In a little over a week the City Market Downtown will return to 104 Street for the summer season. Even though it has been nearby throughout the winter at City Hall, I’m positive that May 19 will feel more like a return than simply a shift in location. The outdoor market is an altogether different and special experience, one that thousands of Edmontonians enjoy every weekend from May through October!

For more than one hundred years, the City Market has played an important and unique role in our city. In the early days, the existence of the market reflected Edmonton’s aspirations to be a place of importance. In recent years, the market has helped to revitalize our downtown. It’s most important role however, has been as a mechanism for connecting urban Edmontonians with their rural neighbours. As Kathryn Chase Merret wrote in her book, A History of the Edmonton City Market, 1900-2000, “the years during which the Edmonton City Market flourished were years when it embodied a popularly held and powerful civic idea, the interdependence of country and city.”

When the City Market moved to 104 Street in 2004, the idea of connecting country and city became embedded in the bylaws of the Edmonton Downtown Farmers’ Market Association. Among other things, the bylaws outline the composition of the board: five to ten members, including at least two members representing vendors, one member representing residents, and one member representing the business community. That composition is significant because it puts vendors and the community on equal terms, fifty-fifty. For the organization to work with such a structure, there must be a partnership between both sides. I firmly believe that partnership is what has enabled the City Market to flourish over the last seven years. And that is why I was alarmed to receive a notice about an upcoming Special Meeting to amend the bylaws in such a way that vendors would have complete control over the market.

Over the last week I have spent a significant amount of time and energy trying to get a better understanding of the situation. I wanted to know more about the history and the people involved, and I wanted to figure out if my initial alarm regarding the changes was warranted. I have talked to both current and past board members, I have talked to residents and businesses on 104 Street, and I have talked to both current and past City Councillors. What follows simply cannot represent every viewpoint on the matter, but know that I have done my best to gather as many perspectives as possible. Unfortunately both Dieter Kuhlmann and Dan Young, the current and past chairs of the City Market board respectively, declined to comment.

Proposed Bylaw Changes

On April 27 a “Notice of Special Meeting” was mailed to all members of the Edmonton Downtown Farmers’ Market Association. The notice indicated that a Special Meeting would take place on Monday, May 14, 2012 starting at 7:30pm at the Sutton Place Hotel to vote on a Special Resolution to amend the current bylaws. A copy of the amended bylaws was included, but the current bylaws were not, making it difficult to compare. In addition to a number of smaller changes, there are three big and important changes proposed.

1. The categories of membership under the current bylaws are: Regular Member, Associate Member, Honoured Life Member. Regular Members are further categorized as Vendor Members and Community Members, but both have full and equal voting rights. Under the proposed bylaws, the categories of membership are: Voting Member, Non-Voting Member, and Honoured Life Member. Importantly, only vendors would be allowed to be Voting Members.
2. As mentioned above, the current bylaws state that the Board of Directors must comprise five to ten members, including at least two Regular Members representing vendors, one Regular Member representing residents of downtown Edmonton, and one Regular Member representing the business community of downtown Edmonton. Under the proposed bylaws, the Board of Directors would be comprised of five to nine individuals, including a minimum of five Voting Members (ie. vendors), and if additional board members are elected, one Non-Voting Member who would represent residents and one Non-Voting Member who would represent the business community. If a full slate were to be elected, the eighth and ninth members would also be Voting Members.
3. Under the current bylaws, each Director serves a two year term and may serve no more than three consecutive terms. Under the proposed bylaws, there is no limit to the number of terms a Director may serve.

To summarize, the changes remove the requirement to have resident and business representatives on the board, they remove the right of non-vendors to vote, they require that vendors always have a majority on the board, and they remove the term limits for board members.

I think it is important to point out that inadequate notice has been given for this Special Meeting. According to Service Alberta:

The by-laws must say that in the future the by-laws can only be changed by a special resolution of the members. Special resolution is defined in Section 1(d) of the Societies Act. The definition cannot be changed.

If you look at that section of the Societies Act, you’ll find that for such a resolution to be valid, “not less than 21 days’ notice specifying the intention to propose the resolution has been duly given.” In this case, just 17 days notice has been given.

Why did this come forward?

Practically speaking, someone brought a petition forward signed by twenty-five members of the association, as required by section 9.03 of the bylaws. I have been told that the petition was not a board initiative, and although no one was willing to name names it has become clear to me that there is one individual in particular who has taken it upon himself to drive this forward.

For some time now, there have been complaints from the businesses on the street about the logistics of the market. The businesses feel that the configuration of the market on the south end of the street unnecessarily hides their storefronts, blocks the sidewalks, and makes it difficult for consumers to shop. The market has typically responded with concern about the impact any changes would have on the logistics of setting up and tearing down the market. In my opinion, both sides have handled the situation poorly. The market seems to have taken the perspective that it is the greatest thing to ever happen to the street, and the businesses don’t seem to realize that perhaps they could do more to attract some of the 15,000+ people who walk by on a Saturday. Discussions have been ongoing and with Councillor Batty acting as a mediator between the two sides in recent weeks, a small amount of progress was finally made a few days ago when both sides agreed to trial a reconfiguration of the south end of the market. I think this ongoing negative situation has contributed to the desire by some vendors to remove any business representation from the market.

Another contributing factor appears to be last year’s vote on whether or not to pursue the Mercer Warehouse as a year-round venue for the market. The motion was defeated overwhelmingly, 69-3. Sharon and I abstained from that vote because we felt it was inappropriate to vote on something that could have such a significant impact on a vendor’s financial situation (each would have had to contribute thousands of dollars). In hindsight, it seems that a number of community representatives pushed quite hard for the building and that may have contributed to some vendors feeling threatened and ultimately led to the decisive vote.

Most significantly, it seems that personality conflicts have played a major role in this turn of events. Arnold Renschler was recruited to the board as a community member and was elected in January this year, but stepped down just a couple of months later after attempting unsuccessfully to bring vendors and businesses on the street together to discuss their differences. He quickly found that others on the board were not supportive of his initiative. “We need people to volunteer and while I am willing to give my time, the organization has to be open, transparent, fair, and democratic,” he told me. Arnold felt that the organization was one he did not want to be associated with, a message I have heard from a number of other individuals as well.

Why does this matter?

In my conversations over the last week, people overwhelmingly feel that the proposed changes would take the market in a negative direction. “A healthy balance between vendors and non-vendors is what has made the market successful,” is what former board member Jennifer Fisk told me. That healthy balance is precisely why the original board members wrote the bylaws the way they did. They recognized that the City Market is unique specifically because of its location. Instead of occupying a building that it owns and operates, the City Market calls 104 Street home just on Saturdays and just during the summer months. You might say that they are a guest of the street for that time, and that being a guest comes with certain expectations. “Downtown has many stakeholders, all of which need to be willing to hold dialogue with each other and discuss the issues in a rational, open-minded manner,” Chris Buyze, President of the Downtown Edmonton Community League, told me. “It’s about maintaining balance and a willingness to work with others.”

Without question, many vendors have a much larger stake in the market than residents or local businesses do. For many vendors, the market is their livelihood, and they’ve almost certainly put more blood, sweat, and tears into participating in the market than someone who simply lives on the street. However, because of that greater investment vendors are more likely to act in their own self-interest than in the best interests of the market. Having outside representation can help to provide a broader perspective. “I believe it should be a vendor led board, but that doesn’t mean that you have to exclude the other parties,” Arnold told me. There are few organizations that are as political as farmers’ markets are, and often that’s because of turf wars and other petty differences.

From a logistical point-of-view, having a balance of vendors and non-vendors is vitally important. Vendors are busy and many live outside the city, so they cannot be expected to keep up-to-date with what is happening on the street. That’s one area in which residents and businesses can be extremely valuable contributors. For example, they can both provide input to the board about changes to the street and can attend meetings in the city such as the ones that Transportation is scheduling to discuss future LRT construction.

Most people I talked to also feel that it is difficult to compare the City Market to other markets. Each market is different and what might work for one won’t necessarily work for another. For example, the St. Albert Market is completely run by the Chamber of Commerce and it has grown to become possibly the most successful single-day market in the province. In contrast, the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market is vendor-run and yet it too is extremely successful. The context in which the City Market operates is completely different, and I think a strong case can be made for a healthy mix of vendor and community representation.

The City Market does not operate in a vacuum. It needs the support of the community it parachutes in and out of for twenty-two weeks over the summer. “I do think that this market in particular works best when the community and the market are integrated,” former City Councillor Michael Phair told me. “It would be very valuable to have voting representation on the board from someone that has a connection to those living or working on the street.”

Why does the City Market matter?

There are lots of farmers’ markets in the Edmonton area, and new ones seem to be popping up all the time. But there aren’t any other markets like the City Market. Being located in the heart of downtown is a huge advantage that no other market has. The City Market is the only farmers’ market accessible via LRT, for instance, and that draws thousands of people into the core every week. When the LRT was extended to Century Park, there was a noticeable jump in attendance at the City Market.

According to Alberta Agriculture, the average person spent $35 per visit to a farmers’ market in 2004. By 2008, that number had jumped to $45. “The average customer to the City Market spends $68 each week,” former board member and 104 Street resident Jon Hall explained to me. “The market supports millions of dollars of commerce each year.” And he pointed out that the weekly average spend does not include parking, coffee, or other things that people might buy while they are in the area.

We throw the R-word (revitalization) around a lot these days, but there’s no question that the City Market has played and continues to play an important role in the turnaround of downtown. That’s especially exciting because it was not very long ago that the market itself was in need of a turnaround! There seems to be a interesting mix of fortunes for downtown and the City Market. For example, one of the key reasons that Sharon and I moved downtown was because of the City Market.

Future of the City Market

While the City Market still has a number of years on its lease with the City for 104 Street, there is no guarantee that it will remain there. Starting next year, the market will likely face significant logistical challenges at its present location due to the construction of the proposed third and fourth Icon towers in the parking lot on the northwest corner of 102 Avenue and 104 Street, as well as the eventual construction of the Downtown LRT Connector (which runs down 102 Avenue). There are alternatives that don’t require the market to move off the street, however. Michael Phair suggested that both the alley behind Sobeys and 104 Street south across Jasper Avenue could be viable locations for the market to expand or move into. “As you go south, you have quite a bit of space,” he said. “I think it would be relatively easy to manage the crossing at Jasper Avenue.” He points out that thousands of people cross Gateway Boulevard every Saturday from the parking lot to the Old Strathcona market, so why can’t they cross Jasper Avenue, which has even less traffic?

If the City Market cannot remain on 104 Street because a new location is truly better for the market, then that’s a valid reason to move. But if the market decides to move because it cannot or will not get along with the 104 Street community, that’s a different situation altogether. And I fear that without representation from the downtown community that has been home to the market for over one hundred years, there’s a real chance that the market may consider moving outside the downtown core. That would be a significant blow to the momentum that downtown now has, and I think would ultimately have a negative impact on the market itself.

Conclusion

The City Market on 104 Street is successful today because of the partnership that exists between vendors, consumers, residents and businesses on the street, and the City of Edmonton. Without the significant investments made by the City over the last two decades, 104 Street simply would not have been able to develop into one of Edmonton’s premier streets. The residents, businesses, and City Market together all bring the foundation provided by the City to life and positively contribute to the vibrancy and attractiveness of the street.

I believe that partnership is worth fighting for, and as such I view the proposed bylaw changes with great concern. I do not believe that the changes have been suggested with the best interests of the City Market at heart, and I think it is clear that they have been brought forward without adequate notice in an effort to avoid healthy discussion of the matter. I feel that strong vendor and community representation is a necessity for the City Market to continue to thrive, and I think that any attempt to cut either side out of the equation is shortsighted and harmful.

The City Market is not simply a place to buy food and crafts on the weekend. Rather, it connects Edmonton’s urban and rural communities and contributes significantly to the ongoing revitalization of our downtown. The City Market is one of the few remaining connections we have to our city’s earliest days, and I hope it continues to successfully play a role in the lives of Edmontonians for years to come.

How You Can Help

Tell others that you care about the City Market and its role in the city. Contact the City Market and buy a $10 membership. Go to the meeting on Monday night and express your concerns. Write to your City Councillor. Tweet your thoughts. Whatever you do, please don’t take the City Market for granted!

UPDATE (May 12): As per the comment below from City Market board chair Dieter Kuhlmann, the meeting has been postponed until mid-June. Here’s the notice that was sent to members:

The Special Meeting that was called for May 14, 2012 has been cancelled. Notice of a Special Meeting for the week of June 11, 2012 will be issued and mailed out next week in order to provide members with the required 21 days notice of the Special Resolution that will be the topic of the Special Meeting.

While this is a welcome change that will allow for more discussion, it doesn’t mean the issue is done just yet.

• To say that today was an interesting day in the Edmonton mediasphere would be a huge understatement. The big news is that Brittney Le Blanc, aka “Wonderkid”, is leaving 630CHED/iNews880 after six years with the organization. She wrote: “Saying goodbye is one of the toughest things for me. I hate doing it… but it’s the right time, and I look forward to keeping in touch with my friends from the station as I move on to the next challenge.”
• She is joining the Edmonton Journal as part of the Edmonton Experiment – an attempt to “identify, customize and build new products to serve our community”. Brittney will be working with Karen Unland who is back at the Journal to lead the project – and that itself is a big story! In a matter of days the Journal has managed to hire two of the most innovative members of Edmonton’s media community. Karen called it an offer she couldn’t refuse. Well Karen, I’d say snagging the Wonderkid is a great way to start your new job! Karen wrote about bringing Brittney on board here.
• In an interesting twist, Corus Entertainment isn’t the organization on the losing side of this news. The Edmonton Sun also loses Brittney, who had taken on the Page Six column. I understand tomorrow’s column will be her last.

• I’m really happy for Brittney! As good as radio has been to her, I think the Journal opportunity will really allow her to grow and become even more of a media rock star. I’m positive that we’ll see some amazing things from her and Karen over the next few months. Can’t wait!
• Brittney isn’t the only one switching orgs! Linda Hoang announced this week that she is leaving Global Edmonton to join CTV Edmonton as a web reporter. Glad to see there was cake to celebrate her departure. This is a big win for CTV! Linda starts her new gig this week.
• Investing in local news with the Edmonton Experiment fits with the new focus for Postmedia. They’ve decided to shutdown the newswire service and have signed a new three-year deal with The Canadian Press. Apparently this was a long time coming – Paul Godfrey got things in motion soon after taking over as CEO. Here’s the note that went out to Postmedia staff about the news.
• Here’s an article all about the Goosecam. In the four weeks it has been up so far, the page has received 55,000 page views. For a comparison, that’s almost exactly what my #abvote Results Dashboard got on election night itself.
• The new editor of Sun Media’s 24 Hours, Kevin Maimann, recently won a Calgary Folk Music Festival songwriting contest.
• Alberta Oil magazine has been nominated as Magazine of the Year in the 58th annual Kenneth R. Wilson Awards for business-to-business publications.
• Will CKUA’s move to the Alberta Hotel leave a number of artists and arts organizations unable to afford the new office space? CKUA’s CEO Ken Regan acknowledged that current tenants may not be able to afford the new space, but said: “In a perfect world, we’ve expressed to them that if they want to come with us, they’re more than welcome.”
• Global Edmonton’s Laurel Clark is living and working in Liberia until May 28 as part of the Africa Project. Here’s her blog, and here is Barry Acton’s blog, the cameraman she is travelling with.
• I love that Twitter is used to share stuff like this: Global Edmonton congratulates Shane Jones on the arrival of his baby girl!
• Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2012 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards. The St. Albert Gazette was named the Best All-Around Newspaper in the category with circulation of 12,500 to 24,999. The paper’s April Bartlett won for Best Feature Photo, and the Gazette also won for Best Sports Coverage.
• Check out Jennifer Crosby’s rubber boots! She did a great job on Saturday evening hosting Slow Food’s Roots, Shoots and Garden Boots gala.
• 104.9 Virgin Radio and West Edmonton Mall are teaming up to find the first Virgin Radio Star. They’re holding a two-day talent competition in search of the best voice in Edmonton.
• Have you registered for Meet the Media Tweetup 2? If not, you’ll have to get yourself on the waitlist…it’s sold out.

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

• Danielle Smith is “open to pressing the reset button” on her relationship with Mayor Mandel. After hearing that Smith intended to have Calgary Mayor Nenshi act as a peace broker, Mandel indicated he didn’t think that was necessary and said she should just pick up the phone and call him.
• Is Mill Woods misunderstood?
• Edmonton’s 311 call centre has been recognized as the #1 medium sized call centre in North America. 311 handles over 160,000 calls per month.
• Results for the 3rd year of A Place to Call Home: Edmonton’s 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness are in. Nearly 1800 Edmontonians are now housed in 1,237 units, 150% of the Plan’s target for the first 3 years.
• Edmonton has been named one of six official host cities for the 2015 Women’s World Cup. All games will take place at Commonwealth Stadium, and the schedule should be announced early next year.
• The Edmonton Police Foundation is now accepting nominations for the Harry Hole Community Policing Award. The deadline for submissions is 4pm on June 4, 2012.
• Good news magazine fans – Hub Cigar should reopen later this month!
• EPCOR President and CEO Don Lowry announced this week that he intends to retire effective December 2013.
• Northlands President and CEO Richard L. Andersen has signed a contract renewal and extension that will keep him with the organization through December 2017.
• The Eskimos unveiled new jerseys this week. The most notable change is the new green road helmets and pants.
• London-based Just-Eat, the world’s largest online meal take-out and delivery ordering service, is coming to Edmonton this year.
• Avenue Magazine takes a look at some of Edmonton’s power couples.
• Congratulations to NAIT Landscape Architecture student Em Poole on having her design for the green space adjacent to the TELUS House selected as the winning design. TELUS is investing more than $20 million in the buildings over the next two years.
• St. Albert city council voted this week to start proceedings on its third annexation of land from Sturgeon County in the last eleven years.
• Edmonton will soon be home to a Blo franchise, a business dedicated exclusively to “the art” of blow-drying hair.
• Why are Edmontonians bothered by people leaving the city? “We are Edmonton the impermanent, Edmonton the unsettled. We arrive in droves, we leave in droves. The pace of change is more rapid than in many other places, and that can be unsettling, even unwelcome.”
• Here’s a neat look at the LRT tunnel crews are working on as part of the North LRT to NAIT extension.
• Here is the City’s latest Council Roundup.

One of the giant mining machines that was on display in Churchill Square this week.

Here are some upcoming events:

• The Handmade Mafia and Startup Edmonton are hosting an event for “crafty entrepreneurs” at the Mercer Warehouse on Tuesday evening.
• The Way We Green Speaker Series continues Wednesday at lunch with Mark Stumpf-Allen talking about composting.
• Thursday is the Chamber’s Spring After Business Mixer at Waterloo Ford.
• Also Thursday is our second Truck Stop of the month! Come check out the food trucks at McIntyre Park in Old Strathcona from 5pm to 9pm.
• If you’re downtown that evening, check out Startup Edmonton’s Grand Opening Party in the Mercer Warehouse.
• The Oil Kings host Portland on Thursday night in game five of the series.
• Guru Digital Arts College is celebrating ten years on Friday at the AGA with Gala Guru TEN.
• The Muttart is holding its annual bedding plant sale from May 10 to 12.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

A great shot of the supermoon by Ian McKenzie.

To keep up-to-date on What the Truck?! and Truck Stop events, check out our website, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter! We’ll be posting each week’s lineup and menu details as we get closer to the date.

On Saturday at the Fantasyland Hotel you’ll find iMedia 2012: Edmonton’s Social Media Conference. Vancouver’s Darren Barefoot and Rebecca Bollwitt are both in town to deliver keynotes. At lunch time I’m on the iMedia-lite Panel along with Kathleen Smith, Kendall Barber, and Ryan Jespersen. We’ll be talking about personal branding on the web – should be fun!

Later that afternoon I’ll be back downtown to participate in the Edmonton Public Library’s Downtown Stories event. The idea is to celebrate “the diverse stories of people who live downtown.” I’ll be sharing some thoughts on the changing face of downtown. Other speakers include Poet Laureate Anna Marie Sewell and EPL’s Writer in Residence Jocelyn Brown.

In addition to Truck Stop next Thursday, you don’t want to miss the Grand Opening Party for Startup Edmonton’s new space in the Mercer Warehouse! There will be drinks, DJs, and tours all evening long, so stop in and check it out. I can’t wait to see the space full of people.

On Friday, May 11 you’ll want to join me at the Art Gallery of Alberta to celebrate Guru’s tenth birthday at Gala Guru TEN. They’ve accomplished so much in that time! “We hang out on the corner of technology and the arts. If you like freaky mashups of technology and music/dance/theatre/visual media, this is the event for you.”

So that’s a few of the events I’ll be at over the next week or so. For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton!

• No idea where they are getting their metrics, but Global Edmonton sent out a tweet the day after the election thanking Edmontonians for making them the most watched election-night special in the city. Speaking of, Linda posted a photo of the web team that kept Global Edmonton’s online stuff updated throughout the night.
• You might be wondering how a non-profit like CKUA can afford to buy the new Alberta Hotel for $12 million. Turns out they sold their existing building for $2.6 million, received a $5 million grant from the City of Edmonton, and will be arranging a mortgage for the rest. It’ll be great to see the building come to life!
• Congratulations to CBC Edmonton’s Charles Rusnell and Grant Gelinas for picking up a couple of CAJ awards!
• The Journal’s Andrea Sands and Larry Wong were recognized last week in the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s annual Education News Writers & Photographers of Alberta awards.
• Sheila Pratt of the Edmonton Journal was a runner-up in the Politics category of the National Newspaper Awards. The paper itself was a runner-up in the Breaking News category for its coverage of the Slave Lake fires.
• Here’s a great tweet photo from Brittney – Bob Layton has upgraded to an iPhone!
• Michael Brechtel tackles the question of just who a citizen journalist is. Does everyone with a soapbox qualify?
• GigCity has your list of winners for the Edmonton Music Awards.
• Julianna Cummins is leaving the Edmonton Journal. Her colleague Stuart Thomson has written a great profile of Julianna and her work.
• Breakfast Television is looking for a freelance videographer to be on call. The deadline to apply is May 31 and the salary is $225/day.
• Metro Edmonton is looking for a reporter/photographer to join the team. The deadline to apply is May 6, see full details here.
• Principal photography for the third season of Come Dine with Me Canada begins this spring, and Edmonton is one of the locations. The episodes should air sometime in the fall.
• Ooh them’s fightin’ words! “Unsubstantiated rumor mongering” from the MSM? Say it ain’t so!
• With MacEwan consolidating its campuses downtown, plans for the big orange Centre for Arts & Communications building remain undecided.

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

• Edmontonians got a peek at the designs for the new downtown arena this week! After a couple images leaked to the Journal, the City made four new images available and says more will be released for the Council meeting next month. While the design was called everything from a steak to a kidney to a comma, Daryl Katz says an oil drop was the inspiration.
• Starting today, the new “Route 747” bus between Century Park Transit Centre and the Edmonton International Airport entered service. The route runs 7 days a week, from 5am to 12:30am, with buses leaving every half-hour during peak hours and every hour during off-peak times. The cost is $5 for a one-way ticket, and buses have wi-fi on them!
• More positive news for First & Jasper – Public Works & Government Services Canada has leased 41,000 square feet of space over four floors! At this rate the building is going to be full before the old BMO building is finished being torn down!
• Property taxes to cover municipal programs and services in 2012 will increase $7.25 a month, or 5.1%, for the typical Edmonton household.
• Arts on the Ave has put out a call for artists and designers to participate in the 12foot12 challenge! Submissions are due May 15.
• The Supreme Court of Canada has decided it will not hear an appeal on a court case regarding Lucy the Elephant, a decision the City of Edmonton welcomed on on Thursday.
• I haven’t heard yet how the Elements Music Festival went this weekend, but last week event organizers were saying that they were being asked to spend $145,000 on security and that it was unlikely the event could happen again in the future. Sandra Sperounes makes the case for such events in this blog post.
• EEDC’s new board chair is Peter Silverstone, and its newest board members are Jagdeep Bachher, JoAnn Kirkland, and Tracey Scarlett.
• The City Archives has launched its first virtual exhibit, which features Ella May Walker, an artist, musician, and author who was a key advocate for preserving and promoting Edmonton’s history.
• Melcor announced last week that Brian Baker will take over from Ralph Young to become the new President and COO. Young will continue as CEO.
• Speaking of Ralph Young, he was elected on Friday by the U of A board of governors as the university’s next chancellor, the honourary head of the university.
• Edmonton and Jasper have signed a memorandum of cooperation with Shanghai, China to jointly promote travel between Alberta and Shanghai.
• Apparently this is a big deal: visit centre ice at Rexall Place right now and you won’t find the Oilers logo, you’ll find the Oil Kings logo instead!
• Pretty crazy (in a good way) that this happens in Edmonton: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world’s largest industrial auctioneer, conducted the largest equipment auction in Canadian history this week, selling more than CA$108 million of equipment.
• ProCura Real Estate says it is ready to begin construction on a new 21-storey tower in Century Park this summer, but it won’t look like the original plans.

We have certainly had some wild weather recently, everything from sunny and warm to this:

But I guess that’s Edmonton for you!

Here are some upcoming events to note:

• Tomorrow afternoon the City is running an economic development workshop, part of the public consultation process for The Way We Prosper.
• The Sage Awards will be handed out on Tuesday during lunch at the Sutton Place Hotel!
• The Slow Food Canada National Meeting & Conference takes place right here in Edmonton this week from May 3 to May 6.
• On Friday the Art Gallery of Alberta is hosting Art on the Block, a fundraiser to support the presentation of AGA exhibitions and education programs.
• The Handmade Mafia is back on Saturday at Orange Hall!
• And not far away on Saturday and Sunday is Royal Bison!
• Taking place all day Saturday the Fantastyland Hotel is iMedia 2012, a social media conference for western Canada. I’m on the panel at lunch!
• On Saturday afternoon, the Edmonton Public Library is running an event called Downtown Stories. I’ll be speaking in the afternoon about some of the ways our downtown is changing.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton!

Due to construction of the North LRT to NAIT, the LRT is running on a slightly different schedule until September 1. Also, about one third of the Churchill Square LRT platform will be blocked off during that time. Here’s an overview of the North LRT to NAIT, including helicopter footage:

Sharon and I were out at the Shaw bright and early this morning for Edmonton’s eight Homeless Connect. We volunteered to do pre-registration and registration.

There were an awful lot of volunteers there today, which is great! The event didn’t seem as busy as past ones in terms of clients, however.

Very early on, Danielle Smith’s campaign bus was the talk of Twitter for its unfortunate wheel placement. It attracted so much attention that even Jay Leno joked about it! The Wildrose quickly fixed the bus, sharing a new photo on Facebook that was liked nearly 800 times with more than 220 comments.

Social media proved to be an effective tool for the mainstream media to share their stuff throughout the election. For example, CBC’s Vote Compass was shared more than 5300 times on Facebook and more than 870 times on Twitter. Over 115,000 responses were completed.

On March 30, PC staffer Amanda Wilkie (@wikwikkie) posted a tweet questioning Danielle Smith’s lack of children. There was an immediate backlash which forced Wilkie to apologize and delete the tweet. Smith released a statement explaining that she and her husband had tried to have kids with the aid of fertility treatments, and Alison Redford released a statement announcing that Wilkie had resigned. The two leaders spoke on the phone and vowed to move on.

I just spoke with @Premier_Redford. I appreciate her sincerity and accepted her apology. #abvote #pcaa #wrp

— Danielle Smith (@ElectDanielle) March 31, 2012

Smith’s tweet was retweeted more than 100 times.

On April Fools Day, the Wildrose issued a news release saying that if elected, the party would pursue a merger with Saskatchewan to form a new province known as Saskberta. It was shared on Facebook more than 2100 times and on Twitter more than 360 times. The Wildrose tweet itself was retweeted more than 140 times:

Wildrose to Pursue Merger with Saskatchewan to Form New Province wildro.se/p3 #wrp #abvote

— Team Wildrose (@TeamWildrose) April 1, 2012

Candidates first felt the power of blogs on April 2, when Kathleen Smith (@KikkiPlanet) posted her widely-read piece entitled Pruned Bush: Confessions of a Wilted Rose. An impassioned and well-written post, it racked up more than 1400 likes on Facebook, more than 330 tweets, and 136 comments. More than that, it brought “Conscience Rights” into the spotlight.

Kathleen’s post even attracted an angry response from a Wildrose supporter. Paula Simons has a good recap of the whole story, so check it out.

Just two days later, Dave Cournoyer (@davecournoyer) posted an even more popular blog post. His entry titled thorny candidates could be the wildrose party’s biggest liability attracted more than 4700 likes on Facebook, more than 600 tweets, and 150 comments. Though we didn’t know it at the time, Dave’s post would be cited countless times over the next few weeks as Wildrose candidates made gaffe after gaffe. Even his follow-up post on April 16 attracted more than 600 likes, more than 70 tweets, and 75 comments.

The next day on April 5, Dave Cournoyer noticed that a Twitter account named @PremierDanielle had been created and was being followed by @ElectDanielle, Smith’s official account. While it only came to light during the election, it was actually created back on October 12, 2010.

I didn’t think there’d be many audio clips to note during the election, but on April 7 the Alberta Party launched its official campaign song, composed by JUNO winners Cindy Church and Sylvia Tyson. The page was shared on Facebook more than 100 times and on Twitter more than 40 times. The song itself, hosted on SoundCloud, has been played more than 3500 times.

It didn’t take long after Danielle Smith announced a $300 dividend for all Albertans for Sean Healy to launch Dani Dollars, a website that let users pledge their cash “to Wildrose Relief”. It was shared more than 280 times on Facebook, more than 130 times on Twitter, and attracted more than 170 pledges for a grand total of $51,600.

The leaders debate took place on April 12, and while it ended up being fairly boring (aside from Raj Sherman’s unintentionally comedic outbursts) there were a couple of highlights. One was Alberta Party leader Glenn Taylor’s live blog, which was followed by more than 1700 people. It was shared more than 480 times on Facebook and more than 300 times on Twitter.

The debate also resulted in one of the most memorable tweets of the election, retweeted more than 340 times:

Danielle Smith doesn't think Albertans will waste their own money? Has she seen truck nuts? #abvote #abdb8

— Omar Mouallem (@omar_aok) April 13, 2012

Edmonton Journal videographer Ryan Jackson posted a really unique video on April 13. By stitching together four different videos, Jackson made it appear as if you were sitting in a coffee shop with four of the party leaders. The video was shared more than 140 times on Facebook and more than 50 times on Twitter.

On April 14, a new Twitter account known as @Adamwyork posted a tweet about Wildrose candidate Allan Hunsperger. It linked to an old blog post that Hunsperger had written that contained the shocking statement that gays and lesbians would “suffer the rest of eternity in the lake of fire, hell.” You can see a screen capture of the post here. It wasn’t until April 26 that the person behind the tweet was identified. Turns out it was Blake Robert, better known online as @BRinYEG. Paula Simons’ post about the outing has already been shared more than 275 times on Facebook and more than 144 times on Twitter.

A blog by Wildrose candidate @allanhunsperger where he calls #yeg Public Schools "godless" for being tolerant. thehousetoday.com/index.php?opti… #abvote

— Adam York (@Adamwyork) April 15, 2012

Though the original tweet was only retweeted 13 times, the impact it had on the election cannot be overstated.

On April 16, the domain name INeverThoughtIdVotePC.com was registered. A couple of days later, the website launched featuring a short video that asked Albertans to vote strategically against the Wildrose. The website has been shared on Facebook more than 3700 times and the video itself has been seen more than 88,000 times.

On April 17, Vicky Frederick posted a Wildrose-edition of the “Downfall / Hitler Reacts” video meme. The video, titled Inside the Wildrose War Room, has been seen nearly 12,000 times.

It was a busy day on April 17. That was also the day that Wildrose candidate Ron Leech made controversial statements about having an advantage as a Caucasian. The Journal captured a copy of the radio interview here. The tweet from CTV Edmonton breaking the news was retweeted more than 250 times:

"I think as a Caucasian I have an advantage..." Ron Leech - Wildrose candidate Calgary Greenway: twitpic.com/9az8mx #abvote

— CTV Edmonton (@ctvedmonton) April 17, 2012

That same day, the Wildrose posted its “Momentum” ad on YouTube. With more than 112,000 views, it’s the most popular election-related video.

On April 20, Paula Simons wrote a blog post titled The Price of Free Speech. She discussed Danielle Smith’s stubborn refusal to reprimand candidates like Hunsperger and Leech. The post was shared on Facebook more than 1500 times and on Twitter more than 180 times.

In the final weekend of the campaign, photos of this graffiti wall here in Edmonton started circulating on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere online:

I don’t know how many times it was shared, but I saw it all over the place.

After all of the negativity of the election, I was quite happy to see Ryan Jackson’s next election video on April 23. A “whimsical parody video”, it featured the “strange new species” popping up on lawns across Alberta known was the election sign.

He posted a behind-the-scenes on the video just yesterday.

As the polls opened on April 23, many people tweeted that they had voted while others encouraged Albertans to get out and vote. With more than 200 retweets, Kathleen Smith’s call-to-action was probably the most visible of the day:

Hey, under 35 in Alberta - this is your province. YOU must chart its future. Now, more than ever, we need you to VOTE! #abvote

— Kikki Planet (@KikkiPlanet) April 23, 2012

On election night itself there were many memorable tweets, but Todd Babiak’s post about how the public opinion polls were so wrong was one of the most retweeted with 195 retweets:

I will tell my children not to pursue a career in public opinion polling. #abvote.

— Todd Babiak (@babiak) April 24, 2012

As far as I can tell, the most retweeted tweet of the entire election came at 9:27pm on election night, after it became clear that the Wildrose would form the official opposition. Calgary’s Nick Heer posted this tweet:

Man, the Wild Rose Party is going to be pissed. They hate minorities. #abvote

— Nick Heer (@nickheer) April 24, 2012

It has been retweeted more than 650 times!

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to imagine what the election would have looked like without social media! Through tweets, photos, videos, blog posts, and more, Albertans had no shortage of ways to share their thoughts on the candidates and the campaigns. And because of the nature of social media, those thoughts often spread extremely quickly and were frequently picked up by the mainstream media. Whether you’re a Twitter or Facebook user yourself or not, there’s no question that social media helped make the 2012 provincial election one of the most exciting in Alberta’s history.

Did you have a social media highlight that I missed? Let me know in the comments! For more on the role that Twitter played during the election, be sure to check out AlbertaTweets. Looking for election results and statistics? Check out my #abvote Results Dashboard!

A program of TEC Edmonton, TEC VenturePrize is an Alberta-wide program providing training, professional support and financial incentives to help people build or enhance a viable business. Now celebrating its 10th year, TEC VenturePrize is open to individuals such as aspiring entrepreneurs and faculty and students of post-secondary institutions, or new companies entering the marketplace.

Mayor Mandel kicked things off by welcoming everyone to the event and bringing greetings on behalf of the City. He was followed by the University of Alberta’s Lorne Babiuk and EEDC’s Ron Gilbertson who shared introductory remarks as presenting partners. As he has done for the last few years, Ryan Jespersen emceed the event. Ryan encouraged everyone to participate using the #VenturePrize hashtag on Twitter, and participate they did! It was great to see all of the positive comments about the companies competing. Throughout the evening there were videos featuring participants from the last ten years talking about their experiences with VenturePrize and the impact it had on them as entrepreneurs and on their companies.

Being the tenth year, time was reserved in the program to honor the organizations and individuals that have been a part of the competition since the beginning. The Edmonton Journal, Field Law, FMC Law, novaNAIT, PWC, and the TSX Venture Exchange have all been sponsors since 2002. Volunteers who have contributed their time and expertise since the start include Colin Christensen, Brian Goheen, Ted Heidrick, Van Konrad, Gord Meeberg, Dennis Pommen, Lloyd Steier, Sam Soliman, and Ted Yoo.

Just like last year, representatives from each of the finalists in the student category participated in a sit-down interview on stage with Ryan. It was a neat way to learn a bit more about each of the companies! The three finalists were:

• Orpyx Medical Technologies

Founded by 27-year-old Calgary surgical resident Dr. Breanne Everett, Orpyx is behind two highly innovative planar sensory replacement systems, the SurroSense Rx and the SurroGait Rx, that use pressure sensor-embedded shoe insoles to determine force exerted over the bottom of the feet, and wirelessly transmit collected information to a back pad, mobile device or wristwatch worn by the user. Employing the phenomenon of neuroplasticity – the potential of the human brain to rewire itself – the patient is able to interpret the sensory stimulus felt on the back as that from the feet, and positively adjust their gait, balance, mobility and overall health as a result.

• Enercal Data Systems

Enercal is building CALTrack – intelligent data software for the oil & gas industry. CALTrack provides easy-to-use, intelligent tools to manage critical calibration processes, allowing companies to meet increasing regulation and measurement quality requirements. Enercal was a finalist in Calgary’s STIC competition.

• CitizenBridge

CitizenBridge is a not-for-profit civic engagement organization creating an online platform that will directly connect Canadians and government by facilitating conversations between citizens and their representatives. Capitalizing on the movement of Gov 2.0 in Canada, CitizenBridge’s purpose is to create a much more accessible, transparent and engaging government by using technology to connect constituents with their elected representatives in an effort to strength the overall well-being of our communities.

There were two finalists in the nanoVenturePrize category, and we got to hear a short pitch from each of them in addition to a video. I think the addition of a nano category is great and will help to cement Edmonton’s role as a key research and development centre for nanotechnology. The products the finalists have created sound really impressive (and way over my head):

• Aquila Diagnostics Inc.

Aquila Diagnostics uses the Domino nanotechnology platform developed at the University of Alberta to provide on-site, easy-to-use genetic testing that can quickly test for infectious diseases and pathogens in livestock. The mobile diagnostic platform is portable, low-cost, fast and easy to use.

• Parvus Therapeutics Inc.

Parvus Therapeutics’ breakthrough nanomedicines may hold the cure for difficult-to-treat autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. Parvus’ new Navacim medicines are nanoparticles coated with immune system proteins that can target specific autoimmune conditions.

There have been a lot of really unique and successful competitors in the fast growth category over the last ten years, so I’m sure the two finalists were feeling the pressure. Neither showed it up on stage though, delivering great elevator pitches before we got to see their videos.

• Innovative Trauma Care Inc. (Edmonton)

As a combat trauma surgeon, ITC founder and CEO Dr. Dennis Filips was a firsthand witness to bleeding as a leading cause of battlefield deaths. Now a civilian surgeon and entrepreneur, he is committed to inventing point of injury solutions. ITC’s first product, the ITClamp, is a hand-held device that stops bleeding and saves live by instantly sealing a wound until surgical repair.

• Pedpad Inc. (Calgary)

Pedpad solves a pervasive challenge faced by consumers in the footwear industry: finding shoes that fit. The process of trying on different sizes across different brands and returning online purchases that don’t fit is frustrating for customers and retailers alike. Pedpad solves this problem with a multi-axis, digital shoe-sizing platform. By stepping on the Pedpad device in-store, consumers can immediately determine their shoe size for a given brand. Through a personal Pedpad account, consumers can access their measurements online, obtain precise sizing recommendations across brands, and shop online with confidence.

The keynote speaker for the event was the Honourable A. Anne McLellan, who spoke about the spirit of innovation in Alberta. After attending a bunch of big events in the last week or two where speakers have not been shy about celebrating the positive economic outlook for Edmonton and the province, it was refreshing to hear Anne McLellan take a more measured approach. She said that we can and must do better in this province, that while energy is our traditional industry, it won’t always be enough. “Complacency is the biggest threat facing Alberta,” she told us. Her remarks covered a lot of ground, including the role that government should play in economic development. “Government should pick the races we’re in, not the winning horses,” she said. I wasn’t sure at first if McLellan was the right fit for a VenturePrize keynote, but I’m glad the organizers picked her!

While I enjoyed the longer dinner format for the special 10th anniversary, I do think the program was a bit too long. It was well after 9pm by the time we got to the winners! The first award was the Screeners’ Award of Merit, presented by the Alberta Business Family Institute’s Shauna Feth. The award, which recognizes a business plan submission that shows excellent promise, went to Raw-Bitz.

Stephen Lougheed from Alberta Innovates Technology Futures presented the award to the winner of the student category, Orpyx Medical Technologies.

Dan Djukich from Alberta Innovates Technology Futures presented the inaugural nanoVenturePrize award, which went to Parvus Therapeutics.

The two finalists in the fast growth category could not have been more different. I think Pedpad is on to something interesting, though as Sharon remarked to me when I told her about the company, you really have to try shoes on to see how they fit, because materials and other factors all play a role. Still, companies and products that mix the physical and online worlds are intriguing to me. As for ITC, I still can’t quite believe that their product doesn’t already exist. It looks and operates just like a hair clamp, and doesn’t look very complicated to my untrained eye (though I’m sure there’s more to it). But it obviously works and works well, so I hope it catches on!

TEC Edmonton CEO Chris Lumb had the honor of presenting the award to the winner of the fast growth category: Innovative Trauma Care.

Congratulations to all of the participants, finalists, and winners! Thanks also to TEC Edmonton for saving me a spot at the media table – much appreciated! You can see more photos from the evening here.

If you haven’t checked out the dashboard, you can see it here. I’ve added a bunch of stuff since election night, which I’ll explain below.

The Idea

By late Friday afternoon, my thoughts had drifted to election day itself. I started to think about how exciting it would be to see the results come in – I love election nights! I knew there would be television coverage and that the media would have some web coverage as well, but I also felt that I could build something unique and valuable. If only I had the data! So I looked around, and found the Elections Alberta results site. At that time, the results page was full of test data. I immediately saved a copy to my computer, and saved a few of the electoral division pages too. That proved to be a wise decision, because a few hours later the site went offline!

Before I took a crack at scraping the website, I wanted to know if there was a data feed of some kind available. I blindly emailed the general Elections Alberta address, and to my surprise, received a response shortly thereafter! Unfortunately there was no data feed available, so I set about writing a scraper. Within a couple of hours, I was correctly scraping the main results page as well as all of the electoral division pages. Now that I had the data, I felt pretty confident that I could build a dashboard over the weekend. I didn’t get back to the project until Sunday morning, so that meant I had to prioritize what I was going to build. It took about six hours, but my I finished my initial version late that evening.

The Design

This was not my first election results dashboard. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll recall that I built a dashboard for the municipal election here in Edmonton back in 2010. I learned a lot from that experience, and I remember it being a lot more rushed and difficult than this dashboard! Among other lessons, it was clear that design and colors matter, and that mobile devices are important (even then lots of people were asking for mobile support). I also knew that forcing users to refresh the page is less than ideal – it’s not a very delightful experience, and it puts unnecessary strain on the server. I also disliked the limited real estate that I had to work with (the current ShareEdmonton page width is fixed…but I’m working on a new version that is fluid).

So, I wanted a mobile-friendly, fluid-width, Ajax-enabled, attractive looking design. I immediately decided to use Twitter Bootstrap. I have used it a few times now, and I absolutely love it. I can’t thank the folks at Twitter enough for making such an excellent framework available for free! It gave me everything I needed to get going from a UI perspective. In particular it features responsive design, which makes it possible for the pages to scale from the desktop down to mobile devices without much work. For the backend, I used ASP.NET MVC 3. I use it for everything, so I know it well.

For performance reasons, it definitely made sense to cache the data. I decided on a fairly straightforward approach: I’d scrape the data from Elections Alberta and would store it using Memcached for two minutes. That meant that every two minutes, a request would take slightly longer because it had to download the data again, but this seemed reasonable (and as it turned out, the Elections Alberta site was incredibly quick). I also designed the pages to poll for new data every 30 seconds, which prevented users from having to reload the page manually.

The Cloud

When I built the ShareEdmonton dashboard a couple years ago, it was hosted on one of my servers. That worked fine, but it did slow down under load and I didn’t have much ability to scale up or out without a lot of additional cost, time, and effort. I really wanted to avoid that situation this time, so I decided to host the dashboard using Windows Azure. I’m in the process of migrating ShareEdmonton to Azure, so I already had an account and was pretty familiar with how it worked. Deploying to Azure is so easy – I simply had to add a deployment project in Visual Studio, and then I could deploy new versions in just a couple of clicks.

Windows Azure supports a range of instance types – basically you get to choose how big and powerful you want your server to be. I started with “Extra Small”, the least powerful and therefore least expensive type. As the polls were about to close at 8pm, I scaled up to “Small”, which meant redeploying the app (which took about 8 minutes, but happened completely behind-the-scenes). About half an hour later, I had to add capacity because the site was starting to get quite sluggish. This time I scaled out, by adding a second instance. All I had to do was change a configuration setting in the Azure management console, and the service took care of everything. Within a few minutes, I had two load-balanced “Small” instances. The performance boost was immediately noticeable. About an hour later, I added a third instance, and kept the system running that way until about 1am. I scaled it back down in stages, and now have it running as a single “Extra Small” instance again.

Two Key Decisions

I think the two most important decisions I made were:

1. Using Twitter Bootstrap
2. Using Windows Azure

The decision first meant that the website looked good and worked across browsers, screen resolutions, and devices. I got all of that engineering effort and testing for free, which meant I could focus on building an election results dashboard rather than building a website. I didn’t have to figure out how to lay things out on the screen, or how to style tables. The second decision was perhaps even more important. By using Windows Azure, I could deploy new versions of the dashboard in minutes, plus I could scale up and out simply by changing a few settings. That meant I could quickly respond when the site came under load. The other big advantage of using Azure was the cost – running the site on election night cost me just $1.54. Incredible!

Some Statistics

The dashboard served around 60,000 page views on election night alone, which is pretty good for a website launched just hours before the main event. Keep in mind that because the data on the site automatically updated, users didn’t have to refresh the page which kept that statistic lower than it would otherwise have been. The visit duration metric is another way to see that – 20% of all visitors spent at least 10 minutes on the site. I actually would have guessed a higher percentage than that, but perhaps the high mobile usage was the reason.

The top screen resolution for visitors was 320×480, not a desktop resolution! Roughly 36% of all visits that night were made on mobile devices (which includes tablets). The iPhone was the most popular device, followed by the iPad. Clearly using a framework like Twitter Bootstrap with responsive design was a good decision.

The other statistic worth sharing is that the vast majority of visitors (about 73%) found the site by way of social networks, and two in particular. Facebook accounted for 78% of all those visits, while Twitter accounted for 20%.

Recent Improvements

Since Monday I have made numerous improvements to the dashboard. Here’s a brief overview of the new features:

• All the data is now stored locally, which means I’m no longer reliant on Elections Alberta. They have made numerous updates over the last two days, and I have updated the site’s local data store accordingly.
• I updated the voter turnout chart and added regional voter turnout to the front page. I also added a table of the five closest races.
• District pages now show voter turnout and the list of polls is now sortable.
• There’s a new Districts Grid, which lets you see lots of information about all the districts in a single, sortable view. For example, you can quickly see which district had the best voter turnout, which were the closest races, and which had the most candidates.
• There’s also a Candidates page, which lets you see information about all of the candidates in a single, sortable view.
• Last night I also added a Maps page, which has interactive maps for the province, as well as zoomed-in maps for Calgary and Edmonton. Click on any region for details and a link to the district page.

What’s Next?

I plan to keep the dashboard up as it is now, though at some point I’ll probably transition it from being a dynamic website to a static one (far cheaper to host over the long-run). If you have any suggestions on things to add or improve, let me know! I hope the site will serve as a valuable reference tool going forward.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who sent positive comments about the dashboard my way. It’s great to hear that so many people found it useful on election night!

So... I'll buy lunch for anyone who can get their hands on @MayorMandel's *Script B* for today's state of #yeg speech #eccmayormandel #yegcc

— don iveson (@doniveson) April 24, 2012

You can read Mayor Mandel’s speech in its entirety here (PDF). He started strong, recalling a particularly memorable comment he made seven years ago:

“I remember the first time I stood here, and I uttered the words ‘no more crap’. On that day, I not only got away with cursing in public, but touched on a sentiment we had all been feeling for many years.”

Whether you like Mandel or not, I think he’s right to point out that during his tenure as mayor, the city has changed significantly and for the better:

“Seven years ago, we were a city organization with no big plans, that avoided dealing with significant challenges and left our true potential unexplored.

Seven years later, we are Canada’s fastest growing city at the core of the country’s second fastest growing region. And we have shaken off a ‘good enough’ pattern by taking care to invest in ourselves and our future.”

Mandel praised the work of City Council and Administration, especially under City Manager Simon Farbrother, for making that happen.

Throughout this remarks, Mandel mentioned a number of projects and initiatives underway in the city. There was big applause for the new downtown arena, the new Royal Alberta Museum, and the City Centre Redevelopment. But he also touched on some of the challenges we face, including the expansion of the LRT, our ongoing struggle with homelessness, and the strong need to better work with and celebrate our growing Aboriginal community. But he saved his most critical remarks for our city’s identity:

“First, we must have an economic development organization that better demonstrates its understanding of the competitive environment our city faces. It must be hungry enough to undertake a relentless effort to sell our city.

Second, we must finally look past all of our reluctant half-efforts to actually work at promoting Edmonton’s story. Without a commitment to this, the former will be very different.

We must be willing to put proper, long-term resources behind a true effort to sell this city to the world.”

Mandel saved his comments on the province for the end. After congratulating Premier Redford and all of the candidates who ran in the election, he made it clear that Edmonton expects change too.

“From our perspective, this election demonstrated how clearly Alberta’s growing urban reality is a major change that has fully dawned on the provincial stage. This election presented near unanimous agreement that it is time for a new deal for Alberta’s big cities. I look forward to working with Premier Redford and Mayor Nenshi to move this agenda forward. I hope this is a discussion we can begin to have very soon.”

The mayor finished his remarks by talking about the people of Edmonton:

“Our place in this great province, our unique economic advantages, our strong cultural identity, our skills at cultivating knowledge and innovation – and most of all, the passion and drive of our people – are the things that are going to ensure our future success.”

All throughout the speech, tweets were displayed on screen and there was a high level of participation from people in the audience. It was really interesting to see how everyone reacted as Mandel spoke. After he finished, Mayor Mandel received a standing ovation.

Reading the speech is one thing, but actually hearing the mayor deliver it is quite another. Thanks to Robin Bobocel and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce for inviting me to the luncheon!

2011-2012 State of the City Report

In conjunction with yesterday’s address, the City launched its annual report to citizens. The 35 page document covers a wide range of achievements and ongoing initiatives. Here are some of the highlights:

• Edmonton’s percentage rate of increase in immigration from 2006 to 2010 was 71%, the highest of seven major cities across Canada.
• The 2011 Graffiti Audit results show a 43% decrease in graffiti vandalism in 20 high-incident neighbourhoods compared to a 2010 baseline audit.
• As of December 31, 2011, the Cornerstones initiative increased Edmonton’s supply of affordable housing by funding 3038 safe, affordable housing units for citizens.
• Edmonton roadcrews repaired 549,000 potholes in 2011, up from 435,000 in 2010.
• Corporations donated 82,470 transit tickets to the Donate A Ride program in 2011.
• Weekly cumulative bus and LRT boardings increased from 389,224 in 2010 to 397,402 in 2011.
• Edmonton has protected 4000 hectares of natural areas, working towards a goal of 5500 ha. Most Edmontonians (75%) are now within a 20-minute walk of a natural area.
• The City’s total debt in 2011 was $1.974 billion, or 53.7% of the debt limit defined by the Municipal Government Act.
• 34,800 new jobs were created in Edmonton from December 2010 to December 2011, the fastest rate of job growth in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.

You can download the report in PDF here.

• Happy Earth Day! Sounds like the festivities at Fort Edmonton Park were great. All this week it’s the 15 to Clean Challenge – take 15 minutes out of your day to pick up litter or report graffiti.
• Our province is going to be a much different place on Tuesday, at least politically speaking, regardless of the election outcome. The latest results show the Wildrose marginally ahead of the PCs. Or do they? Angus Reid says the Wildrose have maintained a healthy lead.
• I was very happy to see Mayor’s Nenshi and Mandel speak out against the controversial statements made by Wildrose candidates. Mandel said: “We’re a very multicultural, dynamic and creative community. I don’t think there’s any place in our province for homophobism or diminishing the value of any group.”
• The Calgary Zoo has announced long-term plans to relocate its elephants to another facility. In response, the Edmonton Valley Zoo released a statement saying that Lucy isn’t going anywhere.
• On Friday, the federal government announced new funding for nine arts and culture organizations in Edmonton. A total of $833,772 will be managed and invested by the Edmonton Community Foundation and the Edmonton Symphony & Concert Hall Foundation.
• The feds also provided $1.5 million to kick start the 10-year expansion and revitalization of the TELUS World of Science.
• In case you missed it, here is my recap of EEDC’s Annual Luncheon. Our city’s economic report card was released at the event – we scored an “A-minus”.
• The headline on this article says it all: Leduc picks patios over parking. Let’s make it happen here in Edmonton!
• Fashion designer Malorie Urbanovitch is the winner of the Edmonton pool in the Mercedes-Benz Start Up competition. She’s off to Toronto in October to showcase her designs.
• Here is the 2011 Annual Policing Plan Report Card. It outlines how EPS performed against goals and initiatives set for 2011, and highlights plans for 2012.
• Here’s the latest Council Roundup. An independent City Council Compensation Committee has been appointed and will make recommendations to Council by January 31, 2013.
• Northlands has appointed Stuart Cullum as the new Vice President of Agriculture. He has previously the inaugural Executive Director of novaNAIT.
• Unisource is scheduled to open a new 118,000 square foot full-service facility here in Edmonton on April 30.
• The late night weekend bus trial was a big success, with more than 1900 passengers carried during the project.
• It’s official: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is among the rookies named as finalists for the Calder Trophy.
• Ready to hit the golf course? Victoria and Riverside both opened on Friday.
• Kaleido is once again hosting the Decorate a Lampost Contest! Project proposals are due by July 16.

Here are some upcoming events:

• There are a few election parties listed here. Know of another? Let me know!
• The Analytics, Big Data & the Cloud conference kicks off tomorrow at the Fantasyland Hotel. It runs through Wednesday.
• Also starting tomorrow is the fourth annual International Conference on Urban Traffic Safety.
• Mayor Mandel will deliver his annual State of the City Address on Tuesday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
• The second Cash Mob takes place on Wednesday.
• The latest Southeast to West LRT Community Conversation takes place on Thursday at Annunciation School.
• Help us clean up 104 Street on Friday morning at the Cleaning Blitz!
• The Elements Music Festival takes place on Friday and Saturday.
• Also taking place Friday and Saturday is the Edmonton International Beerfest.
• The Toronto Rock are in town on Saturday evening to take on the Edmonton Rush.
• On Sunday I’ll be at the Shaw Conference Centre volunteering for Homeless Connect.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

The old Bank of Montreal building is nearly gone!

First up was EEDC board chair Henry Yip, who talked about some recent successes in our province and about how Alberta can continue to succeed in the future. He also provided some updates on EEDC itself, thanking outgoing president Ron Gilbertson for all of his hard work over the last few years. Outgoing board members include Laura Schuler, Bob Gomes, and Peter Kiss, not to mention Henry Yip himself. The incoming board chair is Peter Silverstone.

EEDC board member Richard Brommeland was up next to hand out the annual achievement awards. The three winners were:

• Donovan Creative Communications for recognition (those who bring extensive positive awareness and sustained name recognition of Edmonton).
• Quantiam Technologies for innovation (those who have created or changed a product, process or business practice creating the broadest impact).
• Homeward Trust Edmonton for community leadership (those who best engage our community or industry to achieve impactful positive change).

Each had the opportunity to speak for a few minutes after receiving their award, and a video was played for each organization as well. From the press release:

"Shortlisting the submissions was not an easy task," notes Richard Brommeland, EEDC board member and chair of the award selection committee. "The award winners do amazing work, and we are the better for them calling Edmonton home."

I know Donovan’s work fairly well. Among other things, they are responsible for EPL’s Spread the words campaign as well as EIA’s Stop the Calgary Habit. It’s great to see them recognized for bringing greater recognition to Edmonton. Quantiam I was not familiar with, but I learned that they are a nanotechnology company that recently created a joint venture with BSAF, the world’s largest chemical company. Exciting to hear that kind of thing happening here in Edmonton! And finally, Homeward Trust is an organization that is doing such important work in our city, so it’s completely appropriate that they were singled out for community leadership. Susan and her team have set the bar high. Congratulations to all three! You can see their videos here.

The keynote speaker was Ron Gilbertson himself, and he spent his time giving us an update on Edmonton’s economic report card (which you can look at here in PDF).

"Edmonton has a remarkable economic story. In 2011, our economy grew and showed momentum, and we are poised for a bright future," says Gilbertson. "Combine that with our quality of life, we are well on our way to becoming recognized as one of the world’s top mid-sized cities."

Overall, we received an “A-Minus” on our report card. The four main areas we need to work on are Office Vacancy Rates (C+), Inflation Rate (C), Annual Growth of Passenger Traffic at EIA (B), and Unemployment Rate (B+).

As everyone knows, our economy is built on oil and gas. Current and planned investment in the oil sands is around $290 billion, and that number is expected to grow. But we know it can’t last forever, something Ron acknowledged. “Should oil ever lose its lustre, we don’t really have a plan B.”

For the most part though, everyone was pretty upbeat about the local economy and our prospects for the future.

My thanks again to EEDC for hosting me at the luncheon! Be sure to follow @EEDC on Twitter for updates.

Filistix, Drift, Transcend, Wild Tangerine, Elm Café, Bistecca, and Duchess are among the food trucks and restaurants that will be serving up delicious food throughout the evening. For drinks you can look forward to Alley Kat, Granville Island, and a bunch of wine. Interestingly there’s only one sit-down part of the event – a plated dessert created by Culinary Team Canada’s pastry chef to finish things off. Check out Sharon’s post for more information on what to expect at the event.

It wasn’t until we sat down with event co-chair Gurvinder Bhatia that I really took note of the event. And it wasn’t until he explained the philosophy behind it that I was sold:

“Too many events in the city are still geared towards the 50+ crowd. There are many young professional in the 25-45 age group that make good money, love food and wine, but don’t want to attend the same events that their parents attended. It is not only important to create events for this demographic, but to facilitate, encourage and foster philanthropy and community involvement for members of this group.”

That speaks to me. My experience with fundraisers thus far has been pretty typical – black tie, ten-seat table, five-course meal, silent auction, etc. Why not do something different? Why not encourage some creativity? More importantly, we really do need to foster philanthropy and community involvement in my demographic. Ever since Marty Forbes shared his concern that our city’s future leaders are not stepping up, I have been thinking and talking about “succession” and about how we can get nextgeners involved in building a better Edmonton. The answer is not always to create something new, but there’s certainly got to be room for that approach as well. In this case, I think a fresh take on the fundraiser is long overdue!

Tickets are not cheap at $150, but it is a fundraiser after all (and that includes all food and drink). In addition to supporting Culinary Team Canada, proceeds will support the High School Culinary Challenge which helps students wishing to pursue careers in the culinary industry. The deadline for tickets is noon on Friday – there will not be any tickets available at the door! You can buy yours online here.

The hashtag for the event is #hotchefs12. Hope to see you there!

• I really like the new metronews.ca website. Powered by WordPress, I find the new Edmonton website much easier to read and navigate! What do you think?
• Despite some blog posts receiving thousands of likes and tweets, an online poll conducted by Metro found that 44.6% of participants still look to traditional media when making their voting decisions. Maybe that’s because the coverage is hard to avoid…
• This is awesome. Scott Lilwall has created The Canadian Access to Information Database, which lets you search through all federal access to information requests. Nice work Scott!
• Here’s the very long list of finalists for the 38th Annual Alberta Film & Television Awards. Edmonton organizations have done quite well: “Aquila Productions of Edmonton leads the nominations with 13 nods in various categories. The half-hour comedy series, “CAUTION: May Contain Nuts” from Edmonton-based Mosaic Entertainment had the most nominations for an individual production with 12.” I’m so happy to see Sally nominated for the edmontonian presents!
• Mike Ross at Gig City wrote an entire article on Mike Wellensiek, better known as Mike the Posterman. I love it.
• Also at Gig City: Garner Andrews, morning man of mystery. “In a land of tweet-reading nitwits, Garner Andrews stands alone.”
• Yay! The Unknown Studio has selected a location for their upcoming live show – it will be recorded at Happy Harbor downtown!
• Marty Forbes has highlighted a number of significant media anniversaries coming up this year. CISN FM will celebrate 30 years in June, and The Bear turns 20 this fall.
• Emily Mertz has joined the web team at Global Edmonton. Tuesday was her first day.
• Congratulations to Global Edmonton for picking up the RTDNA Murrow Award for their Slave Lake Fire coverage.
• The Edmonton Journal is looking to hire a full-time reporter to cover criminal justice issues as part of a three-member crime bureau.
• Bill MacLoughlin has started blogging with The MacLoughlin Report. He appropriately gave kudos to Daveberta in his opening post! We’ll see how long the blog lasts (the reality is most fail in short order, and I don’t have a lot of faith that anything created during an election will last beyond it).
• Here’s a pretty innovative project from Ryan Jackson at the Edmonton Journal: Ask the party leaders questions over coffee. Definitely worth a look if you haven’t already come across it!
• There is a lot of speculation that Alberta’s film & television producers are going to be hit hard by last month’s federal budget cuts.
• Edmonton Journal sports writer Evan Daum has been recognized by the Canada West Universities Athletics Association.
• It stings, Cory, it stings! In an interview with The Province, Vancouver Canucks goaltender Cory Schneider said: “Nobody cares about Edmonton so nobody hates them. It’s that simple.” Unsurprisingly, that got some local folks pretty upset. He later apologized.
• Here’s a great shot of the old CKUA building.
• Ugh. The Journal Goosecam is back.

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

• There’s no time like election time during which to make an arena-related announcement. The City and the Katz Group announced on Friday that PCL Construction has been selected as “the preferred company to manage construction of the proposed downtown arena.”
• On Wednesday the City announced Food in the City, a conference taking place on May 25 and 26. It’s “a key step in the development of a city-wide food and agriculture strategy” and is listed as one the possible public involvement opportunities for the project. Anyone is welcome to participate, assuming you have $175 to spend. That’s completely wrong, as Liane wrote. I had the opportunity to ask the two City officials behind the event about this on Friday, and they told me that the conference is not a public involvement event (which obviously is not true). Just one more thing to add to the list of public involvement failures.
• For the third straight year, the Edmonton Oilers have landed the 1st overall pick in the NHL entry draft. Assuming they don’t trade it, the Oilers will be just the second franchise to make three consecutive number one picks.
• The City of Edmonton has become the first major municipal government in Canada to use Gmail and other Google apps. The new system will be phased in over the next two years. Here is Google’s post about the decision. I think the most incredible part of the news is this: “Currently, about 3,000 employees who work throughout the City and not in an office setting do not have email accounts.”
• About $200,000 was raised in the latest DONATE A RIDE campaign, which meant that more than 91,000 ETS tickets were distributed to Edmontonians in need.
• Edmonton is finally going to be doing something with all of that sunshine we get! NAIT and the City are starting a solar energy research project.
• Some sad news for the Valley Zoo. Nauticus, a 21-year-old South American sea lion, passed away on Friday. The average life span of a South American sea lion is 16 to 20 years.
• The City is looking to redevelop the area around the Stadium LRT Station. The $39 million plan would feature a new pedestrian and cyclist friendly street across the LRT tracks.
• Do you think Sean Horcoff is overpaid? You’re not alone. “I’ve always been a guy who whatever my role is, whatever is wanted out of me, I’m going to play it to the best of my ability,” said the 33-year-old centre. “The unfortunate thing is that it just doesn’t add up to what I’m being paid to do.”
• Former Edmonton police chief Robert Lunney was back in the city recently to promote his new self-published book, Parting Shots: My Passion for Policing.
• Possibly my favorite story of the week: Councillor Tony Caterina was working late on Wednesday when a fire broke out in the City Hall kitchen. Caterina pulled the fire alarm and used an extinguisher to put the fire out.
• Wondering what Wildrose leader Danielle Smith thinks about Edmonton? “I luvvvv Edmonton!”
• For the latest election news, check out daveberta.ca.
• It’s nice to be included in this list: Nadine is working on The Edmonton Do-Gooder Project.

Awesome panoramic of Edmonton Clinic North!

Here are some upcoming events to note:

• EEDC’s Annual Luncheon is taking place on Tuesday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
• On Tuesday evening, CANDI{DATE} is taking place at The Common. It’ll be a great opportunity to meet some of the candidates running in the election!
• The City is hosting an “idea gathering workshop” on Wednesday evening regarding Queen Elizabeth Park.
• At the Citadel that evening, TEDxEdmonton’s second installment in the Salon Series will be taking place. Speakers will be addressing the theme of “Rethinking Human Engagement”.
• National Meetings Industry Day is Thursday with the celebration taking place first thing in the morning. I’m very happy to have been nominated for the NMID Influence Award!
• If you’re free at lunch on Thursday, head over to the CBC Edmonton studios for a leaders’ forum with Brian Mason, Alison Redford, Raj Sherman, and Danielle Smith.
• The Edmonton Woman’s Show takes place this weekend at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
• On Saturday evening, the Edmonton Rush are hosting the Calgary Roughnecks. Should be a great game!
• Also Saturday is hot chefs, cool bEATS. Sharon wrote about the event here. We’re looking forward to it!
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.