Edmonton Election: Municipal parties, explained

(Galen McDougall/CTV News Edmonton)

You might have seen some candidates in Edmonton’s election this year align themselves with one of two parties: Better Edmonton or the Principled Accountable Coalition for Edmonton (PACE).

In 2024, Bill 20 made sweeping changes to the Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA) and the Municipal Government Act (MGA).

Among them, both Edmonton and Calgary were given the choice to make use of a pilot project in October that allowed candidates to run on a party platform.

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Municipal political parties have been around for almost a century in Vancouver and almost 50 years in Montreal, but they’re relatively new to Alberta.

PACE was the first to register as a party for the October election. The group is running councillor candidates in nine wards.

Better Edmonton, the only other official party, has a council candidate in each ward and a mayoral candidate: Tim Cartmell.

Stephen Carter, president of Decide Campaigns and one of the creators of Better Edmonton as well as The Calgary Party, said the biggest advantage in the new rules is the money.

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“[Parties] have changed the game. Number one, you’re able to raise money in a different way … it’s foundationally shifted how much money can be donated,” he told CTV News Edmonton.

Having multiple candidates running in the same party also means fewer expenses for advertising as brochures and billboards can be co-ordinated.

“All of those things happen seamlessly within the party framework, rather than having to do it individually for 13 different candidates,” he said.

Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said Albertans may not see those benefits externally.

In an election where many voters have agreed change is needed, she expressed that some believe political parties may not be the change neither Edmonton nor Calgary is looking for.

“From where Albertans are … they don’t want their elected representatives to represent a party or an ideology. They want them to represent the voters and the issues that are most concerning to them,” she said in an interview Wednesday.

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“The polling doesn’t show people are really clear on who they want to vote for, and part of that is they may not know what these parties stand for,” she said.

Williams added that much of the pushback has been because many Albertans fear councillors won’t listen to their constituents if they’re concerned with party affiliations.

“The issues that concern people at the municipal level don’t really fit into ideological categories … Everybody wants these things. It’s just a question of how.”

Kennedy Stewart, a political science professor at Simon Fraser University and both a former Vancouver MP and mayor, said party politics in general might be what’s got Albertans worried.

“I would say the only thing less popular than politicians is political parties … there’s just a knee jerk reaction,” he told CTV News Edmonton.

While he understands public perception, Stewart said the practicalities of political parties, at least from his experience, is for ease of recognition and a unified platform.

Even on local issues like garbage days, infill debates, snow removal and city spending, Stewart said voting for a party that outlines how its candidates would deal with these issues in council could be beneficial.

Party bearings on council

In September, the Better Edmonton party announced it would essentially go dormant after the election results were in. Williams said how much of a role parties would play in council decisions is the “million dollar question.”

The easiest answer, Carter said, is that parties will have very little bearing on council, because the provincial law stipulates it.

Edmonton and Calgary’s MGA hasn’t shifted in the same way Vancouver’s has, for example.

“Even if we want to keep the party … we’re not allowed to caucus, we can’t meet to discuss the issues of the day prior to a meeting,” Carter said.

Stewart was an Independent as mayor in Vancouver and said his council was composed of “five councillors from a party called the Non-Partisan Association,” “three Green Party councillors,” “one kind of NDP-affiliated councillor,” and “one communist.”

“Sometimes they’d vote with me, sometimes they’d vote against me, sometimes they’d vote against each other. So the party discipline is very loose,” he said.

Unlike provincial and federal parties, municipal parties in Alberta couldn’t kick a member out for voting against their slate even if parties were allowed to convene during council.

Stewart said historically, municipal parties can take some time to grab hold, especially when wards diminish the need for a city-wide party stance.

Municipal slates in Edmonton, he said, would probably be here to stay if either party managed to elect a majority of its members come Oct. 20.

“If they don’t win any seats, then I don’t know if you’ll develop a system,” he said. “Might be a one-and-done thing.”