Stephen Mandel was re-elected as mayor of Edmonton.

While the results of Edmonton’s civic election Monday were disappointing in some respects, they were quite positive in others.

On Monday I talked about my choices for Edmonton city council, mayor and Edmonton Public School Board. Unfortunately only one of my three choices was successful.

It was a tough, bitter and divisive campaign with the Edmonton City Centre Airport being probably the biggest issue of the entire campaign.

Should it have been? I don’t think so. I think taxes, a new arena and the LRT are far bigger issues going forward, but leave it to a special interest group to hijack the entire election for their own purposes. I know we haven’t heard the last of this issue.

City council and the Edmonton Public School Board should also be working together on the issue of school closures.

City Council – Ward 7 Scott McKeen

I actively campaigned for Scott McKeen and unfortunately he fell short. I have to give Scott a lot of credit for his positive campaign, positive vision and putting together a great campaign team in a short period of time.

The incumbent won with 7,138 votes to Scott’s 5,269. My hope is that there will be another run, but only time will tell. I truly believe that Scott McKeen had the best vision for Ward 7 and I think city council could certainly adopt some of his ideas.

His ideas have certainly provoked me to look at my community association in a new light. Thank you for running Scott. It was an honour and a privilege to work with you on your campaign. Good luck in your future endeavours!

Public School Board trustee – Ward B

Unfortunately the candidate I chose for Ward B came in dead last. I really liked Darryl Lagerquist’s platform. I will be keeping an eye on the incumbent for the next three years though. I am not sure how many people who voted for him are aware of his voting to close schools. Perhaps they’ll be more aware in this next school review when he votes to close their school.

I think school closures are a critical issue in Edmonton and one that our new city council should be much more active in combatting. With flawed decision criteria, EPSB can destroy neighbourhoods with their decisions. EPSB can blame the province for flawed criteria, and no doubt the government of Alberta can take a large portion of the blame for crappy legislation and education underfunding.

One of Scott McKeen’s main planks in his platform was halting urban sprawl. School closures are really a direct result of sprawl as development occurs mainly on the outside edges of the city while older schools at the center of Edmonton languish. School closures in older Edmonton neighbourhoods will only accelerate the sprawl as residents evacuate Edmonton’s core looking for newer schools they’re sure won’t close.

Edmonton mayor – Stephen Mandel

Stephen Mandel was re-elected with a handy majority. As I stated before, if there had been another worthy candidate for mayor, I would have voted that way.  Mandel was the best choice this time.

One would hope that Mandel’s resounding victory would put the City Centre Airport to rest, but that’s not going to stop Envision Edmonton from suing the city or newly elected Ward 11 city councilor Kerry Diotte from pushing for an airport plebiscite. If this were Wheel of Fortune, the first three letters I’d choose are: W T F.

It’s time to move forward and make sure the development is all above board and strictly in the best interests of Edmontonians. Perhaps Kerry Diotte and Envision Edmonton didn’t get the message that all the incumbents won in Monday’s election.

Voter turnout was a disappointing 34.3 per cent for 2010, but it was an improvement over the 27.24 per cent voter turnout in 2007.

I feel positive about Edmonton’s future, and the next three years ought to be very interesting.

I haven’t been particularly involved in political debate about the issues facing Edmonton, but I have been active in helping Ward 7 city council candidate Scott McKeen in his campaign. I have to give Scott credit for running a positive campaign, not that there’s been any mudslinging in this ward.

The City Centre Airport issue has emerged as one of the big issues in the campaign, mainly due to the efforts of Envision Edmonton. Should this have been the main issue? In my opinion, no. The decision was made by city council in 2009 to close the airport and it should have been left alone.

US-style attack politics

If you’ve followed the issues on Twitter under the hashtag #yegvotes, you would’ve noticed a very negative tone to the debate, and I will attribute that in large part to Envision Edmonton and its tactics. They have certainly imported American-style attack politics. It’s a rather un-Canadian way of conducting political campaigns and it has backfired on them.

In the last week some of Envision Edmonton’s underhanded  tactics have come to light with the revelation that an Envision Edmonton spokesman and David Dorward mayoral campaign volunteer impersonated a Seattle Times reporter and attempted to interview one local council candidate.

Envision Edmonton also used their approximately 73,000 person failed petition as a phone list to campaign on behalf of pro-airport candidates. I’m sure anyone who had signed that petition hadn’t anticipated ending up on an auto-dialer.

On the doorstep: not negative

Having gone out a couple of days doing doorknocking on Scott McKeen’s behalf, I noticed a rather different tone on the doorstep. I didn’t have a single person upset with me and I heard from other volunteers of only a few people who were quite negative.

It’s easy to sit behind a screen and take potshots at opponents, but very different to debate face-to-face. I wasn’t out on doorsteps to debate anyway, but to get the word out. People did have some questions and I was happy to answer as best I could.

Politics in the age of participation

While social media has played an important role in politics, I think the most important part of any campaign is getting out and meeting people face to face. Scott has done a lot of that and it’s been interesting seeing the campaign from the inside. I’ve helped out on a few campaigns in the past, but never to the extent I have this time.

Working in online marketing, I know the necessity and value of online promotional efforts in a political campaign. Unless you’ve got huge name recognition though, you have to be active and get out of the campaign office to truly succeed. I have much more respect now for any politician who is out campaigning on the doorstep. (Doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily agree with them!)

With a well-coordinated campaign, social media and good Internet marketing such as search engine optimization and pay per click advertising can really supplement a political campaign.

Issues in Edmonton

I think the important issues in this election weren’t really talked about much, having been sidetracked by the airport issue. The next council has a number of important issues facing the city:

• Transportation – Don’t get me started on transportation: snow clearing, the Anthony Henday, $300 million interchanges, LRT, Edmonton Police Service guarding road construction and more. Edmonton is continuing to grow and needs a robust transportation infrastructure. Taking out half of a major commuter road (Stony Plain Road) to have in-road LRT is ludicrous and won’t make the transportation situation better, it’ll make it worse. This last council seemed to be in a rush to get it going in hopes of having it for their 2017 world’s fair bid. I could write a book on this one.
• Prediction: Current LRT model will get pushed ahead and Edmontonians will balk at the price tag.
• Taxes – Probably the main issue that upsets people: increasing property taxes. Edmonton has consistently seen fairly hefty property tax increases in recent years and I don’t know that the new city council has much more room to increase taxes. The city has lots of big ideas it wants to pursue, but taxpayers are tired of the increasing bite out of their wallets.
• Prediction: Council may get away with one more big increase, but after that they’ll be in line with inflation. (Hey, I can be hopeful.)
• Downtown arena – Oilers owner Daryl Katz is trying to convince the city of the need for a downtown arena mainly financed by taxpayers. This issue, I’m predicting, will be another contentious one. Edmonton’s taxpayers are eager for some relief and likely not too impressed with the idea of a massive transfer of their tax dollars to a private business. In the unlikely event that a slate of Envision Edmonton candidates make it to council, I’m predicting they wouldn’t send the issue to a plebiscite.
• Prediction: Council turns down Katz & he moves the Oilers to Hamilton.
• City Centre Airport: I said it before that Envision Edmonton wouldn’t take no for an answer, and I was right. They’re taking the city to court and I’m sure we won’t hear the end of it.
• Prediction: The million or so tax dollars the city takes in every year from business at the City Centre Airport will be eaten up in legal fees for at least the next five years. I bet Edmontonians never envisioned that.

Who did I vote for?

Well, I haven’t voted yet, but here’s the plan:

Edmonton city council Ward 7:Scott McKeen. I like Scott, and I like what he stands for, which is why I helped him on his campaign. This former Edmonton Journal columnist knows Edmonton and I firmly believe he’ll do a great job for Ward 7 and for the city.

Edmonton mayor: Stephen Mandel. To be honest, I’m not happy with ANY of the mayoral candidates, but Mandel is the best of the bunch, unfortunately. Dorward, aside from the Envision Edmonton BS, just isn’t leadership material from a mayoral perspective. I don’t like settling for a candidate, but in this case I am. Consider it more of a strategic vote. Also not fond of that.

Edmonton Public School Board Trustee Ward B: Darryl Lagerquist. I’m not happy with the fact that the incumbent Ken Shipka doesn’t have much to say about anything and he’s voted to close schools. I think Lagerquist is the best option. Closing schools just isn’t an option and I think trustees need to have the balls to take on the real culprit: the Alberta government.

Truth and reconciliation

Envision Edmonton has added a decidedly hostile tone to the political debate in Edmonton lately, and I’m hoping that is something that will change. Perhaps we should have a big Tweetup and a group hug and just move on. I have found that people who will attack me online really won’t do it face to face. I’m perfectly prepared for a fist fight, but would prefer a rational discussion over a few beers. : )

All kidding aside, I think it’s better for issues that have been dealt with to be put aside, fences mended, apologies made (on both sides), lawsuits dropped and everyone should look forward to the future.

If we want to conduct our politics like they do south of the border, expect the same results. The US is a disaster right now (economically and politically) and it’s hardly a good example to follow. Canadians, generally, are a more respectful and thoughtful bunch and politics by consensus has worked well for us in the past.

We can have vigorous political debate without viewing the other side as “the enemy.” If you feel inclined to hang on to the political past, heed the lyrics of The Eagles and get over it!

Last year I supported closing the airport and I still support it. Exactly what happens at ECCA, how and when, is something I am interested in.

It’s not often a city has a chance to redevelop such a large parcel of land so close to its downtown. It needs to be done right.

So, to summarize, here are the messages Envision Edmonton and its supporters are sending out:

• We’re worried about what will happen to existing jobs at the City Centre Airport
• There may be family upheaval
• People will die because medevac patients may take longer to get to the hospital
• The “average” person wants the airport to stay open

So, Mack, you know what your opposition to the airport is going to do? It’s going to kill people and force them out of work (not necessarily in that order)! (I am kidding of course, but this is the undertone of the opposition.)

How valid any of Envision Edmonton’s points are, is up for debate. I haven’t extensively researched what has been done to make the case for the closure yet, but I have some questions that I believe are important.

I would like to see an analysis of the business case for closing the airport, from the city’s perspective, and have some questions:

• How much does the city currently net from the airport? Does the city make anything on it in terms of property tax?
• Has the city done an estimate of how much it would net if the City Centre Airport were to be fully developed? How does that compare to what it currently nets? How much will the city make from the sale of City Centre Airport land?
• If an environmental cleanup is required on the site, how much will it cost and who will pay? And, if an environmental cleanup is required, why hasn’t it already been done if people are aware of that need?
• What will be done to ease the transition for the businesses affected? How about for medevac flights? For helicopter flights, can they land directly at local hospitals? It would make sense if they could.
• Has there been a realistic assessment of how the businesses at the City Centre Airport will transition? Which ones are likely to close? How many jobs are likely to be lost? What will it cost the city to break leases, etc?
• How many jobs are likely to be created during a reconstruction of the City Centre Airport lands?

From the city’s perspective, I suspect the business case is strongly in favour of the current course of action. It’s not like this kind of thing hasn’t happened before. Vancouver’s gone through redevelopments like Granville Island, Yaletown and the Expo lands. Any other examples?

Development that made sense in the past may not make sense in the future. Sometimes tough decisions have to be made and it’s not always the case that nobody will suffer.

I’ve only been in Edmonton since early 2008 and I’ve sat on the sidelines of this debate listening to both sides. I really haven’t had an opinion on it until recently because I wanted to get both sides before deciding.

I’ve listened to the each case and I believe that Edmonton city council should make the decision to close Edmonton City Centre Airport (ECCA).

I understand the argument for having scheduled service available right inside the city limits, but it seems that was decided in the 90s to consolidate scheduled passenger service at Edmonton International Airport (YEG). Makes sense because there’s absolutely no room to grow at ECCA, nor would it make sense to split scheduled passenger service between Edmonton’s airports. Making connections to different airlines would be a nightmare.

Mack Male has been blogging about the issue quite a lot lately and started the website NotMyAirport.ca. Check out this video with him debating about closing ECCA.

So, who does the ECCA serve now? It seems that it’s private pilots, charters, medevac flights and flight schools. Of course there are a number of businesses related to the operation of ECCA that rely on it, including a number of hotels.

It’s never easy to make a big decision to close this type of facility and not one to take lightly. While I am in favour of closing the airport, despite the negative impacts it may have on the businesses related to it, I believe that it will be a positive thing for Edmonton in the long term.

Benefits to closing ECCA

• NAIT will have room to expand
• Taller buildings in downtown Edmonton – Edmonton’s had height restrictions on its buildings due to safety issues related to the airport. Taller buildings around Edmonton will allow for greater density of development. The benefit? Perhaps this will alleviate some of the sprawl Edmonton is notorious for.
• Development – imagine the amount of economic activity that would be generated by developing an area larger than Edmonton’s downtown. Alberta’s still got one of the strongest economies in North America and it would have one of the hottest development areas in the world too. Vancouver experienced a huge boom in development with the Expo lands redevelopment. There will also be economic activity created by the businesses moving from their locations at the ECCA.
• Certainty – by finally putting the issue to rest, the city can focus on what is going to happen with the ECCA land. While it will cause consternation among users of the airport and those who rely on it economically, it will also (I think) excite the rest of the city about the possibilities the land could be used for.

Caveats

While I am in favour of ECCA’s closure, I wonder if the current Edmonton city council is the right council to lead the charge to redevelop the Edmonton City Centre Airport lands.

Redeveloping Edmonton’s City Centre Airport lands would be a huge job and I would hope that council would get a lot of community input on it. I would also hope that they would take the windfall from selling off and developing those lands and maybe do something like, oh, I don’t know, build an LRT extension to the airport?

Looking at a map, the area of the ECCA is larger than Edmonton’s downtown. This is a rare opportunity to create something great, so we need to make sure it’s done right. That opportunity we’ll never see again.

We need people on council with vision. Do we have that now? I can’t comment with any authority there. What do you think? I look at the state of Edmonton now and wonder, who do we blame for the absolutely stupid sprawl, ridiculously limited LRT, etc?

I hope council makes the right decision and closes the airport completely. The spineless route would be the phased route. I understand the rationale is to give businesses time to adjust and relocate, but if the lands are going to be redeveloped, then just do it.

Edmonton moves forward by closing ECCA

There is some speculation that the decision won’t be made today, and I think that’s fair. It’s a big decision and better that it be an informed one than not. Ultimately though, the decision needs to be made to close the airport entirely, not in phases. Edmonton needs to move ahead.

(Related post: Summer 2010 – With the city moving ahead with its decision to close ECCA – Edmonton Centre Airport & Envision Edmonton calling for a plebiscite, there’s a debate on again about what should happen to ECCA.)