Edmonton's incoming city council reflects voters' desire for change
CBC
Amarjeet Sohi, who will be Edmonton's first mayor of South Asian origin, will lead the most diverse city council in the city's history.
Eight of the 12 councillors elected Monday night are women, up from two on the previous council.
Four council members — Sohi, Keren Tang, Aaron Paquette and Jennifer Rice — are people of colour.
New faces are taking the places of four defeated incumbents — Tony Caterina, Jon Dziadyk, Moe Banga and Bev Esslinger.
According to Edmonton Elections, 37.6 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Robyn Henwood, an Alberta chair for Equal Voice, a national organization that works to elect and support woman at all levels of political office, said the night was a breakthrough win for female representation.
"This is an absolute win," Henwood said Tuesday. "These are wonderful candidates, regardless if they are female, but to see eight women on council really represents Edmonton.
"It is so good to see so many women stepping up and being acknowledged for their hard work and for what they can contribute."
With only four councillors from the previous council maintaining their seats, newcomers will outnumber veterans.
Sohi rolled to a commanding victory over Mike Nickel, his closest challenger.
Dave Cournoyer, host of Daveberta, a political podcast, said Sohi's race against Nickel set the stage for a battle between "two different visions of Edmonton."
Nickel, a vocal critic of LRT expansion and the city's spending decisions, had campaigned on tax cuts and enhancing safety and community policing.
Sohi campaigned on community investment, especially in social programs for homelessness, mental health and poverty, and vowed to support LRT expansion.
Cournoyer said Sohi's leadership style will likely echo that of his predecessor, Don Iveson.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.
Allison Hill says she tries to make people’s experience at the Thunder Bay Food Bank “as pleasant as possible.”
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.
Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.
Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are waking up without power on Saturday morning after high winds and rain hit the province on Friday night.