Local creep Jesse Watson is still at it, continuing his pattern of harassment and stalking. And this time, Councillor Erin Rutherford says he's crossed far over the line.
The Instagram story
Yesterday, Watson posted this to his Instagram story.
The blurring is done by me. He posted the vehicle, the licence plate and the houses around it, all in the clear. A truck belonging to the councillor's partner, parked in front of a home, with enough in the frame for anyone motivated to work out where she lives.
All for a gotcha moment about Erin Rutherford not following the parking ban. (Set to "Owner of a Lonely Heart," for some reason.)
But like nearly everything he posts, he was wrong. While he was busy harassing the woman who handily beat him in the fall (6,194 votes to his 4,722), she was following the parking ban. As Rutherford pointed out, the street in the photo is a phase one route. It had already been cleared, and it's exactly where the City tells you to move your car during the residential ban.
"Not the first instance of harassment"
Rutherford put out a statement the same day.
She says it isn't the first time, and that Watson's post "materially affects the safety of my family, including my children and partner as well as myself."
She told the Edmonton Journal the same thing: "What sets this apart was the risk to my family, the reckless risk to my family's safety and privacy."
Former councillor Sarah Hamilton was unimpressed. "It is fundamentally an intimidation tactic," she told the Journal. "It's thug politics, and we live in an era of thuggery." Mayor Andrew Knack, who has been on the receiving end of Watson's posts himself, said he stands in solidarity with Rutherford. (CTV has more on the harassment city staff have been dealing with during this parking ban.)
It's a pattern
I've heard from many, many people over the past year sharing stories of Jesse Watson engaging in stalking, harassing and bullying behaviour.
I've heard from his former colleagues that after his employment ended at the City of Edmonton, they felt extreme relief, and their workplace suddenly felt safer each day. They begged me to speak up against his candidacy. They wanted to speak up themselves, but they were afraid of vindictive retribution if they did it publicly. (Which is why you won't find their names here.)
During the campaign he was strongly endorsed by John McDougall, the former chair of the police commission, who ran his own campaign of bullying against the woman Watson was running against.
The Tyee reported that City corporate security told Rutherford to file a complaint with police over it. Birds of a feather.
Kicked out of one school, so he tried two more
Jesse lied and misrepresented himself to gain access to schools.
In early 2025, he showed up at Archbishop O'Leary's open house to hand out free coffee from his coffee shop, wearing his campaign pin, and posted about it.
The school had no idea he was campaigning. Here's what the principal wrote to someone who asked about it:
Email from Archbishop O'Leary's principal, March 6, 2025.
They asked him to take down his posters and pins, take the post off Instagram, and stop tagging the school.
After being kicked out by a school administrator, he did the same thing again at two different schools:
A campaign banner on the coffee table at one, the campaign pin at the other. "Ready to Brew. Ready to Connect."
Buying an audience
He sees his path to growth as a right-wing influencer, and he's paying for it. He spent nearly $20,000 buying views and followers for his accounts (through the official meta channels – this doesn't include any third-party purchase of bot followers)
Meta's ad library, as of January 17, 2026.
Kerry Diotte's post, July 2025.
He's been putting in the hours on the ground, too. Last summer he was out doorknocking in Camrose for Pierre Poilievre's by-election with former Conservative MP Kerry Diotte.
And as he moves further down the toxic right-wing manosphere-podcaster pipeline, he's continuing to radicalize himself and his followers with constant disinformation campaigns.
Take last week. The Balwin Community League cancelled a rental for an Alberta separatist event after neighbours complained:
Watson jumped into the comments to defend the separatists' right to the hall:
See that little "Edited"? Here's the edit history:
His first two drafts, a minute apart, both opened with "While I am not a separatist." The version he left up doesn't. He correctly identified that disclaimer as being too alienating to the base he's trying to court.
Don't take the bait
Politics has become a home for unethical, abusive bullies manipulating social media algorithms with ragebait. Politics is where failed bullies go to engage in antisocial conduct that in any other workplace would get you fired.
Jesse seems to have committed to doing just that for the long run, financed by the business he owns, Boxcar Coffee. And since it's clear he's not going to brew himself a venti shut-the-f***-up-uccino with extra whip, it falls to the rest of us to be diligent.
When people tell you loudly, proudly and repeatedly who they are, we really must believe them.
(And as an aside, I do encourage you to ask Jesse how, specifically, he came to lose his employment at the City of Edmonton.)
Get my news and takes in your inbox
Don't let algorithms control whether you see my latest video or article. We don't need to include Mark Zuckerberg in our relationship.
Free. Emails from Troy Pavlek when I publish something new. Unsubscribe any time.
That didn't go through. Try again in a minute, or email [email protected].
You're in. Thanks for subscribing!
