Four rookies will be joining the eight incumbents who were elected to Edmonton city council this week in the municipal election.
In Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi, transit worker Jon Morgan beat out former councillor Jennifer Rice.
Morgan has worked for the Edmonton Transit Service for nearly 19 years in roles such as LRT inspector and control room superintendent
He’s been active in his southwest Edmonton ward, volunteering for the Heritage Point Community League, Johnny Bright School council and as a youth soccer coach.
As a new councillor, Morgan is getting up to speed but already knows what his first priority will be.
“For this area, it’s going to be infrastructure. We have pretty high density here in the southwest — especially in the Heritage Valley,” Morgan explained.
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“I’m really concerned about the roads in this area, really concerned about transit — mobility in general.”
This is Morgan’s second time running for council after losing in 2021, in a ward he says is largely split north and south — between existing, established communities north of Anthony Henday Drive and new areas still under construction towards the outskirts of the city.
“Sidewalks are really in disrepair in a lot of our neighbourhoods up there (in the north).”
On Friday, Edmonton Elections released the final, official numbers from the election this past Monday.
The councillor who received both the greatest number of votes and also won by the largest percentage was Michael Janz in Ward papastew.
The former Edmonton Public Schools trustee is entering his second term on city council after receiving 10,620 votes — 56.87 per cent of the 18,675 ballots cast in that central Edmonton ward.
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Not all wards had equal turnout.
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The highest number of ballots cast was in the west end ward of sipiwiyiniwak, where there was no incumbent after Sarah Hamilton elected not to run for council again.
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Hamilton’s departure left an opening for new councillor-elect Thu Parmar.
Parmar has worked in management at Alberta Health and in the private sector for pharmaceutical companies.
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Most recently, she was the vice-president of the Alberta and N.W.T. chapter of the Canadian Red Cross — a job she was preparing to return to after Monday’s initial vote count that had her in second place, six votes behind Better Edmonton candidate Darrell Friesen.
Seven people ran for the open seat, and the top contenders came so close after the first round of hand counting, election officials said the ballots all needed to be examined again.
In the end, Parmar won with 6,667 votes — 30.36 per cent of the 21,962 cast.
She’s previously volunteered in several roles, including president, at the Cameron Heights Community League and is a recipient of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal.
She said she heard a lot of concerns while she knocked on more than 35,000 doors in the campaign, saying she wants to rebuild trust with Edmontonians and city council.
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“I’d love to be able to increase engagement, to increase transparency and make it easy for people to reach out to the government.”
The ward with the fewest votes cast was O-day’min that encompasses downtown and central Edmonton, where 12,443 ballots were recorded. There, incumbent Anne Stevenson was re-elected with 6,269 votes, or 50.38 per cent of the vote.
Over in pihêsiwin in southwest Edmonton, voters selected an Edmonton Police Service staff sergeant and former union leader as their representative.
Better Edmonton candidate Michael Elliott, who won by 7,984 votes, capturing 41 per cent of the support, hopes to put his policing background to good use in improving public safety.
“The first steps I want to see, from my perspective, is address the relationship between city council and EPS. I believe it was quite fractured.”
Elliott also wants to work on relationships with the provincial and federal government.
He thanked his supporters, but also wanted to bridge gaps in a city that saw a lot of votes go to people who didn’t win.
“For those that didn’t vote for me — allow me to gain your trust and respect.”
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In Nakota Isga, mayor-elect Andrew Knack’s old west end ward, entrepreneur Reed Clarke got the most votes.
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Clarke has a master of business administration. He’s the founder of Ross Flats Vintage Apparel and was previously the CEO of Sport Edmonton and the president, CEO and owner of the Edmonton Stingers basketball team.
Clarke has sat on several boards, including Explore Edmonton, Sport Central, KidsSport Edmonton, the Royal Glenora Club and Alberta Basketball Association.
The Better Edmonton candidate wants to improve collaboration and says he’s open to working with anyone.
“Have the approach ‘we’re all here together, we’re all on one team. We all have the best interests of Edmonton at heart.’”
Reed also plans to maintain an office in his ward throughout his term, to improve engagement with residents.
“I’m super excited. I’m pumped to do this. I can’t believe it’s happening, but I’m ready to get started.”
Rounding out the group in council chambers will be Andrew Knack, who will now step up to the mayor’s chair after receiving 78,519 votes — 37.98 per cent of the ballots cast for mayor.
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In Edmonton, the city estimated there were 679,830 eligible voters and of those, 205,758 cast ballots — a voter turnout of 30.27 per cent. That’s the lowest voter turnout in Edmonton since 2007.
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Advance voting occurred over five days earlier in October, during which 41,340 Edmonton residents cast their ballots.
The new council will be sworn in on Wednesday.
Below is a full list of Edmonton’s new city council and by how much they won:
