‘Red Deer’s decade’: Mayor believes future is bright for central Alberta city

Red Deer mayor Ken Johnston on Alberta Primetime, August 19, 2025.

Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the Amazing Race in Red Deer, downtown development and more.

Michael Higgins: The new season of Amazing Race Canada may have opened in Edmonton, but it quickly headed south down the QE2 — landing competitors in Red Deer.

It was the first time the show visited Alberta’s third largest city.

The production team partnered with Tourism Red Deer. What’s the payoff of landing in the national spotlight like that?

Ken Johnston: It certainly isn’t the first time Red Deer landed in the national spotlight, but more usually for sporting events — national championships, those kinds of things.

I think what we really offered to the national stage was a glimpse of the incredible offering Red Deer has, not just from a beauty perspective or environmental perspective, but from the opportunity to enjoy the amenities that we have. Great features on our trail systems, the ski facility and so on.

It was just thrilling. It was one of those events in the city that really galvanized such an immense amount of civic pride.

When we think about how tourism now is really getting that focal point in Canada, from the problems we’re having with our neighbors to the south, Red Deer really offers a tremendous alternative for those folks that are looking for city feel but very much more of a of a rural kind of flavor. So yeah, it was a big event for us.

MH: You bring up the cross border challenges with the Trump administration. Red Deer has joined a coalition of 11 municipalities on what’s known as the Central Alberta Economic Resilience Task Force. What’s driving that partnership?

KJ: More than anything, it’s the realization that we can’t hang our futures on a trading partner — and not just a trading partner, but in other areas such as defence, we just simply can’t depend on the United States the way that we have.

The wake up call that Mr. Trump gave us early in his mandate has proven, I think, very positive for us. Not just in Red Deer and not just in Alberta, but right across the country. Frankly, I think we’ve been under-hitting our potential for a number of years.

This particular approach by the United States is really enabling us to see what our strengths are — what we’re capable of in markets other than the United States, and indeed even setting our own parameters between provinces and interprovincial trade. So it’s an exciting time.

Is it a time of uncertainty? Yes, for sure. Are there some bumps in the road? Yes. But we’re committed to nation building, provincial building, city building, more so than any other time that I’ve seen certainly in my lifetime.

MH: You bring up city building — downtown revitalization is on the radar in a big way this summer.

What are you asking of Red Deer residents, and what’s hanging in the balance?

KJ: You could certainly ask any mayor in any city what the importance of a vibrant downtown is, and you’ll get a similar response. There are several positive things that are happening in Red Deer right now.

One is the emergence of Capstone as a new development. It’s a centre of quite an exciting rebirth. We’ve also done a couple of things.

One, we’ve have taken a new approach to economic development itself and to how we are positioning our downtown for growth.

(Another) is the hospital project, which will transform our city over the next five to 10 years.

We’re going to need possibly as many as 5,000 new medical professionals for that project, which will have a five- to six-year life span on it. It’s a $2 billion project. This will spill over obviously into our downtown, and we need to be ready for that.

Frankly, I call it Red Deer’s decade — this next decade in our in our city’s history, and I would argue in our province’s history, will see Red Deer squarely in the middle of it.

MH: You’ve made a decision not to seek a second term as mayor.

With retirement from public life looming after 12 years in municipal politics in Red Deer, how are you reflecting on the accomplishments and challenges during your time in the mayor’s chair?

KH: When you look at it, you kind of wonder how fast four years can go. When I ran back in 2021, it was to build up more of a collaborative partnership with tourism, with economic development, with the province of Alberta, with the building industry and so on, let alone the social agencies and cultural groups that we have in the city.

It’s been four years of an incredible outreach and an incredible lift in those relationships that have really positioned as, what I’ll call again, that decade of growth that begins now and will come to Red Deer.

It’s been an extraordinary journey. It’s been an incredible privilege. Back in January, I announced that I’d be retiring — I’m 71 now, and Father Time will dictate some of those life stages you go through.

I’m grateful for the 12 years I had. I’m grateful for the privilege that Red Deer gave me, and I’ll still be active in the community to say the very least.