EDMONTON – In his state of the city address Tuesday, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel didn’t announce whether he’ll run for a fourth term, but he did target the provincial budget and the impact he’s worried it will have on Edmontonians.
“There are key challenges on the horizon, some of which emerged recently as a result of the provincial budget, others have re-emerged through increasing erosion of regional consensus. These challenges have sharpened my focus and raised questions I feel I must pursue,” said Mandel in his address.
“I know that there is expectation in this moment – one that I set myself – that I would answer a key question today about whether I would seek re-election this fall,” he added.
“And as much as I pride myself on giving clear answers – I do not have an answer today. Answering this question means determining whether a job feels finished, whether the things that I promised to do sit comfortably in the ‘done’ pile. While there is much we have accomplished, I am not so concerned about that today. Instead, key issues affecting the state of our City are genuinely unsettled in my mind. So I cannot, in good conscience, tell you today what my intentions are.”
Mandel went on to outline some of the issues left unresolved: cuts to post-secondary education, annexation applications, a big city charter, and the downtown arena.
“Historically, Edmonton needs to stand up for itself a little more,” Mandel told reporters following the speech. “We are an education centre. It’s one of our fundamental industries. There are many others – government, oil services – but education is our fundamental industry, we have to have that strong. Without a strong post-secondary institution, we have troubles in the city.”
“I think that I’m here to speak for the city of Edmonton, the city of Edmonton is what I believe in,” he added. “I believe this province is a marvelous place but our universities don’t just teach kids from Edmonton, they teach kids from Leduc, Calgary, Lethbridge, we have engineering students from all over the world, so it’s something that’s vitally important to all of us.”
Minister of Advanced Education and Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk said Mandel’s speech surprised him.
“It comes totally out of left field.”
Lukaszuk said it’s the “first time the mayor has ever has spoken on that subject matter. I didn’t know he had that much in-depth knowledge about post-secondary education, but if he does, I’m always looking for good constructive ideas and I hope that he will share them with me.”
He described the speech as misinformed and “not inspiring.”
“The gist of the speech was that if the province did everything I want them to do, and all the neighbours surrounding Edmonton did everything I want them to do, and the federal government did everything I want them to do, then my job would be done. Well, that’s not how the system works.”
However, Lukaszuk said he’s looking forward to meeting with Mandel soon to discuss the issues he raised in more detail.
“I’ll take it with a grain of salt. I’m sure he’ll want to meet within the next few days and we’ll discuss those issues in a much more collaborative manner.”
When asked why he chose to raise his concerns in such a public forum instead of privately, Mandel said he hoped it would give the issues more attention.
“I think a public forum will bring the issues more to the front. To be frank, we tried that with Capital Health and met quietly behind the scenes, and said how important Capital Health was to the city of Edmonton and why a change to that was going to make a big impact on us, and also be a bad thing for the health system. But we were not able to make inroads into the decision.”
“I really believe the time now is to stand up for the city of Edmonton. These issues are vitally important to our future, and I think it’s time now that we begin to deal with those in a different way and maybe find some solutions.”
Mandel admitted, prior to the provincial budget, he was more comfortable making a decision about his political future.
“I could have had a clear head to make the decision. But now, I think those issues are important to me and I have to speak up on them.”
Mandel stressed that he’s not picking a fight with the province.
“This isn’t about the city versus the province. This is about the city, that I’m the mayor of, standing up for the city of Edmonton and issues that I think are important. This has got nothing to do with fighting with the province. I happen to like the provincial government… but I think some of the policies they’re doing are short-term.”
While his decision not to make a decision shocked the roughly 2,000 people in attendance, some city councillors said they weren’t surprised.
“I firmly believed that he would kind of wait,” said Kerry Diotte. “What’s the rush? He’s the mayor. He’s obviously very popular. There’s no need on his part to rush, and I respect that.”
Diotte said a lot of people have been encouraging him to run for mayor, but stressed he’d have to see “a lot of support” before he’d throw his hat in the ring.
“I’m not surprised,” said Amarjeet Sohi. “I think that there are so many things on the go, the arena deal, the regional stuff, and the recent budget from the province… too many uncertainties.”
“Listening to his speech, I think that’s on his mind. Does he need more time?”
Councillor Don Iveson was quick to admit he was surprised by Mandel’s announcement.
“The mayor’s got a real tough decision to make and out of respect, we’ve got to let him make it on his own time.”
When asked if he was considering running for mayor, Iveson responded:
“There are lots of us on council who have been inspired by the mayor’s leadership who, if he decides not to run, might consider running,” he said.
“I think the Mayor’s been a remarkable leader for the city and I think it would be very, very difficult for anyone to take him on, so I don’t think anyone on council is silly enough to do that.”
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View the mayor’s full speech below:
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