![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\")
<\/p>\nFive months after the municipal election, Edmonton\u2019s new city council is settling into their roles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Major projects are underway, including the $311-million Lewis Farms Recreation Centre. There are conversations about building new fire halls, and moving forward with construction projects.<\/p>\n
While the 2025 election is fading into the past, two failed candidates are still vocalizing concerns and what they believe priorities should be for council.<\/p>\n
One of them, Jesse Watson, ran and lost the councillor position for Ward Anirniq, currently held by incumbent Erin Rutherford.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Watson has maintained momentum, raising concerns with council\u2019s decisions on his social media platforms.<\/p>\n
He said after the election, people continued to reach out to him asking if he would continue holding council accountable.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the city shares public information, as a former city employee there\u2019s always the truth and then there\u2019s the reality, and there\u2019s always stuff missing that I think I can add some nuance to,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n
Watson has talked about issues all over the city, including LRT safety, issues downtown and in Chinatown, parking, construction and snow clearing.<\/p>\n
He said when it comes to the city planning its four year budget, it should consider a different approach to getting community engagement. When it comes to taxes, he said the city needs to reflect differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the way surveys are, it\u2019s always a look at increase taxes, decrease services but it\u2019s never a question of, \u2018Is this service correct?’\u201d<\/p>\n
He said business recruiters from outside of the city are able to draw companies in because the tax rate is better.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are suffering from a lack of prosperity,\u201d Watson said.\u00a0\u201cI think at the end of the day, it\u2019s just a normal debate and conversation and making sure we can achieve a common goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Click](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/6P_COUNCIL_MAKEUP-.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:02
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t4 new faces on Edmonton city council\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The other former candidate voicing concerns is Omar Mohammad. The dentist ran for mayor and is also vocal about concerns he said he hears from the public.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cNonstop what I hear about the election and even now is about fiscal responsibility. People really want value for their hard-earned tax dollars spent\u2026 Fire halls and recreation centres are important, but not in exuberant amounts,\u201d Mohammad said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t![\"Get](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n
Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople really wanted their voices heard, and that doesn\u2019t stop with voting day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Mohammad and Watson acknowledged council is doing the best they can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe they mean well, but that is why I believe the conversation is important because the more they can be informed, they can make the better-informed decisions of what Edmontonian want,\u201d Mohammad said.<\/p>\n
Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack said he welcomes feedback and wants to hear from Edmontonians as whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to hear from all of the voices, that includes (those) who are critical of the decisions we make,\u201d Knack said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot be scared of criticism, of people who want to challenge the decisions that we are making.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tMore on Politics
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n
The mayor stresses he always seeks this information, and continues to door knock. He also changed how engagement is done ahead of the four-year budget, moving town hall conversations up months prior to the council debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are about to host 12 in-person budget engagement sessions across the city, I am going to be out across the city with Edmontonian talking about our four-year budget\u2026 I want to hear from as many Edmontonians as possible,\u201d Knack said.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Click](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/OMAR_MOHAMMAD_PROFILE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t4:12
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton mayoral candidate Omar Mohammad interview\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time a group has been critical of council.<\/p>\n
Back in the 1990s, a group of young businessmen, who were called \u201cthe Stickmen\u201d bought billboards highlighting issues they felt council was missing the mark on.<\/p>\n
Political analyst John Brennan said back then, the news would pick it up and messaging would be circulated. He said a lot has changed since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cA billboard gets into the public consciousness, and in this case you only have people who are \u201cfriends\u201d or followers of Omar Mohammad and Jesse Watson,\u201d Brennan said.<\/p>\n
Brennan also brought up PACE, the political party formed ahead of the municipal election and is still active.<\/p>\n
He believes continuing to be vocal and critical of council could set up these former candidates for the next election in 2029.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re seeing this as a way to maintain their standing, maintain their name out there and try to do a slow build over three and half years to maintain their name recognition,\u201d Brennan said.<\/p>\n
At the end of day, Brennan said being consistently vocal in-between elections is important.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a positive thing when people are participating in our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five months after the municipal election, Edmonton\u2019s new city council is settling into their roles. Major projects are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,105143,23752,110696,222309,99356,34225,714],"class_list":["post-580585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-city-of-edmonton","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-city-council","tag-jesse-watson","tag-omar-mohammad","tag-pace","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}