2021 Campaign Announcement
October 21st, 2013 was one of the best days of my life. I was given the opportunity to serve all of you as part of Edmonton City Council. While there is a lot to do every day, I am consistently inspired by the people in this city. You are what motivates me to do everything possible to help us accomplish our collective goals. I learned early on, unless we are working together, there’s no way to achieve our goals.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I could best serve Edmontonians in 2021. This is a time unlike anything we will likely ever experience again in our lifetime. Families have been overwhelmed this year with tragic losses of loved ones, impacts of mental health and isolation, and economic devastation. To recover, we will require a dedicated and focused effort from all orders of government and our broader communities. We need to be collaborative and willing to learn from each other. No individual has all the answers - we each bring our own unique perspective based on our lived experiences.
I believe that bringing people together for meaningful conversations and developing solutions together helps us achieve our shared goals - this is one of my strengths. Considering each councillor is only one vote, it is important to actively engage others to help create the solutions that will help make our city even better than it is today. With at least five new councillors guaranteed to be starting in 2021, having experienced voices to help people succeed will be necessary for the long-term success of our city.
After engaging with people from across the city and region, I have decided to seek re-election as councillor for Ward Nakota Isga (Pronunciation: NA-KOH-TAH EE-SKA).
Ward Nakota Isga is primarily made up of communities within the previous Ward 1 with a few new communities added (Glenora, Grovenor, McQueen, and North Glenora). Some Ward 1 communities (Jasper Park, Meadowlark, Parkview, Sherwood, Summerlea, and West Meadowlark) will move into Ward sipiwiyiniwak (Pronunciation: SEE-PEE-WIN-EE-WOK) which is primarily made up of the previous Ward 5.
This was not an easy decision. In fact, for many months over the last year, I was certain I would run to serve Edmontonians as your next mayor. I believe I can build consensus with others using my years of experience serving on council.
Over the last few months, I have had the opportunity to engage various candidates looking to serve as your next mayor. Through those conversations, I believe there will be one or more candidate(s) who I share similar values with. It is my hope that the 2021 election will result in new and returning leaders who can bring people together in a constructive way and develop the necessary solutions for the serious challenges we face due to the pandemic.
While having someone with those values is the most important thing for me when considering who will serve as our next mayor, I also believe a mayor who better reflects the diversity of our city would be best suited to address the serious issue of equity in Edmonton.
The opportunity to thoroughly engage with people from across the city in making this decision has been a wonderful opportunity. I have been able to gain an even deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities we have as a city and I hope to be given the opportunity to bring that knowledge to the rest of council for another term.
Over the next seven months, I will be sharing my vision for the residents of Nakota Isga and the city as a whole. While I’m fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with all of you to accomplish many of the commitments I made during the 2013 and 2017 campaigns, there are new issues to work on. I’ll provide a detailed series of commitments similar to my previous campaigns in the coming weeks.
I want to thank everyone who has supported me over the years. I appreciate every chance I get to engage with you and better understand your perspectives - even, and especially when, we disagree. It is because of your support that I have had the opportunity of a lifetime to serve this fantastic city, and I am hopeful for your support once again to serve you for another term.
How You Can Help
To keep serving you, I will need your continued support. That support includes financial donations. As dark money will be attempting to poison our elections through PACs (political action committees), having enough money donated by individuals is critical to share our message. Please note that similar to previous elections, I will disclose all donations in advance of the election. You deserve to know who is funding campaigns and I will continue to lead by example.
We also need volunteers. There are many different roles to fill, so please sign up to donate your time to the campaign.
Serving Edmontonians since 2013 has been one of the greatest honours of my life. I would love the opportunity to continue serving you as we work to recover from one of the most challenging points in our lives. Thank you and I look forward to connecting with you.
