Edmonton mayoral candidates find ways to connect with voters

Edmonton’s municipal election is just over two months away, scheduled for October 20th.

Right now, there’s no clear frontrunner for the city’s next mayor, but candidates are finding ways to connect with Edmontonians.

The race is on for one mayoral candidate, quite literally.

Michael Walters is literally running for mayor. Door knocking is his primary way of campaigning; he enjoys running as a hobby in his personal life, and he says he covers more ground by picking up the pace.

“This is my fourth campaign, I’ve always run on the doors. When I was running for council, you certainly can get to every door in your ward, some of them twice, so running just…it’s the way I am,” said Walters.

Walters may be the only mayoral candidate running on doors, but he’s not alone in introducing himself on a doorstep.

Tim Cartmell says while the summer is slower for campaigning, he’s enjoying longer August nights chatting with voters.

“The city’s kind of empty in a way. People are slowly making their way back from their summer plans, their vacations, their last few weekends at the lake, that kind of a thing. So it’s funny that it’s a little bit quiet in terms of the number of people home, but those that are home are really interested in having these conversations,” said Cartmell

Andrew Knack is not only knocking on doors, but being invited in for a cup of coffee or to meet a pet.

“The way I’ve approached this as a councillor, is I don’t want people to have to come find me. I need to go out to them, and connect with them, and meet with them to learn about what’s going on in the city and about the issues that are impacting them, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do as Edmonton’s next mayor,” said Knack.

Town halls are also a popular way to reach out to Edmontonians. Rahim Jaffer has hosted a number of town halls at locations around the city.

Knack hosted a virtual town hall on Friday afternoon. Cartmell says he has town halls planned as campaigning increases in urgency. And while each candidate has a different approach to talking with voters, the primary issues for people are the same.

“Universally, safety, traffic and taxes. Those all manifest themselves in slightly different ways,” said Cartmell.

Knack saying, “Today, we did a town hall specifically on infill, because in a smaller group of mature neighbourhoods, this is a really important issue for them.”

Walters saying, “And then a series of other issues that come. Edmontonians are pretty respectful, kind, straight-shooter kind of folks, they’re giving us lots of stuff to think about.”

City council resumes next week, and as the slower days of summer come to an end, the mayoral race will intensify.

This means expanding communication for Cartmell, coming up with new ideas to chat with people around the city for Knack, and running even more hours of the day for Walters.

“We’ll start ramping up our work and our outreach, communications efforts, starting next week. It will build greater and greater through the election period,” said Cartmell.

Knack says, “It’s going to ramp up, I’m going to continue to do it. We’re going to continue to reach out in as many different ways as possible. Because at the end of the day, people need to know that their mayor is going to be responsive to them.”

Walters saying, “any opportunity we can find to connect with people, listen deeply to what people are feeling or what they’re thinking about Edmonton… I think you need a mayor with energy, and someone who can get going, and that’s who we are. We’re a campaign full of life.”