EDMONTON – The six candidates vying for the mayor’s chair shared their policies and answered questions in the second City of Edmonton organized mayoral forum on Monday at 11:30 a.m.
Kristine Acielo, Kerry Diotte, Don Iveson, Karen Leibovici, Josh Semotiuk, and Gordon Ward participated in the forum, which ran from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Monday at the Shaw Conference Centre. This was the second time all six candidates took part in a public forum.
The City of Edmonton is live streaming all the forums here.
All six candidates were given six minutes for opening remarks before taking questions from the in-person audience and questions posted online.
One audience member asked each candidate why they were running for mayor.
Acielo said she’s been campaigning for three years, and is single and has time to be mayor, and connect with citizens. She explains her motivation for getting involved in civic politics was the snow removal issue.
Diotte responded by saying that Edmonton is “going down a dangerous path” and he’d like to “bring common sense to City Hall for a change.” During the forum, Diotte promised that, if elected, he would freeze taxes at the rate of inflation. He said he would focus on “needs” over “wants.”
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Much of Leibovici’s comments centred on continuing momentum at City Hall.
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“We have so much potential,” she said. “We need to make sure our momentum… comes to fruition.” She said that city leadership needs to insure that “transformational projects” are not second-guessed, and that officials move forward with them.
Iveson focused on Edmonton as a city of innovation, and wanting to build on that strength. He says city leaders should be asking the community: “what are you doing?” and “how can I help?” He explains he wants to be mayor because he wants the city to be the place that future Edmontonians “are unequivocally proud to call home.”
In his opening remarks, Ward came out swinging; calling out some fellow candidates’ track records, and amount of experience. As a former business manager, Ward says he has the business experience to help manage the city. He also stressed it’s time for change; quoting Einstein.
“Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” he said.
Semotiuk gave brief responses, promised not to waste people’s time, and thanked the audience for listening to the candidates “flap their gums.”
He explained he is running for mayor because “he’s just a regular guy” who doesn’t feel represented by current civic politicians. Semotiuk, sporting his Corb Lund baseball hat once again, wrapped up the forum by saying, “thanks… random guy,” to a person who yelled “you rock” from the crowd, before encouraging “everyone to get out and vote – preferably for me – but just get out and vote.”
The next City-run mayoral forum will take place on Thursday, October 10 at 7 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Centre (14230-133 Avenue).
You can follow along with Global News’ live blog of all the mayoral candidates here.
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