‘I feel excited about our city’: Former Edmonton councillor eyes mayor’s chair

Former Edmonton city councillor, Michael Walters, speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about his mayoral campaign.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: What is it about the current municipal political dynamic in Edmonton that causes you to open a door at this moment in time?

Michael Walters: I think there’s a real opportunity to get excited about our city. I feel excited about our city. I feel excited about the next four years. There are certainly some challenges that we face that we may not quite have got a handle on in the last four years that I think require some unifying, some practical and decisive leadership.

I looked at the field, I looked at the challenges and the opportunities, I looked at this moment in time, I feel what I have to offer to my city is what’s needed. So here I am taking a crack at it.

MH: There’s a window, but any worries that you are late to the race? The other key candidates are well established in this race. They made their intentions known months ago.

MW: Or some might say you could characterize it as just in time. I feel like the race needed some more ideas, some more energy, more focus, and ultimately, when I think about what the city is facing from a challenge perspective, whether you talk about public safety, affordability, just the basic functioning, what I would call normalizing of mediocrity.

In some ways, we need to get over those humps and take advantage of enormous opportunity. 140,000 people moving here in the last four years since I’ve been on council, leading the country, in large parts of the economy. There’s huge opportunities to take advantage of and I think the city needs a strong leader.

MH: You’re looking for an opportunity. What do you think voters have to choose from on this current mayoral ballot, and what sets you apart?

MW: When I think about some of the issues around public safety, homelessness, affordability, you’re going to hear similar things from a number of different candidates. I think it really comes down to track record, approach and results.

I’ve been in Edmonton working front lines, both at the not-for-profit, on two terms on city council, and now in the last four years as part owner of a small business. This vast degree of experience that cuts across all sectors of our city.

The challenges that we’re facing are going to require some serious leadership. I think it’s good to be a project manager, if the job is project manager, but when you’re vying to be the mayor, it’s important that you can unify people and bring people together to drive an agenda forward, just like it’s important to be able to engage everybody as much as possible.

But fundamentally, at a certain point, you have to make decisions. So it’s important to be decisive and focused. When I think about my ability to bring coalitions together, collaborate with people who think differently than me, potentially have to work with a council that’s very diverse and I may not agree with all the time, we’re going to have to come together, work together, be clear, focused, and make hard decisions that are really for the benefit of our city and take advantage of those opportunities that I talked about.

MH: As you hit the campaign trail, what are you prepared for in terms of the issues that you expect voters to drop on your lap?

MW: I’m a very active participant in the City of Edmonton even though I haven’t been on council. I am one of those voters. I was one of those voters for owning a business downtown. I still see the struggles we’re having around safety and the suffering of people languishing on the street.

I see a part of me that’s on the current city council. What I’ve seen in the last four years are those issues around public safety, homelessness. I’m going to hear those issues because I know I experienced those issues myself.

My children are now 21, and 18. They’re starting their lives in Edmonton, taking public transit to university. Safety on public transit, safety in our communities is going to be an issue. They love Edmonton. My boys, they want to stay in Edmonton. They need to be able to afford homes in Edmonton. So the continued building of housing and the infrastructure to support a growing city is important.

I’m going to hear all these issues for sure, and I think what we need to project outwards is a city that is committed to being successful, running successful public services, really helping people and businesses thrive and a city that we can be proud of.

I feel like when we see the homelessness issue as one example, which is really close to my heart, I would see in my going to client meetings in the last four years, walking downtown, some of the same people that are suffering, that are day after day, week after week, and I ask myself, who’s looking after these folks? What are we doing about this?

Our relationship with the province matters a great deal. There’s been a lot of acrimony and divisiveness, different political camps, different issues, or different perspectives, on how to address that. It’s really not a left-right issue, it’s a life and death issue, and the better the relationship with the province, the more lives we’re going to save.

I think that is the example of the leadership I bring. Reaching out, building broad coalitions, getting stuff done. Results for people that care about a lot of the same stuff.

MH: Where do you stand on the degree of change the provincial government has implemented in municipal governance?

MW: I think that speaks back to the relationships. If there’s a poor relationship, it’s easier for the provincial government to do things to us, which then municipal politicians will respond to with negativity or just generally being upset and not feeling included.

I think that there’s an inherent power imbalance between federal government and provincial government, between provincial government and municipal government. That is the nature of our constitution, and that’s the world we have to live in. We can’t pretend it’s anything but that.

But, fundamentally, our relationship between our political leaders, we can agree on 75 per cent of an issue, and are both public administrations, the civil service could be working away at that, but the politicians will set up camp on the 25 per cent of the issues that we don’t agree on and wage war with each other. That just disintegrates the relationship, and avoids opportunities, or misses opportunities for us to be more effective on behalf of the people who are both of our bosses.

MH: You’re doing this as an Independent. You’re not alone in this mayoral race in that in that regard.

Why not set up a party or join an existing municipal party?

MW: I don’t think it’s about being late there. We could gather together a party, I suppose, but I just don’t think that’s necessary. Ultimately, a political party does not a team make. When we get to city hall, it’s the people that the citizen residents of each of the 12 wards send there.

So it is those people that are going to show up there. That I have to build a team, packing in my own agenda, my own party, with a group of people. I don’t know that that’s very resilient.

I think what happens, and I’ve been there before twice, where you get a really interesting collection of people with different experiences. That’s the beauty of municipal government. My job as mayor will be to appreciate, understand, develop common ground and move a cohesive agenda forward that really helps move the city positively, progressively, intelligently, and build a city that people can afford to pay for.