Reed Clarke has left the Better Edmonton party

A Better Edmonton councillor has left the party.

Reed Clarke, councillor for Ward Nakota Isga, announced this weekend that moving forward, he will no longer be participating or coordinating with the party.

Reed Clarke Councillor, Ward Nakota Isga

During the election, Tim Cartmell said that the party would go dormant after October 20th, but he walked that back later, saying that Better Edmonton will continue working as a team in council chambers.

It's not clear which, if either of those, was actually true.

Only three Better Edmonton candidates actually ended up being elected.

Building bridges

Instagram post: Reed Clarke with cycling advocates on a group bike ride in his ward.

For Reed, I think his hand was sort of forced in this announcement. He wanted to hit the ground running and build bridges with groups that likely didn't support him at the polls.

In his first month, he's already participated in a group bike ride with cycling advocates in the ward.

The party won't stay quiet

Better Edmonton's post-election fundraising email from board chair Cam Johnson, asking supporters to donate for the work ahead over the next four years.

But the new board chair of Better Edmonton, Cam Johnson, is insisting that the party not stay quiet.

He sent out a fundraising email trying to collect money for the important work that the party will do over the next four years, and wrote a completely tone-deaf op-ed in the Edmonton Journal where he blamed everyone except him and the party for their staggering loss.

It was a sour grapes article that reads more like the start of an election campaign, not the conclusion of one.

A choice

For the Better Edmonton candidates on council, who make up a very small minority, they had to make a choice.

Do they want to work with their new council colleagues and find ways to get the best results for their respective wards? Or do they want to double down on the petulant persecution complex rhetoric and simply lose for four years?

For Reed, at least, being a loser is not his highest aspiration.

Whether Principe and Elliott make a similar announcement or simply let the party fade into obsolescence remains to be seen.

But while the organizers of the best funded election defeat in Edmonton history are doing a triple down on the Cartmell-styled divisive rhetoric, it seems to me that the candidates who won are more focused on just showing up and doing the work.