Rapping Mayoral candidates and a Jennifer Rice pile-on

Jennifer Rice's poor performance this term has made her the most vulnerable incumbent in the city. We're seeing a race shape up to take advantage of that, and unseat her.

I've previously reported that a candidate named Chun Feng had registered their notice of intent, it's been pointed out to me by several people that's Jennifer Rice's Chinese name, so I'm taking this as confirmation that she'll be running again, despite how embattled her term was.

The first vote of nonconfidence in her performance comes from her colleague Tim Cartmell, who is running a Timbit against her.

Nicholas was a former Executive Director at the Infill Development in Edmonton Association (IDEA) and now runs his own consulting agency 4Sight Advisory.

One of the strongest contenders seeking to unseat Rice is Funke Olokude.

She launched her campaign and website recently and boasts a pretty expansive resume with many political connections in her network that I'm sure she'll be leveraging. There was already a machine in this ward trying to elect Rhiannon Hoyle in the previous election –– a machine that only fell short by 39 votes. From what I've seen, Funke looks to be taking advantage of that same machine.

Jon Morgan, who also ran in 2021, is back for round 2. He's been on the ground for several months knocking doors and engaging the community, which certainly presents an opportunity to build upon his 10% vote share from last time around.

When I posted a previous update on reddit, commenters were pretty favourable toward him.

What's going on in the Mayoral Race?

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Dr. Omar Mohammed, whose campaign has been sharing some resources and strategy with Farhan Chak, has been using a podcast and video strategy to get his message out and I've honestly been impressed with the creativity.

This week, he experimented with being a Rap God (20:41). I've also laughed at the pothole transporting him to another dimension and the Tim Cartmell puppet.

And on the polar opposite end of the charisma scale, Tim Cartmell has been trying to advertise his $150/head fundraiser by making a fairly tepid video about potholes. You'll see in many of the recent Tim Cartmell video releases that his campaign staff have tried to use frequent camera moves to add visual interest to a candidate that presents very little in the way visual interest or charisma.

His campaign remains well-funded, however, and he has been very upfront that he started a Party in order to inject more money into his campaign, which makes him a candidate to take seriously.

Tony Caterina celebrated a birthday this week, probably turning something like 170-years-old.

It would explain his campaign which is being done almost exclusively on his personal Facebook profile.

Andrew Knack still hasn't announced he's running for mayor (but, I'm pretty sure he'll be running for mayor). This, in my view, will turn the Mayoral race into a two-horse (or in this case two-dork) race between two middle-aged white guys with glasses.

Karen Principe, for a couple hours on April Fool's, also said she was running for mayor, before announcing it was a joke (haha!). She has not confirmed if she will be running again for her existing councillor seat in tastawiyiniwak.

Sspomitapi

In the ward currently represented by Jo-Anne Wright (who has still not formally confirmed her candidacy), Imran Bashir has filed his nomination paperwork, but I cannot find any details about his campaign yet (tips welcome! email troy@tpavlek.me)

I have also been hearing rumours that Harman Singh Kandola, a lawyer who ran in the ward in 2021 is currently being courted by Tim Cartmell to run as a Timbit in the ward.

And around the city

The Timbit taking on Keren Tang's incumbency in Karhiio is Joti Buttar. While she has not released details or launched her campaign, she has confirmed to me that she will be running with Tim Cartmell's party.

And, speaking of parties, the first candidate with PACE on their nomination paperwork is Albert Mazzocca in Dene (the ward currently represented by Aaron Paquette).

There are still no candidates officially on the PACE website, so I'm not sure if this was filed in error, but it was interesting nonetheless!

Avinash Soochit, a co-owner of Cafe Bel-Air has filed his notice of intent to run for City Council. No details yet on his campaign, but the business he co-owns is located within papastew.