Nicky Gocuan, a candidate running for Andrew Knack's former seat was seen wearing a DOGE (Elon Musk supporting) tshirt on his social media
We'll file this one away in the "yikes" column.
Nicky Gocuan
In a since-deleted instagram post, Nicky Gocuan, who works in Premier Smith's office, posed with a local business owner while wearing a t-shirt celebrating Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, the unelected, nongovernmental organization that has been firing thousands of government employees in the USA.
I covered this earlier in the week in an Instagram Reel, you can watch below.
I reached out to Nicky Gocuan for comment asking who designed the customizations, whether the shirt was distributed to anyone else, and if his opinion on Elon Musk and DOGE has shifted in the month's since Trump's inauguration.
My requests were ignored.
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Sarah Hamilton out
Two-term incumbent Sarah Hamilton has announced she will not be pursuing re-election. She appeared on Ryan Jespersen's show to make the announcement of her long-rumoured retirement. On the show she got quite emotional when talking about her history on council, while also praising Stephen Mandel and highlighting what she viewed as dysfunction in municipal governance.
When asked, she did not rule out running for another order of government.
This leaves her ward, sipiwiyiniwak open –– and contenders wasted no time jumping in.
Thu Parmar will be a strong candidate in the ward.
She's a Vice President of the Canadian Red Cross for Alberta and the Northwest Territories. When I discussed her candidacy with a few individuals in government none of them were surprised, and all agreed that she would be a formidable contender in the race. Thu told me she has thought about running for office for a long time, and after much thought she decided now was the right time to commit to it.
Daniel Heikkinen
Daniel Heikkinen ran previously in 2021, earning just under 10% of the vote. He's a former UCP candidate for Edmonton-McClung. Without a significant challenger from the right, I would expect him to pick up some more votes compared to his performance last time.
Also declared in the ward are Roger Kotch, who has not made many details about his campaign available and Giselle General, who also ran in 2021 and picked up the majority of the "not-Sarah" vote.
Giselle General
Karen Principe falls to Kerry Diotte
Over in tastawiniwak, the incumbent Karen Principe had opted to run for the federal Conservative nomination against Kerry Diotte. He was victorious.
This means, that she still may run again in the following municipal election, but people close to her are telling me that it's unlikely.
This would have been good news for Chris Nielsen, but he has announced he will no longer be pursuing the seat.
What's up with the Timbits?
Tim Cartmell still hasn't announced what his party will be called, so what should we call the potential candidates? Tiny Tims? I'm going with Timbits for now.
No new candidates have been announced for his party. Sarah Hamilton and Karen Principe were slated to be his incumbent pickups, but they're both either out or likely to be out.
As well, I've been hearing about candidates being asked by Cartmell to join his team and being rebuffed. Specifically Anand Pye in O-day’min is an example of a candidate that was asked and opted instead to be a full-size donut.
All told, this paints a picture of a mayoral candidate that had optimism of leading a full slate, but in reality may not be able to pull that off.
However, I have heard several rumours that Cartmell is courting Michael Elliot the former President of the Edmonton Police Association, to run as a Timbit in pihêsiwin, Cartmell's current ward.
You may remember Michael Elliot from his greatest hits like alluding to a list of critics of the EPS in his complaint against sitting Councillor Michael Janz.
Despite some public gaffes, however, the former head of the police union would be a very electable candidate in the ward, and is certainly something to keep an eye on.
Other notices
Chun Feng, Carmen Wu have both filed their Notice of Intent to run, but there are not any additional details about where just yet.
Joseph Mugodo has filed his nomination paperwork for Nakota Isga.