Don Iveson's results

I finally got around to making my map of Don Iveson's results in the 2013 Edmonton mayoral election. I was a bit surprised that he won every single polling station across the city. In his worst polling station, he still captured nearly 47% of the vote. His main contenders, Karen Leibovici and Kerry Diotte, MAXED OUT at 37% and 38% respectively.

While there are definite patterns in Iveson's results, I'm not sure if there's a relation to his policies. One of his worst areas was Kerry Diotte's old riding. While this might seem like Kerry Diotte was liked in his old riding, he still lost all those polling stations to Don Iveson. As I said about Andrew Knack's results, the polling stations are too big to notice if there was more support for Don Iveson close to proposed LRT lines. He did have strong support downtown and across the river around the university. Perhaps this shows support for his rezoning policies to create mixed-use, walkable communities through in-fill housing and densification.

In the end, I was very happy to see Don Iveson easily win the election. I agree with many of his policies and hope he will be able to carry out his vision for Edmonton. Plus, it was a lot better than Kerry Diotte sending us back to the 60s.

Ward One

The second race I was interested in was the one for my own Counsellor. I had met Andrew Knack through my community league and knew how badly he wanted the seat on counsel. A race against the incumbent would have been very interesting but was not to be when Linda Sloan decided to retire. Only one other candidate had declared before Sloan dropped out but four more would announce their intentions before nomination day. Since Knack started early in his quest to dethrone Sloan, all predictions were that he had too much of a head start. He certainly had his picture up on bus benches, billboards, and lawn signs well ahead of anyone else.

Fortunately for him, Knack swept to power with nearly 45% of the vote and more votes than the next two challengers combined. Knack captured over 60% of the vote in Meadowlark, where he is (was?) community league president, and in Lewis Estates. He only lost one polling station, the mostly industrial area in the northwest part of his ward. In my conversations with Knack, I found him to be a big supporter of the proposed Southeast to West LRT line. With the ward broken into just 17 polling stations, the results are too course to tell if there's any relation between Knack's support and the proposed LRT route. I don't know what explains his popularity in Lewis Estates but that would be the location of the LRT terminus.