As we head into the final few days of the election, we want to share a few updates on our election project. If you’re still trying to decide who to vote for, we recommend taking the Taproot Survey to see which candidates align best with your views.
We have received several messages of gratitude for the Taproot Survey in recent weeks. Thanks to everyone who has reached out to us! Here are just a few of the comments we’ve received from voters:
- “It is so helpful for citizens who want to become informed on the elections.”
- “I came to realize how complex all the issues facing potential city councillors and potential mayors were.”
- “It’s really a great way to filter out the people you’d actually vote for.”
- “It was super easy and kinda fun.”
We have also heard from several candidates, who offered their thanks for the opportunity to share their views with voters. One candidate told us, “It’s an excellent way to help get Edmontonians engaged and strengthen our local democracy!”
More than 15,000 people have taken the survey so far, and we now have responses from 73 candidates, including all 13 mayoral candidates.
Please share the survey with your friends, family, and colleagues. A short link you can use is taproot.vote/match.
Recent updates
We have made several important updates to our election website since our last blog post:
- Financial disclosures filed by candidates have been integrated into the website. You’ll find links on each candidate’s profile page, and we have a new page listing all the disclosures that were filed by the Sept. 30 deadline. We also wrote a story summarizing what we learned from the disclosures.
- You can now more easily compare how candidates responded to the Taproot Survey. Each candidate’s profile page includes a Compare button that lets you select up to three candidates to compare side-by-side. For example, here’s a comparison of mayoral candidates Tim Cartmell, Rahim Jaffer, Andrew Knack, and Michael Walters.
- Some candidates wanted to make changes to their survey responses, perhaps to fix typos or to provide answers to questions they might have skipped originally. All such changes are now reflected on the site and clearly marked as updated. The new Updates page puts them all in one place for additional transparency.
- We have incorporated survey responses into the affiliation pages, so you can now see how candidates from each party responded to the survey in one place. Here are the pages for Better Edmonton and PACE.
- There’s a new page listing all of the pitches that candidates submitted along with their survey responses.
- We’ve made several updates to candidate profiles, including new photos and social links. Thanks to everyone who sent us updated information.
Voters and candidates on the issues
In addition to the Taproot survey, our team has been busy covering the election in other ways. You can find all our election coverage tagged #yegvote. A few highlights:
- Voters and candidates on provincial relations
- Voters and candidates on policing
- Voters and candidates on arts funding
- Voters and candidates on Indigenous relations
- Voters and candidates on snow and ice clearing
Mayoral forum recap
In partnership with the Edmonton Public Library, we hosted a forum with 10 of the 13 mayoral candidates on Oct. 9. Stacey Brotzel moderated the event, which featured questions from our team and the audience.
You can watch the full recording on YouTube. We also wrote a story about what we heard from the candidates regarding infrastructure, property taxes, and infill. I also spoke about the forum during my latest segment for CBC’s Edmonton AM.
What’s next
Monday, Oct. 20 is election day, and the polls will be open from 9am to 8pm. If you’re unsure where to vote, you can use our Election Guide to find your voting station, or check out the City of Edmonton’s voter information page.
We have updated our election website with a results dashboard that will go live as soon as the polls close. We expect to receive some results on election night, but we don’t expect to know who will form the next city council until some time on Tuesday, Oct. 21. We’ll share what we know on our website and in The Pulse.
Next week’s episode of Speaking Municipally will dive into the election results. Taproot members can join us for a special edition of Taproot Exchange on Friday, Oct. 24 at 12pm where we’ll discuss what the results mean for Edmonton’s next city council. Watch your inbox for the link to join us.
Consider becoming a member
It takes a lot of work to undertake a project like this, and we couldn’t do it without the support of our members. If you value this work, please consider becoming a Taproot member. Membership is just $10/month or $100/year for individuals. If your organization would like to support our work and benefit from reliable intelligence about the Edmonton region, we also have an organizational membership option.
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