded with the unpopular party idea which was also linked with being too cozy with the UCP. Despite several of his councilors winning, but not a majority, he went down to a Poilievre type of defeat. So we’ll see how his leaderless new party carries on.
In Calgary, it could be even worse, as the conservative candidate who looks like he won was also cool to both the idea of parties and Smith. She will have a more difficult time dismissing him as another Liberal.
Smith may continue to try ride roughshod over Alberta’s big cities but with their new mayors, the danger for her is voters may now conclude the problem is her, not them.
Perhaps parties may catch on given more time and another try, but I feel the idea may have become too toxic because of how it was imposed by the UCP. Nenshi has decided to stay out of the municipal fray which may be a good decision. He may be following the strategy of letting the UCP government keep shooting itself in the foot. Smith does seem to like to talk and be the focus of attention, but when she talks too much she can say something dumb. Even if she doesn’t, voters could soon start to tire of her and all the endless fights she tries to pick.
It was very close race in Calgary’s Ward 12, with only 39 votes separating the conservative winner and the progressive candidate. No word yet on an appeal.
Speaking of Ric McIver, it should be noted that this roughly aligns with his provincial constituency of Calgary-Hays, which has been conservative since its inception. Interesting.
Appeal = recount.
Unofficial results now show only 29 votes separating the top two candidates in Ward 12.
I looks like true to form anything Dingy Smith touches goes to shit, and this falls squarely in line with that. I saw on TV one of the election pieces where someone was using a calculator. I’m surprised the UCP didn’t complain about that and decide to issue abaci to the counting stations. Perhaps they could break out the long outdated slide rules. Some of out here still know what those were and still have one.
OA: I have two of my late dad’s slide rules around the house, neither of which I know how to use, just in case someone needs one. DJC
I used a slide rule in high school, just before calculators became widely available. I may still have it somewhere, though the middle piece falls out easily and could be lost.
I still use a slide rule in my garage workshop. It is unheated, and the batteries in a calculator would just go dead.
@djc
How to survive zombie apocalypse:
1: know how to read analog clock face
2: ability to write and read cursive
3: trained to use slide rule instead of calculator
Here in Red Deer we were also confronted with forms to fill out and sign when doing our civic duty. We also were confronted with what must be, literally, Alberta’s longest ballot as Red Deer does not have wards and 24 candidates were running for city council. A doodle for a tabulator to count, not so much when done by hand.
No formal party politics in RD, though several members of the past council were UCP adjacent, one of them having been the Constituency Assistant for Red Deer South’s MLA.
Early results show Cindy Jefferies, a progressive, with a rather convincing lead as Mayor.
Sorry, Red Deer can’t claim the longest ballot with 24 council candidates. The City of Grande Prairie had eight (8) mayoral candidates and 25 council candidates for 8 seats. As in Red Deer, there are no wards, so councillors are elected at large using first-8-past-the-post. Turnout was low: just a few decimal points under 22%.
In the County of Grande Prairie No. 1, which is where we vote, there are nine (9) divisions, which are just wards by another name. In two of them, the council candidate was acclaimed; both were incumbents. In the other seven divisions, three incumbents were re-elected, while one was defeated; three other incumbents did not run again. That said, the winner in division 3 is the daughter-in-law of the previous councillor.
There is no election for Reeve in the County; that position is chosen by council from among its own members at an organizational meeting after the election.
Full on voter suppression now, so how much longer will it take to connect the dots here with MAGA, even more evil than it sounds?
Clearly, we’ve been divided and conquered, but at least we’re finally starting to see Project 2025 mentioned, and since it’s the 900-page blueprint for dismantling the modern “secular” state, and democracy as we have known it, and replacing it with a throwback society attuned to the BIBLE for gawd’s sake! Google it.
Few people know about that, but the fact that the very first thing the now Catholic-captured U.S. Supreme Court did was to ditch Roe v. Wade, protector of women’s right to choose says it all.
Women returning to “traditional” roles is central because, arguably, all religious doctrines can be seen as a means of controlling women from the beginning.
Now that we can settle down after that snooze fest, we should turn our attention to getting the “Alberta is happy with Canada” petition over the 300K goal line. If that mark is not reached, the UCP and its MAGA minions will explode with joy. Forget who is mayor of Dry Gulch. We could be singing “Josée can you pee” in 2026!
Farkas was president of the Calgary-Elbow Wildrose constituency association. He was an intern at “The Manning Foundation for Democratic Education”. He was the worst of the three Kon candidates in the most recent election, which is astounding given that Sharp is a UCP bot and Davison was handpicked by the Developer/Hydrocarbon Safari Club. Stupid is a greater risk than wicked, and Calgarians proved to have plenty of both in the tank.
Jeromy Farkas pulled from Danielle Smith’s playbook with his “I swear I’ve changed” pledge. I didn’t buy it from her and I certainly didn’t buy it from him. Tigers don’t change their stripes. Smith is more of the same old me, me, me, sped up and louder. Farkas? His past record is all I needed to make up my mind.
Much of the ballot was nothing but varying degrees of Danielle Smith, like independent councillor candidates who made no bones about bragging up their UCP/CPC connections. Turns out many of the independents were not independent in reality.
Is anyone going to fix the water feeder main issues that led to last year’s catastrophic failure? Seems unlikely. They all seem to want to cut taxes in a city with high population growth. No new infrastructure for you, Calgary! At least the entire city council voted in favor of that arena deal instead of giving us a referendum. I’m sure many took the opportunity in this election to punish the mayor and councillors for that fiasco. Should be fun filling up our buckets at the shiny new hockey rink when the pipes fail again.
Someone should ask Danielle if she voted on Monday – and if so, where?
Calgary Hot Takes:
-It will be interesting to see Mr. Farkas’ approach. While once a young conservative acolyte and graduate of the Manning Institute, he seems to have moderated his views and progressed, shall we say, in his positions. However, as prognosticators are wont to say, ‘The proof is in the pudding’, so we shall see.
-As you identify, the UCP bots have been out for a while for Ms. Gondek, making her re-election less likely. While she annoyed many Calgarians initially (climate emergency declaration), she had settled into a mostly competent leadership role. I did enjoy listening to her reasoned and articulate counterpoints to the UCP’s meddling in municipal affairs. However her early missteps, combined with the right wing assault, proved to be too large of obstacles to overcome (we won’t mention her gender and ethnicity, as according to that court of a supreme nature south of the Medicine Line, those are not factors anymore).
-Councillor incumbents of the right wing variety were re-elected (Chabot, McLean), with many progressive incumbents choosing not to run again.
-For better or worse, most new councillors are male right wingers. It will be interesting to see whether they truly represent their constituents, or are beholden to their unofficial masters provincially. They’ll also get reality checks when they find out that garbage collection and potholes don’t have an ideology.
-On the plus side, elected trustees, both public and separate, are far from the TBA and PCE slate.
With 10 of 14 councillors newly elected, and many with only 30% or so of votes in their respective wards, and a new mayor, albeit one with council experience, we’ll see how much time passes before the grumbling starts anew. As DJC has pointed out, despite what some claim, lowering taxes and increasing services is really difficult if not impossible in real life.
There is no evidence whatsoever that Farkas has been in any way moderated. His behaviour in response to his personal displeasure with the way the City managed the BRT should have resulted in his inability to be elected assistant dog-catcher in Mossleigh, never mind mayor of a major city. Rob Anders without the charm and even less work experience.
That was a fun read. Wonder what the next step will be for the UCP.
“with 10 out of 14 newly elected”………with about 30% of the vote…………
what could go wrong? when and who tries to rule the table/roost. if this gets as good as it could get, please advise or just post the videos.
Now if Smith doesn’t deliver when councillors request it will be so much more fun.
No one could be so stupid as to not replace water pipes. When one of those pipes breaks and the flooding starts taxpayers always get so upset, their vehicles are washed with very poor results, basements have floating everything, mud comes in uninvited. Metro Vancouver just spent a ton of money building a tunnel under the Fraser River, $450M and its good for 100 yrs. Nothing ruins a shower faster than no water.. Guess some of those politicians have made alternative arrangements for using toilets which use water.
Surprise , Surprise
What UCP scheme, other than destruction, has been successful?
The party system is here to stay in Calgary and Edmonton. That is, it’s here to stay until the UCP departs.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-civic-parties-future-9.6949559
A couple of items to remember:
Smith still has Bill 20 in her back pocket
We were fortunate this time. The progressives on both city councils will be trolled unmercifully until they either decide it is not worth itjto run again or the hoi poloi toss them out based on the trolling. Until Bill 20 is repealed, this assault on progressives will continue ad nauseum. Like rust, these regressives never sleep.
I look forward to the final donation releases of all candidates , but particularly the ones of parties most aligned with the UCP ( my prediction/guess is they break all previous records , which is interesting as the same Bill also made vote counting more expensive and time consuming for these same cities . The increase in dark money introduced by the UCP along with political parties being forced into only those two cities , highlights at least for me how again the UCP seems to have a need to be at war with other levels of Government and Provinces to possibly hope no one has time to look closer exactly at what they are doing regarding education funding, car insurance , health care and treatment of people just trying to survive on AISH payments .
The UPC, did have a win, in the fact that voter turnout was way down, due to their new rules for voting. And I am very impressed, the way they deflected the time it took to vote, with the new rules and new forms, back on to the municipalities.
Well, in small town Alberta, our town felt the sting of UCP tendrils tightening. A “local” group (Voices for a better [town]) inserted 4 candidates for mayor and council. They held very skewed town hall sessions, in some cases not even inviting any nominee that wasn’t far right, separatist, Maple Maga. When more center nominees showed up, they were asked completely different questions, to avoid any real discussion. Where did they get the money for all the giant signs (the biggest signs in town, by far)? Well, one doesn’t need to wonder to much. And of course, the 4 far right nominees got voted in. The new mayor is also a new town resident, and won against 2 decades-long time residents, both of whom have been very active in the community, including serving on council. Our taxpayer money going to ensure Smith’s grip on power….
There was too much mishandling somethings wrong. It needs to have a recount all the way around.
I think 4 or 5 candidates running for parties were elected in Calgary. They were more successful in Calgary which is too bad. We really do not need party politics at the municipal level. I hope they come to the table as independent thinker and know what their constituents care about. The UCP wants to reach in and control every aspect in this Province. They must go!!
to Jaundiced Eye: Wow, no wonder you don’t use your own name, with those type of comments that you are spewing. I find that many that feel the way you do, sound so angry, negative and dismissive. Open your mind and heart to other opinions and other humans. I hope but am not optimistic that you will not be one of those trolls.
Oops: I forget to mention that voter turnout in the County Grande Prairie was just under 21%.