With the next municipal election a little over eight months away, Edmontonians are already throwing their names into the hat for a seat in council chambers.
So what does it take to be a city councillor? Dedication, for one.
“This work is not easy,” Ward 9 councillor Tim Cartmell said. “It’s a 70-hour-a-week thing.”
“Ordinarily you’d be going to events at the lunch hour, you’d be going to events before you started in the morning, go to breakfasts. You might even be going to evening eventso (or events) on the weekends,” Ward 5 councillor Sarah Hamilton explained.
While council and committee meetings are often what people think of when it comes to the role of a councillor, there’s a lot of work behind the scenes too.
“It’s a little bit like going to school. You don’t just go to class, you end up doing a lot of homework,” Hamilton said.
Coun. Bev Esslinger has represented Ward 2 since 2013, when she was one of six new faces on council.
“There’s really a strong learning curve when you first come in,” she said.
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But she said the more senior councillors stepped up to show the newbies the ropes, and she would like to repay the favour.
“There is orientation but there’s nothing like having someone you can ask the questions of,” Esslinger said.
“‘What would you do about this? How would you handle it?'”
Despite the challenges, more than 20 Edmontonians have already registered as a candidate for council.
The only requirements are that you’re a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years old and have lived in Edmonton for at least six months.
“The opportunity to have new people involved and new ideas and new perspectives is always refreshing,” Cartmell said.
The makeup of council is sure to change come the fall. For one thing, the ward names and boundaries are all changing.
READ MORE: 12 Indigenous names for updated Edmonton wards proposed
In addition to that, Mayor Don Iveson and councillors Scott McKeen and Michael Walters won’t be seeking re-election, so their seats are open for the taking.
“There’s going to be a lot of open wards, and I know a lot of candidates are going to flock to those thinking it’s going to be easier,” Ward 3 councillor, Jon Dziadyk explained.
To that point, two ridings — Métis and papastew — each already have a handful of candidates officially in the running.
Other ridings, however, like Nakota Isga and Anirniq, have no candidates registered yet.
There is paperwork that needs to be filled out, and it costs $100 to register.
But contrary to some perceptions, you don’t need a huge bankroll to win.
Last election, Dziadyk knocked off incumbent Dave Loken after only collecting a few hundred dollars in donations.
Dziadyk contributed some of his own money to the campaign, spending less than $10,000 total to get elected.
He said his winning strategy was knocking on thousands of doors.
“I didn’t come from the upper echelons of society,” the councillor said. “I wasn’t interconnected with all the different organizations that are commonplace in Edmonton. I was just a person with ideas.”
One of the registration forms requires signatures of support from 25 eligible voters.
But perhaps the best way to decide if you’re interested in a run for municipal office is to get acquainted with how it all works.
“Watch a meeting, listen to the issues that get discussed,” Hamilton suggested.
“Write questions that you could ask. Talk to current or former city councillors about what their experience is.”
Nomination papers can be filed in person with an appointment with Elections Edmonton, or via mail.
The election is set to take place on Oct. 18.
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