Andrew Knack is the next Mayor of Edmonton

Knack bests former frontrunner Tim Cartmell in race to replace Amarjeet Sohi

Andrew Knack speaks to reporters after winning Edmonton’s 2025 mayoral election (source: Andrew Knack / Instagram)

Results from Edmonton’s low-key municipal election were very slow to trickle in but by mid-afternoon today we learned that Andrew Knack will be the next Mayor of Edmonton.

The three-term councillor has represented west Edmonton since he was first elected in 2013 and jumped into the mayoral race after initially planning to leave municipal politics and not seek re-election to council.

Knack bucked what felt like a strong wave of anti-incumbent sentiment going into the campaign and defeated south side councillor and Better Edmonton Party leader Tim Cartmell by a margin of around 8 points with an abysmal 30 per cent turnout of voters at the polls (at the time I am writing this only 217 of 236 polls are reporting in the mayoral election). Knack ran as an independent candidate.

Knack’s election win follows a campaign during which he promised to focus on improving public services, addressing affordability concerns, improving safety and supporting smart growth in the city. Those aren’t exactly the most exciting promises and were similar to what some of the other main candidates were offering but Knack’s earnestness and his visibility as a long-time councillor likely helped him stick out from the pack.

Mayoral election results (with 217 of 236 polls reporting)

1. Andrew Knack: 73,053 (38%)

2. Tim Cartmell: 56,790 (29.6%)

3. Michael Walters: 22,857 (11.9%)

4. Omar Mohammad: 19,127 (9.9%)

5. Rahim Jaffer: 8,310 (4.3%)

6. Tony Caterina: 6,080 (3.1%)

7. Vanessa Denman: 1,613 (0.8%)

8. Paul Bakhmut: 1,115 (0.5%)

9. Ron Billingsley Jr.: 984 (0.5%)

10. Abdul Malik Chukwudi: 716 (0.3%)

11. Andy Gudanowski: 526 (0.2%)

12. Olney Tugwell: 328 (0.1%)

13. Utha Nadauk: 274 (0.1%)

Knack as the progressive choice for mayor

Knack spent most of his 12 years on city council playing the role of the mild-mannered moderate centrist who was known for going above and beyond to engage with his constituents. But in this election, Knack was cast as the progressive alternative to Cartmell’s corporate donor backed campaign.

Knack’s campaign attracted key organizers and campaigners who are normally affiliated with the provincial NDP and federal Liberals and drew the support of smart municipal campaigners like former mayor Don Iveson’s chief of staff Julianna Charchun and former Wetaskiwin city councillor Gabrielle Blatz. He also had numerous endorsements from public sector unions and the labour-backed Working Families Edmonton group.

Knack’s late entry into the race after outgoing mayor Amarjeet Sohi made it clear he wouldn’t run for re-election at first appeared to put him at a big disadvantage against Cartmell.

Cartmell’s big money Better Edmonton campaign falls flat

Cartmell was the perceived frontrunner who had been posturing for a mayoral run for years and entered the race with a large campaign war chest and a tailor made Better Edmonton Party with a slate of council candidates in each ward.

In theory, the menu of fundraising and organizational advantages available to him should have vaulted Cartmell into the mayor’s office.

The advantages the party structure could give candidates with large bases of corporate donor support was the real political incentive in mind when the province’s United Conservative Party government decided to inject municipal political parties into Edmonton and Calgary elections. Cartmell’s mayoral campaign is expected to have spent more than $1 million on the race, making it the most expensive election campaign in Edmonton’s history.

Cartmell had a big head start but a series of self-inflicted blunders in city council chambers and on the campaign trail, and his party’s candidates publicly disagreeing with him on contentious issues like infill, seriously erroded his position as the frontrunner.

For a brief period at the start of the campaign it looked like the energetic campaign launched by former city councillor Michael Walters might have grabbed the attention of voters looking for an alternative to Cartmell, but as the race developed a lot of that attention shifted to Knack.

Cartmell’s mayoral campaign fell short but at least three Better Edmonton candidates will be on the next city council.

Incumbent councillor Karen Principe was easily re-elected in her north Edmonton ward and she will be joined by Reed Clark and Michael Elliott. BE candidate Darrell Friesen finished six votes ahead of Thu Parmar in the south west ward sipiwiyiniwak, a close result that will likely trigger a recount in the coming days.

It’s unclear whether the party councillors will work closely together like a parliamentary caucus after they are sworn-in to office or whether the Better Edmonton Party will even continue to exist following Cartmell’s defeat.

The only other political party on the municipal ballot, the Principled Accountable Coalition for Edmonton (PACE), didn’t come close to electing a candidate in any of the council races it contested.

Anti-incumbent wave didn’t materialize

The anti-incumbent wave we heard a lot about turned out to be one campaign narrative that never materialized at the ballot box.

Eight of the nine incumbent city councillors running for re-election will serve another four-year term on council. With 19 of 21 polls reporting in Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi, it looks like south Edmonton’s Jennifer Rice — who spent much of her first-term battling allegations of serious dysfunction in her city council office — is 571 votes behind challenger Jon Morgan.

And while an uproar in mature neighbourhoods over opposition to infill developments and densification created a lot of noise before and during the campaign, central Edmonton councillor Michael Janz was re-elected with a landslide 58.1 per cent and Ashley Salvador will be re-elected with at least an 18 point lead over Better Edmonton challenger Caroline Matthews.

What about the races outside of Edmonton?

Today’s Daveberta newsletter mostly focuses on the results of the municipal election in Edmonton but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching the results across the province. Here’s a quick look at some of the other races I’ve been following:

• In Calgary, independent candidate Jeromy Farkas narrowly defeated Communities First Party candidate Sonya Sharp in the mayoral election. Sharp is demanding a recount. Incumbent mayor Jyoti Gondek placed third in the race.

• Cindy Jeffries was elected Mayor of Red Deer, defeating Gareth Scott, former MLA Red Deer-South Progressive Conservative MLA Victor Doerksen and councillor Lawrence Lee.

• Jackie Clayton was re-elected as Mayor of Grande Prairie and Blaine Hyggen was re-elected as Mayor of Lethbridge.

• Linsee Clark was re-elected as Mayor of Medicine Hat, fending off a challenge from former Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes.

• Wetaskiwin Mayor and Alberta Municipalities President Tyler Gandam was defeated by councillor Joseph Branco.

• Rod Shaigec defeated one-term mayor Allan Gamble to once again become Mayor of Parkland County.

  • Sheigac was first elected Mayor in 2010 and served in that role before deciding not to run for re-election in 2021 after a tragic farm accident.

• Incumbent Wood Buffalo mayor Sandy Bowman was re-elected and former Fort McMurray PC MLAs Mike Allen and Don Scott were elected to Wood Buffalo municipal council. Siblings Luana Bussieres and Lance Bussieres were also elected to the municipal council.

• Gwendoline Dirk appears to have been elected to the Medicine Hat Public School board.

  • Dirk ran for the NDP against Premier Danielle Smith in Brooks-Medicine Hat in the 2022 by-election and 2023 election.

• Former Liberal MLA and MP Kent Hehr was defeated in Calgary’s Ward 8.

  • Hehr was the Liberal MLA for Calgary-Buffalo from 2008 to 2015 and the Liberal MP for Calgary Centre from 2015 to 2019.

• Former Ontario MP Jeff Watson was defeated in Calgary’s Ward 6.

  • Watson was the Conservative MP for the southwest Ontario riding of Essex from 2004 to 2015. He later moved to Alberta and made unsuccessful bids for the UCP nomination in Calgary-Peigan in 2018 and federal Conservative nomination in Battle River-Crowfoot in 2019.

• Terri Beaupre has been elected to Grande Prairie County council. She served as President of the Progressive Conservative Party from 2014 to 2015.

• I wrote last week that the presidents of the UCP and Alberta NDP were running in the municipal elections as independent candidates.

  • UCP President Rob Smith was defeated in Mountain View County Division 6, finishing in third place with 102 votes. Incumbent councillor Peggy Johnson was re-elected with 188 votes.

  • NDP President Bill Tonita was re-elected in Strathcona County’s Ward 4, which he has represented since 2017. Tonita earned 67.3 per cent of the vote.

    • Tonita was the NDP candidate in Strathcona-Sherwood Park in the 2023 provincial election.

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Thanks for reading!

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The Legislature is returning for the Speech from the Throne and the start of the fall session later this week, so subscribers will be treated with another column in a few days.

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Thanks again,

Dave