What we learned from Taproot’s 2026 audience survey

We recently completed our second annual audience survey. We wanted to learn more about who our readers, listeners, and viewers are, how they use Taproot, and what they want more (or less) of. Building on the insights from last year’s survey, we wanted to see how things have changed and get more specific feedback on what we can do better.

And because Taproot is intentionally built to refrain from tracking you around the internet, the best way for us to learn is simple: We ask.

Hundreds of people took the time to respond to our audience survey again this year. Thank you!

We heard so many positive and encouraging comments from respondents. “Your work is appreciated. I am grateful for a reliable source of local journalism,” one person said. “Keep up the good work — I’d be lost without you,” said another.

Here’s a snapshot of what else we heard:

People recommend Taproot

We included a standard question that is typically found on surveys like this: “How likely are you to recommend Taproot to a friend or colleague?” This is the question that forms the basis of the net promoter score (NPS), which is a widely used metric for measuring customer satisfaction.

Based on this year’s responses, Taproot’s NPS is 57. That’s a strong score, especially considering that media and news organizations often score in the 20 to 40 range.

This metric, taken together with the many positive comments we received, suggests we are delivering real value to our readers and listeners.

“Keep it up! You’re a ray of hope in the bleakness of our current news landscape,” one person said. “Thanks for all you do! I consider Taproot an invaluable part of the Edmonton community,” said another.

Taproot helps people feel informed and connected

The survey results suggest that Taproot is doing a good job of meeting some core needs for our audience:

90% of respondents said Taproot helps them feel informed about what’s happening in the Edmonton region.
88% said Taproot helps them feel connected to the Edmonton region.

The comments we received reinforced this. “Taproot has been my preferred way to remain engaged with what is happening in the Edmonton region, and has increased the amount of opportunities for me to engage locally,” one person said.

When we grouped responses into broader “user needs,” the strongest results were:

Informed: 94% net-positive
Connected: 81% net-positive
Delighted: 83% net-positive
Enlightened: 79% net-positive

We have identified six of these needs, based on the user needs for news model that publications around the world have used to guide their work and measure their impact.

The other two — Inspired at 60% net-positive and Helped at 42% net-positive — offer some clear opportunities for improvement.

Impact has always been a challenging thing for us to measure. Adopting a user needs framework is one way to get a better understanding of how we’re doing, and you’ll see us use this framework more in the future.

Taproot’s audience supports local

This year’s survey results once again confirmed that Taproot readers and listeners are people who invest locally.

In the past month:

83% dined at a local restaurant.
77% bought something from a locally owned business.

And when it comes to buying local products:

73% would pay slightly more for local.
19% would pay significantly more for local.

For businesses that sponsor or advertise with Taproot, this matters. It means their message reaches people who already care about supporting the Edmonton region.

But what really stood out was how respondents interpreted that support:

“I think businesses that sponsor Taproot show that they care about local journalism. I am more likely to support their business versus an ad I see on YouTube or Spotify.”

That’s the kind of relationship we want to foster: sponsorship and advertising that reinforces the idea that we’re all building the Edmonton region together.

We have started publishing more sponsored content in the past year, so we wanted to understand how that is affecting the Taproot experience:

73% said it either enhances (10%) or has no effect (63%) on their experience.
11% said it diminishes their experience.

That’s encouraging. We see sponsored content as a way to serve our audience, our advertisers, and Taproot all at the same time. We’ll continue to be thoughtful about how sponsored content is produced and presented.

Built to respect time and attention

Respondents told us they have different rhythms for staying on top of the news:

53% enjoy consuming news multiple times throughout the day.
40% prefer to check news once a day.

One comment captured the “sweet spot” we aim for.

“I like that Taproot provides me with a good amount of local news and information that I can easily digest in the morning. Not too much information to feel overwhelming, with a focus on local.”

Some people want more content, others want less. Some want it more frequently, others want it once a day. Some want it in their inbox, others prefer to check the website. We’re always trying to find the right balance, and we know there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

That said, we think the desire for trustworthy, local news and information is common across all of these different preferences. Taproot is intentionally built to respect time and attention, and to avoid clickbait, outrage, or manipulation.

As we explore new ways to make Taproot more accessible and convenient, we will build on this foundational principle.

Opportunities for improvement

We asked: “If you could change one thing about Taproot, what would you change — and why?”

The largest group of respondents said they wouldn’t change anything. Keep up the great work, they told us!

Many others shared thoughtful feedback about how we can improve. A few clear themes stood out:

Design/readability: Improving the navigation, design, and accessibility of our website and other products is a top priority. We made some big strides last fall with the launch of our election website, but there is still much to do.
Calendar improvements: Respondents told us they want more listings, better search and filtering, and several other improvements to make the Taproot Edmonton Calendar more useful. We launched some of these improvements in November, and we will continue to use this feedback to guide future improvements.
Delivery preferences: Everyone has different rhythms and preferences for consuming news, and sometimes Taproot doesn’t fit those. We’re thinking about how to give people more control over email frequency, consolidation, and more. We share your desire for an app!

We also heard suggestions for new types of content, feedback on Speaking Municipally, and concerns about transparency. We are taking all of this feedback seriously and will use it to guide our work in the coming months.

Become a member to support Taproot

If Taproot helps you feel informed, connected, and engaged in the Edmonton region, membership is the best way to support our work.

Become a member, either as an individual or as an organization, and you’ll help us provide reliable intelligence about the Edmonton region without paywalls or intrusive ads. You’ll also enjoy the benefits of membership, including weekly giveaways and discounts, access to our Taproot Exchange livestream series, and more.

“I think I get great value for my membership. Keep it up!”

If you want to support Taproot but aren’t ready to become a member, you can also make a one-time contribution. Every bit helps.

And if you want to support Taproot without spending money, the best thing you can do is simple: Tell more people about Taproot. The more people who read, share, and support Taproot, the more we can do to serve the Edmonton region.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond — and to everyone who chooses Taproot. We’re grateful to be a part of your day.

P.S. If you’re reading this and thinking to yourself, “Those are the people I want to reach!”, consider advertising with Taproot. We’d love to help you reach our thoughtful, engaged, and local audience.

How Taproot Edmonton made an impact in 2025

We embarked on 2025 with a clear mission: to inform, connect, and empower our community with reliable intelligence. It was a year that tested our capacity and proved our value, as we navigated challenging economic times, covered a pivotal municipal election, and deepened our engagement with the Edmonton region.

The result was our most impactful year yet. We saw unprecedented growth in our audience, with overall website traffic more than tripling alongside meaningful increases in subscribers and members. But the numbers only tell part of the story. The real impact is found in the voters who felt prepared for the ballot box, the residents who discovered new ways to participate in their city, and the recognition we received for our collaborative approach to journalism.

An award-winning year

Early in the year, our commitment to serving the community was recognized on an international stage. Housing Complex, our series exploring Edmonton’s housing system, was named a Collaboration of the Year at the 2025 LION Publishers Sustainability Awards.

Taproot Edmonton won a Collaboration of the Year award from LION Publishers for Housing Complex, our series on Edmonton’s housing system. (Taproot Edmonton)

The project, which launched in 2024, was a partnership with the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness funded in part by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation. It exemplified what we strive for: journalism that goes deep, works with the community, and seeks solutions.

“Hands down, this is a tour de force of the power of collaboration and the power of serving your community with high-quality journalism delivered with care, respect, and depth,” the judges noted. This accolade set the tone for a year defined by impactful, service-oriented reporting.

Helping voters make informed choices

Our most significant undertaking in 2025 was our comprehensive election project. We knew that to serve our city effectively, we needed to help voters cut through the noise. The centrepiece of this effort was the Taproot Survey. By asking candidates for mayor and city council to respond to key questions, we created a unique tool used by more than 27,000 voters to compare their views with those of the candidates.

“Before I was made aware of the Taproot Election project I was struggling to understand who the other candidates in my ward were and what they stood for,” said Sonia P. “Taproot really allowed me to clarify my own positions and those of the candidates out there. It was just a superb use of technology plus journalism. Honestly, it was an amazing community service.”

The response was overwhelming. Our election website became a hub for civic engagement, drawing nearly 160,000 unique visitors. Beyond the digital tools, we fostered real-world connection through listening sessions, partnerships with 32 local organizations, and a mayoral forum co-hosted with the Edmonton Public Library.

Readers such as Guy M. called the Taproot Survey “an extraordinary gift to the community where traditional media has abandoned us,” noting that it “helped illustrate the complex job that it is to be a member of council making tough choices with limited options.”

“Taproot’s coverage of the 2025 Municipal Election proved, once again, just how vital local media is to our society,” added Kevin J. “A strong, informative independent media outlet is so beneficial and we need more of it. So thank you for all your tireless efforts. It has not gone unnoticed.”

The election project is a powerful example of the unique impact we can make by blending technology, product thinking, and editorial craft to build tools and experiences that make local information more useful.

You can read more about this massive effort in our election project wrap-up.

Informing with reliable intelligence

While the election was a major focus, our team continued to deliver the daily intelligence that keeps Edmontonians connected to their city. Whether through in-depth reporting or the bite-sized updates in The Pulse, we are designed for signal, not extraction, ensuring our readers have an accurate, trustworthy snapshot of the region.

The scale of this operation has grown significantly. In 2025, we sent 1.7 million emails across hundreds of campaigns. Despite this high volume, our readers remained highly engaged, with an impressive 56.2% open rate. This consistency matters. As reader Jodi M. shared, “I start every morning reading The Pulse. I am always delighted by the news that it contains. By reading it, I feel better informed and more a part of the Edmonton community.”

This trust translated into substantial audience growth, with traffic to our primary news website surging by more than 244%. We were also thrilled to see our individual membership base expand by 37%, reflecting a growing community that values our work.

Connecting the community

A vibrant city is one where people show up, and we are proud to help make that happen. The Taproot Edmonton Calendar has become an essential utility, with our team curating and adding more than 7,200 events in 2025 alone.

“The Calendar has been the cherry on top for me, as it always excites me when I find something cool happening in the city that I can go check out over the weekend,” says Thiago V., a newcomer to Edmonton.

We also kept a close watch on the pulse of various sectors through our weekly roundups. Relentlessly focused on local, we connect the dots across the ecosystem to help our community understand itself better. We tracked thousands of headlines and events related to the arts, business, food, tech, and more, helping our readers stay informed about the communities they care about.

On the audio front, Speaking Municipally continued to lead the conversation on civic affairs. With nearly 60,000 downloads in 2025, the podcast surpassed 300,000 all-time downloads, cementing its place as a “must-listen” for engaged citizens.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most popular episodes were those focused on the municipal election:

I guess we should get Mayor Knack on the show again in 2026!

Setting the agenda and inspiring through stories

The reporting our team undertook this year sparked curiosity and drove conversations.

The stories that resonated most with our readers reflected a city in transition, grappling with growth, governance, and identity. From the dissolution of regional partnerships to the future of our downtown mall, here are the stories that stood out in 2025:

We also found ways to include joy and delight in The Pulse. We published 46 “A moment in history” articles, and launched the Taproot Mini, a daily crossword created by Edmonton puzzle-maker Brandon Cathcart.

Join us in building an informed community

This work of informing, connecting, and empowering is only possible because of our community. In 2025, we welcomed more supporters than ever before. We’re deeply grateful to each and every one of you who read, share, and contribute to Taproot Edmonton.

If you value reliable intelligence about the Edmonton region and want to see this work continue, please consider becoming a member.

Here’s to another year of growth and impact in 2026!

The Taproot Edmonton Calendar gets a major update

When we launched the Taproot Edmonton Calendar, we did it because we kept hearing the same thing over and over: it’s surprisingly hard to find out what’s going on in time to actually take part.

Since then, the calendar has grown into a core part of what Taproot Edmonton does. It powers event listings in The Pulse, the Events Roundup, and our other newsletters, it helps people plan their evenings and weekends, and we regularly hear from readers that it has become one of their favourite things we offer.

In November we launched a major update to the calendar that incorporates feedback from users, improves the user experience, and provides a stronger foundation for future enhancements.

What’s new in this release

This update is a long overdue refresh that brings the calendar in line with our news and vote sites, and adds a number of features that make it easier to find what you’re looking for. We have officially taken the calendar out of beta!

A cleaner, more cohesive design

The calendar now shares the same header and navigation structure as our news and election sites, so moving between them feels more seamless. It should be easier to jump from reading the latest news to finding upcoming events in the calendar.

We’ve also reduced duplication on the front page so you are more likely to see a wide variety of events at a glance, rather than the same listings repeated in multiple sections.

Multiple ways to view events

Everyone browses events a little differently, so we’ve added a layout toolbar to every page that lists events. You can now choose:

Cards: the visual layout you’re used to, with images.
Compact cards: a more streamlined view without images.
Table: a spreadsheet-style view that’s great for scanning dates, times, and locations quickly.
List: a simple, text-forward presentation.

Pick the layout that works best for you; the calendar will remember your choice, and you can change it any time with a click.

Search and better filtering

You can now search the calendar from the box at the top of every page, or use the dedicated search page to dig deeper. Today’s search is a straightforward keyword match on event titles, organizers, and locations, with some helpful shortcuts like “start:today” to zero in on what’s happening right now.

We’ve also expanded the filter options so you can narrow things down by criteria such as time of day, alongside the categories, dates, and locations that were already available. This should make it easier to find, say, family-friendly events on Saturday afternoons, or talks and panels after work.

Behind-the-scenes improvements

We have also made several technical improvements that will help us keep the calendar running smoothly as it continues to grow. These include:

Better handling of images to improve reliability and speed.
Spam filtering to reduce the number of inappropriate events submitted.

Why this matters to us (and, we hope, to you)

The Taproot Edmonton Calendar is not a side project. It is one of the most important ways we help the Edmonton region understand itself better.

Events are where ideas are shared, relationships are built, and communities take shape. A well-curated, reliable events calendar is part of the connective tissue that helps our community function. That’s why we’re continuing to invest in it.

How you can help the calendar grow

Here are some ways you can support and benefit from the Taproot Edmonton Calendar:

Use the calendar: Visit edmonton.taproot.events when you’re planning your week, or when someone asks, “What’s going on in Edmonton?”
Submit your events: If you host events in the Edmonton region, please submit them to the calendar. It is free and easy to do, and helps more people find out about what you’re doing.
Share it: Tell your friends, colleagues, and communities about the calendar and our Events Roundup newsletter so more people can discover what’s happening.
Support our work: If you’re in a position to do so, becoming a Taproot member helps sustain the calendar and all the other work we do to keep our community informed and connected.

What’s next?

We have several additional improvements to the calendar in the works, including:

Personalization options for Taproot members, such as saving events to a personal calendar.
Enhanced search and filtering capabilities, especially related to geography.
More ways to browse related events, such as guides for specific interests or themes.

We’re also excited about better integrating the calendar with our news site, to provide a more holistic view of what’s happening in the Edmonton region.

If you have feedback, spot a bug, or have an idea for how the Taproot Edmonton Calendar could serve you better, please get in touch.

That’s a wrap on Taproot’s 2025 election project

Just as we did four years ago, it’s time to put a bow on our election project. Over the past year, the entire Taproot team has worked diligently to provide Edmonton voters with reliable intelligence about the candidates running for office in the 2025 municipal election.

Core to this effort was the Taproot Survey, a questionnaire designed to surface how the candidates running for mayor and city council in Edmonton align with voters on the issues. In the end, 74 candidates running for mayor and city council completed the survey, and more than 27,000 people answered the same survey to see how the candidates aligned with their views.

The survey itself was informed by the 950+ responses to our election question, insights gathered at listening sessions, input from our election partners, and our own observations of what Edmonton’s next city council will face. You can learn more about how we crafted the survey in our previous blog post.

In addition to the Taproot Survey, we hosted several listening sessions, built a robust election website, partnered on a mayoral forum, published dozens of articles to help voters get ready for election day, and much more.

Projects like this are a big undertaking for a small but mighty team like ours. So, in this post, we want to take a moment to reflect on what we set out to do, what we built, the impact we had, and what’s next.

Why we did this

Our mission is to help communities understand themselves better, and this election project was a great opportunity to do just that.

Curiosity is at the heart of everything Taproot does, and covering a municipal election is no different. Our approach is to ground our work in the issues voters care about, rather than engaging in the “horse race” coverage that is more interested in who’s leading in the polls and other tendencies that reduce politics to a kind of sport.

We believe that communities work best when trustworthy information is available to everyone. We provide that to our community on a regular basis, and we hoped the election project would introduce Taproot to new audiences who might benefit from our work. Early indicators suggest we succeeded in that regard, with thousands of new readers engaging with our election coverage.

Of course, while our work is free to read it is not free to make, and we’re grateful to the hundreds of Taproot members whose financial support made this project possible. If you value work like this, please consider becoming a Taproot member.

Taproot co-founder Karen Unland shared closing remarks at the mayoral forum Taproot co-hosted with the Edmonton Public Library on Oct. 9, 2025. (Colin Gallant)

What we built

The entire project began with an expression of curiosity: What issues do you care about as you consider who to vote for in the 2025 municipal election, and why?. We gathered more than 950 responses to that question, a critical foundation for the rest of our work.

In May and June, we hosted five listening sessions to dive deeper into the issues we heard about. Dozens of Edmontonians shared their time and thoughts with us online and in person, and we learned a lot.

One of the new initiatives we launched this time around was our partner program, where we collaborated with organizations to integrate their communities into the process and help amplify our election work. We were thrilled to work with 32 organizations! Each partner could choose how much or little they wanted to be involved, from sharing the election question and Taproot Survey with their networks to co-hosting events. We learned a lot that will help us improve the program for future elections, and we’re grateful for the enthusiasm and support we received from our partners.

Input from the election question responses, listening sessions, and our partners helped us craft the Taproot Survey over the summer. Distilling all of that rich input into 30 multiple-choice questions was a challenge, but we’re proud of the final product. We also spent the summer months making several improvements to the software code that powers the survey, implementing new features such as the ability for candidates to add comments alongside their multiple-choice selections.

In early September, declared candidates for mayor and city council in Edmonton were invited to complete the survey. After nomination day on Sept. 22, we invited all registered candidates, and later that week we made the survey available to voters.

By the time Election Day arrived on Oct. 20, 74 candidates had completed the survey, and more than 27,000 voters had used it to see how they aligned with the candidates.

Here are some of the other key components we built as part of this project:

We revamped our election website that served as a hub for all things election-related, including candidate information, survey results, news articles, event listings, and election results.
We co-hosted a mayoral forum with the Edmonton Public Library at the Stanley A. Milner branch and online on Oct. 9. Members of our team moderated several other candidate forums, and we even co-hosted an election-themed trivia night with the Edmonton Heritage Council.
We analyzed the campaign finance disclosures that candidates were required to file by Sept. 30, and made the data more accessible to voters at our election website.
We spoke with former city councillors about the steep learning curve that new councillors might expect.
We published dozens of articles covering various election issues, often drawing on results of our listening work. For example, we looked at what voters and candidates said about provincial relations.
Our weekly municipal affairs podcast, Speaking Municipally, featured several election-focused episodes, including interviews with some of the candidates.
We spoke about the election on CBC’s Edmonton AM every Wednesday morning leading up to the election. Members of our team also appeared on several other radio shows and podcasts to discuss the election, including This Is Edmonton and Real Talk with Ryan Jespersen.
We hosted an election debrief for Taproot members on Oct. 24, where we shared insights from the project and answered questions from members.

The impact we had

We’ve been thrilled with the response to our election project from voters, candidates, and partners alike. We’ve received many messages of thanks and appreciation for the work we’ve done, and it’s clear that our efforts have made a difference in helping people get informed and engaged in the election process.

That said, we recognize that the low voter turnout in this election — just 30.4% of eligible voters cast a ballot — is a disappointment. While our project likely helped many voters make informed choices, it’s clear that more work is needed to boost civic engagement.

Recently, we sent post-election surveys to voters, candidates, and partners to gather feedback on our election project. Here are some of the highlights from the responses we received (published with permission).

Voters

“Patty and I have been regular daily readers of Taproot since we moved to Edmonton,” David Blatt wrote. “Their coverage is always useful and comprehensive, but they did an especially magnificent job with the muncipal election, where they distributed a lengthy and thoughtful questionnaire to all mayoral and council candidates, along with a public survey, and then ran dozens of stories addressing all the major issues. They’re a great addition to the local news landscape and providing real benefit to Edmontonians new and old.”

“Taproot’s coverage of the election was unprecedented. No other organization has analyzed candidate views in this detailed way to help me make my voting choices,” Jim Stein told us.

“Taproot’s coverage of the election helped me understand the issues, evaluate candidates’ positions, and feel informed. The survey made me feel confident in my voting decisions,” Andrea Michaud told us.

“I have been recommending the Taproot election survey to anyone who will listen since the first time it was offered. It’s so useful to help get at the main issues that matter to me and how I align with the candidates. And if you haven’t been paying attention but you want to make an informed choice, it’s a great way to catch up with very little time and effort,” Kerry Powell told us.

“I really enjoyed Taproot’s election coverage, from the articles, the dashboard, and the podcast. It was a great way to stay informed about the election and gave me a great way to steer people who are less municipally inclined to get out and make an informed decision on their vote!” Bernardo R. told us.

“Great tool. Exciting to have a local, independent organization providing helpful, unbiased tools to help inform voters. Keep up the great work!” Cody Johnston told us.

Candidates

“Answering the Taproot candidate survey was an important step in my short campaign, as it helped me formulate or solidify my opinion on topics that I was aware of but hadn’t focused on during my campaign up to that point,” Jennifer Porritt, candidate for councillor in tastawiyiniwak, told us. “It gave me one of very few other forums to clearly articulate my position on a wide variety of topics that were important to voters.”

Partners

“I thought Taproot created a safe and inclusive space to participate in the conversation around election issues,” Nathan Binnema of Green Drinks YEG told us.

“Taproot’s election project gave so many in our communities access to resources and tools to help them with being informed as they headed into election season and to the polls,” Saniya Ghalehdar of She Said told us. “The Taproot team is responsive, engaged, and they truly care about informing and equipping voters. As a community member doing equity work, I feel that they were an integral part of helping build more inclusive and equitable resources for folks wanting to take part in democratic activities.”

What’s next

Our election project may be wrapping up, but our work is far from over.

We have several updates planned for our election website, including adding official election results by voting station, and adding final campaign finance disclosures when they become available in March 2026. Our team is still publishing articles related to the election, such as a recap of the swearing-in ceremony, and interviews with scrutineers about their experiences during the vote count.

But most of our attention will now turn to our regular coverage of city council. The “On the Agenda” feature, published every Monday when council is in session, provides an overview of upcoming council meetings and agenda items. Speaking Municipally, published every Friday, will continue to provide analysis and commentary about council’s decisions, and The Pulse provides the latest headlines, including those about city hall, every weekday morning.

If you value work like our election project, please become a Taproot member. There are many benefits of paid membership at the individual or organization level.

If you’re not ready to commit to membership but want to keep up-to-date on our work, subscribe to our newsletter.

By the numbers

1 key question
955 answers
5 listening sessions
30 survey questions
74 candidate responses
27,000+ voter responses

The Taproot Survey is helping voters and candidates ahead of Election Day

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.

Candidates can now answer Taproot Edmonton’s election survey

When we first shared our election project back in March, we included a rough timeline of what to expect in the months and days leading up to the Oct. 20 municipal election. I’m happy to report that we have mostly stuck to that schedule!

Candidate survey sent, responses coming in

The latest milestone was the completion of our candidate survey, which we began sending on Sept. 6 to those running for election.

If you’re running for mayor or city council in Edmonton, you should have received an email with a link to the survey. If you haven’t, please get in touch with us at hello@taprootedmonton.ca.

The survey includes 30 questions covering a wide range of topics. It was informed by the 900+ responses to our election question, insights gathered at listening sessions, input from our election partners, and our own observations of what Edmonton’s next city council will face.

This year’s survey is an evolution of the one we developed for the 2021 municipal election, incorporating best practices and lessons learned. For example, we kept the multiple choice format, but added an optional text box for candidates to provide additional information for each question.

Last time we had 10 categories or topics with three questions each. This time, while we grouped related questions together to make completing the survey easier, we do not have a fixed number of questions per category. When drafting the survey, we organized questions into three big types. Many questions ask about a candidate’s views, some address their priorities, and some ask about action they would take. Each type of question has similar wording.

The questions are designed to be clear, concise, and easy to answer. Like last time, each question is accompanied by some brief context crafted by our editorial team to help candidates and voters better understand the issue at hand.

Every question this time has just three possible responses, plus a standard “I don’t have a position on this issue” option. Candidates can also choose to skip questions. We did our best to craft responses that will meaningfully differentiate candidates.

Everyone who filled out the 2021 survey saw the questions and responses in the same order. This time around, we are randomizing the groupings of questions and the order of responses within each question. This approach helps reduce bias.

It’s a lot of work to put together a survey like this! Our team spent many hours drafting, revising, and testing the survey to ensure it meets our expectations of clarity, fairness, and usefulness to voters.

The survey is an important step toward our goal of equipping voters with reliable, issue-focused information ahead of the election. Now we need candidates to complete it.

As of Sept. 12, we have 33 responses from candidates either completed or in progress. We are hoping to have collected most responses by Nomination Day on Sept. 22.

After that, we’ll launch our voter matching engine, which will enable voters to take the same survey to see how the candidates align with them on the issues. Thousands of Edmontonians used the tool in 2021 to help them make informed choices.

Candidates’ answers will also be displayed along with their other information on our election website, (as we did in 2021).

Taproot Edmonton is partnering with the Edmonton Public Library on its mayoral forum on Oct. 9, 2025. Learn more.

More opportunities to learn where candidates stand

Another place you’ll see the results of the survey is at the mayoral forum we have partnered with the Edmonton Public Library on, to be held at the Stanley A. Milner branch and online on the evening of Oct. 9. Some of the questions to be put to the candidates will be informed by the survey results. Register to attend, and watch the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for other opportunities to inform yourself ahead of the Oct. 20 election.

We’ll also be incorporating the survey results into our election coverage. Our journalists have already been digging into various election issues, often drawing on results of our listening work. For example, the team looked into tackling homelessness in Edmonton, a top concern for voters who participated in our listening sessions.

There’s much more to come in the weeks ahead!

If you value this work, become a Taproot member. We recently updated our website to better highlight the benefits of paid membership at the individual or organization level.

If you just want to keep up-to-date on our election work, please subscribe to our newsletter.

What we heard at our election listening sessions

Throughout May and June, we hosted five listening sessions dubbed “What’s on your mind, municipally speaking?” to hear from Edmontonians about the issues that matter most to them in the 2025 municipal election. Two of the sessions were online, and three were in person at Edmonton Public Library branches in Castle Downs, The Meadows, and downtown.

In 2021, pandemic restrictions meant every listening session we held happened on Zoom. This year, we could mix virtual and in-person events, and it was incredibly rewarding to meet people where they live.

The listening sessions are a key part of our 2025 municipal election project, which aims to help Edmontonians make informed choices in the upcoming election. The idea was to offer space for people to go a little deeper into the issues that matter most to them.

We are grateful to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with us. We heard from dozens of people, and we learned a lot.

An excerpt from the flip-chart notes taken at our listening session in Castle Downs on June 7, 2025.

A flavour of what we heard

Hundreds of comments, whiteboard notes, and flip-chart scribbles coalesced into several clear themes, including homelessness, social disorder, governance and accountability, infill, housing affordability, infrastructure and growth, policing and public safety, active transportation, and climate change.

Here are some examples of what we heard:

“How we deal with the homeless population, how we view them, is kind of fundamental to how we view other aspects of our society.” Participants agreed that the housing crisis demands urgency, creativity, and empathy while also acknowledging growing unease about safety on transit and in public spaces.
“The city has done a lot of work around initiatives and reports and plans, and then there’s no accountability to actually deliver on those.” People want competence over theatrics: clearer measures of success, better follow-through on approved plans, and safeguards against party-style politics that could deepen polarization.
“What I am against is in older, mature neighbourhoods, where all of a sudden you’ve got house, house, house, 11-unit building right beside the house. No parking provided.” Support for compact growth collides with worries about lost trees, parking shortages, and oversized projects that feel out of scale. Residents asked how council will preserve neighbourhood character while meeting housing targets.
“We need to build deeply affordable housing, and we’re not doing it right now.” Beyond homelessness, people fear being priced out of the city altogether. They pressed for tools — like inclusionary zoning or city-owned land — to keep a mix of incomes in every ward.
“A lot of the business people … they’re just having to close because they can’t get people to their businesses. And I don’t know that the city is doing much to help them.” From LRT construction headaches to rec-centre shortages, voters questioned whether Edmonton is choosing the right projects, sequencing them well, and mitigating disruption for local businesses.
“I’m not saying defund the police. I’m just saying, can there be a reallocation into different agencies that would be better suited to provide the types of support that we’re looking for?” Many see value in policing but want a bigger share of the safety budget to flow to mental-health teams, outreach workers, and transit peace officers.
“Bike lanes are seen as anti-car, and I’d like to hear the rhetoric change to ‘transportation options.’” Debate over bike lanes remains fiery, yet there is a growing chorus for neighbourhoods where walking, rolling, and transit feel as convenient and as safe as driving.
“The smoke has been … like a hard punch, because it almost always comes.” Wildfire smoke, heat islands, and tree loss turned abstract climate goals into lived reality. Participants talked about tangible resilience measures, from shade infrastructure to tougher tree-retention rules, alongside emissions cuts.

Underlying many of these discussions is a frustration with the limits of municipal power when provincial decisions (or inaction) shape key files such as housing, policing, and social services.

How we analyzed the input

We used large-language-model tools at two key points. First, we fed the transcripts, flip-chart photos, and whiteboard notes into a large-language model and asked it to cluster recurring ideas. Those thematic groupings came straight from the AI; for the purposes of this post, we did not apply any editorial tweaks to that structure. Second, we asked the same model to pull candidate quotations for each theme. From the resulting pool, Taproot chose the excerpts you see here.

Looking ahead to the broader election project, we’ll run several rounds of analysis with multiple large-language models on all the input we collect. The goal is to get a comprehensive, data-driven view of community priorities; our editorial team will then combine those machine-generated insights with additional reporting and judgment to shape the candidate survey and other election tools.

We’re fortunate to have powerful large-language-model tools at our fingertips to handle the heavy lifting of pattern-spotting and quote-gathering, freeing our team to focus on other important work. Because this technology is evolving quickly, we’re committed to learning in public and following emerging best practices, including recommendations from resources like Trusting News, to keep our use of AI transparent, responsible, and firmly anchored in human editorial judgment.

What happens next

Alongside our election question, input gathered at these sessions will help us draft a candidate survey that will be sent to all candidates this summer. The survey will form the backbone of our voter matching engine, which we plan to launch in September.

Here’s what’s next in our election project timeline:

July and August: Formulate the candidate survey;
August and September: Distribute the survey to all declared candidates;
Sept. 22 to Oct. 20: Distribute the matching engine through Taproot’s channels and community partners;
Oct. 20: Election Day.

How you can still help

There’s still time for your input to shape our work! If you haven’t already, please take a moment to answer our election question: What issues do you care about as you consider who to vote for in the 2025 municipal election, and why?

Every response helps us build a better candidate survey and a more useful voter-matching tool, so Edmontonians can make confident, well-informed choices on Oct. 20.

If you’re an organization that wants to help spread the word and ensure your community’s perspective is considered, get in touch to become an election partner. We have 22 partners so far, and we’d love to work with you.

Taproot Edmonton’s social media posts are now automated

Social media can be a valuable tool, but we’ve realized it’s not essential to our mission to help you understand what’s happening in Edmonton and the surrounding region. After reviewing our data and reflecting on the value we provide, we’ve made an important change to how we use social media: Our posts are now automated.

Taproot is now automatically posting stories and newsletters to five social media platforms, including LinkedIn.

Until the end of 2024, we handcrafted each post for our social media channels. But when we examined the results, it became clear that social media wasn’t driving significant traffic to our website or increasing sign-ups. Investing more time to boost engagement would have taken us away from what we do best — delivering reliable, focused intelligence about our community.

In fact, many of you rely on our work precisely because it allows you to avoid spending excessive time on social media. Our weekday newsletter, The Pulse, and our weekly roundups provide everything you need to stay informed and connected, without endless scrolling.

As Taproot Edmonton member Julie B. says: “I love knowing what’s going on in my city and what’s the latest news. Where else can one get all this info in a timely manner complete with links for more in-depth information when you want it? I’m very grateful for this publication!”

In addition, as a Canadian news publication, we currently face restrictions on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. And with many organizations shifting their primary social presence to platforms where we’re restricted or not active, manually posting became even less aligned with our goals.

To keep informing those who use social media as an alert system, we’ve automated posts to announce new content across several platforms, including LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon. While our posts will still provide helpful alerts, we won’t be actively monitoring these channels for responses. From time to time, we may still manually post important updates or special content, but this won’t be the norm.

However, many members of the Taproot Edmonton team are active on social media and happy to engage. If you’d like to connect or reach out, you can find our team on LinkedIn.

Thank you for following along and supporting Taproot. We’re committed to keeping you informed, connected, and inspired while saving you time.

How wellness checks help Taproot thrive

At Taproot, we pride ourselves on creating a workplace where people feel valued, supported, and empowered to do their best work. As we chart a new future for local news, we are committed to leaving behind the often problematic culture of traditional newsrooms. One of the practices that has helped us do this is the wellness check, a simple but powerful way to start every meeting.

What is a wellness check?

Our wellness check asks, “How are you feeling today?” Participants select one of four states: Struggling, Surviving, Thriving, or Excelling. Each state includes descriptors to help pinpoint where someone is — whether they’re feeling low energy and unproductive or inspired and in a state of flow.

We didn’t invent the idea of a wellness or mental health check-in, and neither did ATB X, the accelerator program where we first encountered this practice in 2019. But we embraced it, made it our own, and adapted it to fit Taproot’s needs. Over time, it has become a cornerstone of how we connect as a team.

Why it matters

It can be easy to start a meeting with a generic “How’s everyone doing?” and hear the automatic “I’m fine” response. But “fine” doesn’t give us any useful information. The wellness check allows us to go deeper and create a space where people feel safe sharing how they’re really doing. For instance:

If someone is thriving or excelling, we know they may have the energy to tackle big challenges.
If someone is struggling or surviving, we can check in further, adjust expectations, and provide support.

One of the key reasons this works is modeling. Karen, my co-founder, and I openly share how we’re feeling — even if we’re struggling. By doing so, we signal that it’s OK to be honest, and that vulnerability is met with care, not judgment.

Our team sometimes gets creative with their responses. We often hear someone is “surthriving” or “thricelling” when they feel like they’re a little in between states on the wellness check. It’s a lighthearted way to acknowledge that emotions aren’t always clear-cut, and it keeps the process engaging and authentic.

What happens next?

When someone shares that they’re struggling, the immediate reaction is not to push forward with the agenda but to pause. We might ask, “Do you want to share more about that?” or offer time for a private conversation. It’s rare for someone to reveal they’re struggling in a group setting, but when they do, we take it seriously.

On the other hand, the wellness check also gives us opportunities to celebrate when someone is excelling or thriving. It helps us recognize not just the challenges but also the wins, big and small.

A continuous work in progress

This is actually the second iteration of our wellness check. We made changes based on our experiences and feedback from the team, and the current version has proven to be the most effective so far. We’re still exploring how to make the most of the wellness check. For example, we’d love to track trends over time to identify patterns, like how the seasons or external factors might affect the team’s energy. But for now, it’s enough to know that we’re fostering a culture of care.

When we reviewed our OKRs for 2024 and reflected on how effectively we supported and empowered our team, the feedback we heard from them was very encouraging and positive. They said they do feel supported, and we believe the wellness check is a key reason behind that.

To hear more about how this practice supports our mission and workplace culture, check out Karen’s interview on the Executive Wins podcast where she shares insights into why we adopted the wellness check and how it has helped our team thrive. You can also watch the interview below:

Supporting our mission

Taproot Edmonton exists to provide the most reliable intelligence about the Edmonton region. We inform, connect, and inspire our community to thrive. The wellness check is one of the tools we use to make that possible. By creating a supportive, resilient team, we’re better equipped to deliver on our mission and ensure that Taproot continues to be a trusted source of information.

Sharing the practice

If this resonates with you, we encourage you to adopt and adapt the wellness check for your own team. It’s a flexible tool that can fit a variety of workplaces, and it’s one small but meaningful step toward building a healthier, more connected workplace culture. We’d love to hear how you make it your own — feel free to reach out to us and share your experience.

Fostering a thriving community starts with fostering a thriving team. At Taproot, we’re committed to both, and the wellness check helps us live that commitment every day.

How Taproot Edmonton made an impact in 2024

Did you know Taproot Edmonton sent 1.3 million emails in 2024? That’s a lot of informing, connecting, and inspiring people with reliable intelligence about the Edmonton region. Here’s more on what our team has been able to accomplish this year with the support of readers, members, sponsors, advertisers, and other partners.

Informing with reliable intelligence

Every day, our team delivers useful, timely information that keeps you informed and engaged. From in-depth coverage of local news to bite-sized updates in The Pulse, readers rely on us for an accurate snapshot of what’s happening in Edmonton. “I start every morning reading The Pulse,” shares reader Jodi M. “I am always delighted by the news that it contains. By reading it, I feel better informed and more a part of the Edmonton community.”

Our emails saw an impressive 56.4% open rate and 8.3% click rate, showing that readers value the information we provide. We also saw a 7.3% jump in email subscribers and a 28.5% increase in paying members.

Saving you time

Since our inception, our approach has been to pay close attention to what’s happening so you don’t have to. In 2024, we curated more than 2,800 headlines in The Pulse alone, offering concise summaries and easy access to the full stories.

“I love the brief summaries with lots of links, enabling me to get the big picture and dive deeper when I want to,” says member Natalia K.

Connecting the community

We’re proud to connect Edmontonians to the many things happening in the community. In 2024, our team added more than 9,200 events to the Taproot Edmonton Calendar, making it a vital resource for those looking for things to do. “It’s easy to start my day reading an item or two from The Pulse or roundups and feel more connected to what’s going on and to the city itself,” says Thiago V., who recently moved to Edmonton. “The Calendar has been the cherry on top for me, as it always excites me when I find something cool happening in the city that I can go check out over the weekend.”

We continued to track Edmonton’s ever-changing landscape through our weekly roundups, which provide essential updates across a variety of sectors. Whether it’s the latest in local food, tech, arts, or business, the roundups deliver fresh, relevant information to help you stay connected. This year, for example, our Food Roundup highlighted nearly 600 restaurant openings.

Our podcast, Speaking Municipally, also continues to connect listeners to the conversations shaping the city. In 2024, we had nearly 50,000 downloads, with listeners tuning in to important discussions about housing, public transit, zoning, and more. We’re grateful to the dozen-plus guests who joined us this year, contributing valuable insights. “I listen to Speaking Municipally diligently and it has been an important part of my weekly routine in staying up to date about matters related to the city,” says listener and member Giselle G.

Inspiring through stories

The diversity of topics that resonated most with readers this year is particularly striking. Here are the top five most-read stories of 2024 on our website:

These stories don’t just inform — they spark curiosity and invite further exploration. And that’s just the tops of the waves. In 2024, we wrote about 4,000 unique entities, showcasing the depth and variety of Edmonton’s people, businesses, and initiatives.

Helping you take action

At Taproot Edmonton, we’re committed to providing actionable intelligence that helps you make informed decisions. In 2024, we summarized and linked to 493 different city council reports. We also highlighted 175 unique public engagement opportunities, giving readers the chance to contribute their voices to key issues. “Taproot has the pulse on current events and community engagement with promoting active citizenship in the forefront,” says reader Renée C. “Bringing awareness to the greater community amidst the noise is difficult, and Taproot is a credible and reliable source.”

We also continued to provide unique insights with our history pieces, publishing 47 “moment in history” articles that not only inform but also bring a bit of delight. Whether revisiting local milestones or uncovering lesser-known aspects of Edmonton’s past, these pieces have become a beloved part of The Pulse. “I love starting my day with The Pulse,” member Erin J. shares. “It’s a great way to feel connected to what’s happening across the city. It regularly contains a few things I already know and care about and a few things that are new to me and I become inspired to learn more.”

Join us in building an informed community

We are grateful for the support of everyone who has helped make this work possible. If you’d like to help us continue to inform, connect, and inspire people in the Edmonton region, please consider becoming a member.

Here’s to another year of growth and impact in 2025!