Sohi returns to the mayor's chair, Timbits filling up for the May 13th party launch

After losing the election in Edmonton-Southeast, Amarjeet Sohi has retaken the mayoral seat.

While he sought to move up to a federal position, after his month-long unpaid leave-of-absence he has come up short and will be returning to duties and chairing meetings until the municipal election in October. This avoids a potentially politically contentious decision for council as they now will no longer be required to select someone from within their ranks to fill the chair.

With the federal election a week behind us and signs cleaned up you should expect, within days, to see Andrew Knack officially announce his candidacy for mayor. My money is that an announcement will be coming Monday, May 5.

New Timbits

On May 13th, Tim Cartmell will be announcing the name of his party: "Better Edmonton". He's enlisted the help of Stephen Carter, who most recently worked as a strategist with "A Better City Vancouver" in their recent by-election and mirrors the naming of A Better Calgary Party.

Joshua Doyle will be the Timbit in papastew, the ward currently represented by Michael Janz. He's also the nephew of Calgary City Councillor Dan McLean.

In Anirniq, Nurmaiya Brady will be challenging Erin Rutherford under the Timbit banner. She challenged the NDP Nomination in Castle Downs in the last provincial election, but was unsuccessful.

In Nakota Isga, the ward currently represented by Andrew Knack, Reed Clarke will be bearing the Timbit banner.

He's a booster of "City of Champions" and bringing back the slogan, and was recently seen out and about town picking up garbage with Tim Cartmell. He has not officially filed his notice of intent yet.

While unconfirmed, there are rumours that Stephen Hammerschmidt will be selected as the Timbit in the downtown ward of o-day'min. With Anand Pye already launched, and Anne Stevenson, the incumbent, formally launching her campaign on Sunday May 4th, this would have the potential to really start to crowd the race.

Jordan Robert Willi has filed his notice of intent for councillor. He attended Tim Cartmell's $150-per-head "Capital Conversation" fundraiser, and boosted the message on LinkedIn indicated that he wanted to "continue the momentum". If he's not a Timbit, then he's got an extreme case of parasociality here.

Assuming Hammerschmidt signs on with Tim, that leaves the following wards still Timbit-less:

• tastawiyiniwak

• Dene

• sipiwiyiniwak

• Sspomitapi

Candidates choose their wards

Jimmy Idi has completed his nomination paperwork and will be campaigning in tastawiyiniwak. His website remains "under development" and coming soon, so it's hard to know where he will be landing from a policy position, but his instagram is a veritable who's who of pictures of himself with important figures.

There are photos of him with Danielle Smith, David Shepherd, Dale McFee, Amarjeet Sohi and Nathan Ip among many, many others. Connections certainly don't win elections, but they don't hurt either.

It's still uncertain if he'll be facing an incumbent, Karen Principe has not made her electoral intentions known.

In pihêsiwin, Jackie Liu has announced his candidacy, with a plan to launch his campaign on Thursday, before the Oilers game.

He's been working as the Chief Impact Officer at Homeward Trust for the past two years, and pitches the idea that with society's challenging issues like houselessness, many simply say "somebody should do something about that". He believes he's been the "somebody" actually doing something about it.

He'll have an uphill climb: in the last election Tim Cartmell won pihêsiwin with over 80% of the vote. While he won't be on the ballot again, his party will be, as represented by former Police Association President Michael Elliot.

Other notices filed

Others who have filed their intent to run, but do not have details available yet about their campaigns are (tips welcome!):

• Kenneth Ropcean

• Mujtaba Humayun

• Noman Ahmed

• Vishnu Sadashiv Kaginkar, who is notable as the friend of the man who died paddleboarding at Elk Island