So What's Happening in Edmonton For Picking Our Next Mayor?

So I have received information on a poll done on preferred candidates for the Edmonton Mayoralty race this October.

This data is interesting as a provocation to conversation - not at all indicative or predicative of the outcome.  I offer these results not to enhance the superficial horse-race analysis that is the media fodder of most of these polls.  Note also that the predicative nature of "opinion" polls usually make astrology look good.

This poll is random in the province with a very small number of folks from Edmonton.  So this is not "grain of salt" stuff, it is an invitation to engage in a citizen's conversation about what character, capacity and caring do we want in the nest Mayor of Edmonton?

Get to know the candidates beyond the media report. Come to forums, read bloggers (with a grain of salt) consider what is important to you about leadership.  What is the stuff of being  citizen of Edmonton that is important to you?  Which candidate comes closest to your sense of the city...and can you say clearly why you will vote for the candidate you "best" support.  Don't expect any one candidate to b perfect.  They aren't, but neither are we in how we made decisions on who we will grant our consent to govern us.

So as at between April 20 to May 4, when only one candidate has actually declared intentions to run, here are the results:

1. Kerry Diotte: 19.4%
2. Don Iveson 17.6%
3. Karen Liebovici 15.1%
4. Tony Catarina 12.9%
5. Amarjeet Sohi 6.9%

Diotte has declared he was running before the poll and Sohi and said he is not after the poll.

So don't jump to conclusions but do create time and place for conversations on the future of Edmonton, the leadership we need and how do we get it?

Interested in our comments and hope for a conversation about the kind of leadership we need for Edmonton on this blog.

Why I Love Edmonton

Ok - so I am a homer...not of the Simpson variety.  Here is a great video that captures my sense of my home town...Edmonton, Alberta.  Enjoy!

Canada's National Newspaper Talks About the Arts and Alberta...YES!

The Globe and Mail is covering Stelmach's Alberta in more than just energy business or environmental terms...they are looking into the Arts in Alberta too...Terrific.

I spent some time on the phone recently with Alexandra Gill who penned the piece for the Globe and Mail. Here is the link in case you missed it.

The artistic soul of Alberta has long been in Edmonton where there is more variety, depth, diversity and tradition...but Calgary is coming on strong. The emergence of other areas like Red Deer, Athabasca, Lethbridge to name a few are adding to the new Alberta too. It is time we got beyond the redneck and roughneck caricature imagery that has become a stifling cliche for what the rest of Canada has come to see as Albertan.

Arts, culture and heritage has been ignored for far too long by the GOA. I expect that will change with a new Premier. The leadership campaign saw a few candidates appreciate the creative spirit that beats in the breast of the new Alberta. I trust this “political will” shall persist then quickly evolve into some serious support.

There is a new sense of what it means to be Albertan in every corner of the province. There is a more vibrant and vital definition about what quality of life really means emerging throughout Alberta today. I did a Policy Channel interview with Simon Brault, the Vice Chair of the Canada Council on the role and importance of the arts to society and the economy. Here is that link as well

The arts, culture and heritage are 21st century public infrastructure in a knowledge based economy and technologically sophisticated society like Alberta, just as roads and rails were in the early industrial economy.