The Pulse: July 4, 2025

Though all municipalities must follow Alberta's Local Authorities Election Act for the upcoming elections on Oct. 20, they all have options within those rules to put their own spin on things.

As part of Taproot's ongoing coverage of this year's elections, here are a few election quirks from across the region — from ideas to drive advance voting to the strange ways some choose their mayors. We also checked in with each to see how it will work around new provincial rules that ban electronic vote tabulator machines. Many municipalities in the region recently told Taproot that they project higher costs and slower results in 2025.

1. Drive-thru democracy in Strathcona County

Strathcona County, the second-largest municipality in the region, will offer voters an advance polling station at a drive-thru window in the upcoming election, a spokesperson told Taproot. The station will be open on Oct. 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, and 15 from 10am to 6pm at the Broadview Enviroservice Station in Sherwood Park. The county said this option helps people with mobility challenges, parents, and seniors, among others, cast a ballot.

The county piloted the drive-thru voting station in 2021. A county spokesperson said this station was at capacity during the hours it ran, and that some people waited in their vehicles up to three hours to vote at the station.

Advance voting is a priority in the county. That could help speed up the manual vote count imposed by the new provincial rules that ban electronic vote tabulation machines, the county said. Strathcona County estimates that it will count as many as 100,000 ballots in 2025 because it has ballots for councillors, mayor, and both Elk Island school districts. The spokesperson said the county will have 183 hours of advance voting this year and that its goal is to complete the count by midnight on the night of the election.

2. No mayoral vote for voters in Leduc

Leduc County is the only municipality in the Edmonton region where citizens don't elect their mayor. Instead, the process the municipality uses is that voters elect their council, and then this council acclaims someone elected to council to be mayor. Also odd, when compared to many municipalities, are the mayoral terms in Leduc County, at just one year. Still, mayors do stick around. Current Mayor Tanni Doblanko was reappointed for an eighth mayoral term in 2024. Doblanko has been on council since 2013.

How can Leduc County do this? Cities and towns in Alberta are allowed to choose mayors by council acclamation if council passes a bylaw about the process; villages, summer villages, and municipal districts, meanwhile, may appoint mayors without an equivalent bylaw. Chief elected officials in Alberta can be a mayor, reeve, or an improvement district chairperson. The latter is an outlier that only applies to improvement districts, and the position is appointed by the province.

When it comes to votes in 2025, Leduc County has always counted its ballots by hand, meaning nothing will change this time around.

• Edmonton city council is continuing a public hearing into potential changes to the zoning bylaw. The changes could cap mid-block infill projects at six units and introduce new architectural controls requiring buildings to be oriented to the street with a main entrance and windows. Infill developers, including Mauricio Ochoa of the Infill Development in Edmonton Association, warned the changes could halt projects and drive development to the suburbs. The public hearing could continue into next week.
• Edmonton Elections is asking residents to verify their voter information to ensure they are on the finalized registry before election day on Oct. 20. The Alberta government's recent changes to local election laws include requiring municipalities to keep a permanent electors list, but information available to Edmonton Elections may be outdated, or missing people who recently became eligible to vote or moved to Edmonton. You can confirm your voter information by Aug. 15 to avoid filling out an extra form when you vote.
• The Edmonton region recorded 87 opioid-related deaths in March, which is the highest number on record since the province began collecting the data in 2016. The number of fatal opioid poisonings trended downward from August 2023 to September 2024, but has started rising again. The province said it has seen a rise in the use of carfentanil, which was involved in 70% of opioid-related deaths in the first three months of 2025, compared to 16% in all of 2024.
• Edmonton city council approved amendments to the business licence bylaw that remove the requirement for Edmonton Fire Rescue Services to conduct on-site inspections before a business is licensed. Inspections will still take place, but licences will be issued immediately, allowing businesses open 12 days earlier on average.
• The City of Edmonton is offering free sessions for a type of therapy called forest bathing, or "Shinrin-yoku" in Japanese, which involves spending intentional time in natural areas to achieve relaxation and connection. The sessions, to be held in four local parks, are led by certified Shinrin-yoku guides from the City's Urban Forestry department. The City's website has information about registration and session times.
• Play it by Ear, an interactive sound sculpture in Edmonton, is among the 100 public art projects nominated for the international CODAawards. Located in Butler Memorial Park in the West Jasper Place neighbourhood, the installment consists of a series of brightly coloured phones that park visitors can use to call each other or leave messages. It was created in 2023 by Calgary artists Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett. The Edmonton Arts Council has a map of all the public art installations in Edmonton.
• Alberta Health Services said there was potential measles exposure at the University of Alberta Hospital and the Stollery Children's Hospital on July 2 from 7:15am to 4pm. People who were in U of A Hospital foyers or the Children's Hospital emergency department may be at risk. There was also potential measles exposure at Grey Nuns Hospital from June 25 to 28. AHS website has information online about what to do if you are exposed to measles.
• Bomb threats reported by Nav Canada on the morning of July 3 led to disruptions at several major Canadian airports, including the Edmonton International Airport. Before 9am, an airport spokesperson said the alert caused some delays, but there was "minimal impact on operations." By 11am, there were no obvious security delays, Postmedia reported. Airports in Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver were also affected.
• A pedestrian who was struck by a CP Rail train in south Edmonton on June 26 has died of her injuries, police said. The incident happened south of 51 Avenue, between 99 Street and Gateway Boulevard, around 5:45am. The investigation continues, and no charges have been laid, police said. (Note: a previous update from The Pulse incorrectly identified the type of train, which has been corrected.)
• Elections Alberta released official results for the three provincial byelections that took place June 23. The riding of Edmonton-Ellerslie had a voter turnout of 24.5%, and in Edmonton-Strathcona it was 32.0%. In Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills, the turnout was 38.8%.
• Edmonton journalist Meaghan Archer wrote a piece for The Tyee exploring why education assistants in Alberta are "losing the classroom battle" amidst rising behavioural issues, a lack of resources, and a struggling workforce.
• The Alberta government formally announced a new provincial police force and appointed Sat Parhar, who previously held senior roles with the Calgary Police Service, as its first chief. According to a release, the agency will "fill gaps" and complement existing police services, including the RCMP, Indigenous police services, and municipal police. The agency will eventually be renamed the Alberta Sheriffs Police Service, and officials said municipalities could replace the RCMP with the agency by 2032.

On this day in 1958, repairs were underway on a house built by John Walter, one of the city's most influential residents.

Walter first came to the area in 1870, on a five-year contract to build York boats for the Hudson's Bay Company. When the contract ended, Walter created his own boat-building business, though HBC remained one of his main customers. He didn't know it then, but the decision marked the beginning of a business empire that would make him one of the city's wealthiest individuals.

Walter built his house beside the North Saskatchewan River on a 155-acre plot of land near what is now 109 Street, extending south from the riverbank to the current University Avenue. There, Walter built his two-storey log house, and ran his business from it.

By 1882, Strathcona and Edmonton were growing on either side of the river. Without bridges, Walter saw the need for easy travel between the two. He set up a cable ferry — essentially a small boat guided along a rope or cable. It was a simple setup, but it allowed relatively easy travel between the two growing towns.

That success led Walter to establish further businesses along the river flats, including a blacksmith shop, a freight company, a small coal mine, and two sawmills. Walter's boatbuilding company created two steamships, the City of Strathcona and the City of Edmonton, which connected Edmonton and Strathcona residents to other settlements along the river. Ever the savvy businessman, Walter also used the ships to take residents on recreational trips to the land he owned on Big Island, located across the river from the current-day neighbourhood of Windermere.

Walter also expanded his property, building two additional homes that he often used to board new arrivals looking to establish themselves in the area. Eventually, others built homes and businesses nearby, and in 1907, what had become a neighbourhood was dubbed Walterdale.

In addition to his business reputation, Walter was known for his generosity and dedication to the community. He played an active part in establishing the Strathcona school board, and he helped provide funding and building materials for schools, churches, and other civic buildings. The Edmonton Bulletin newspaper described him as a man "who lived and died without an enemy.""

But Walter's fortunes collapsed almost as quickly as they grew. It started in 1907, when an accident at a coal mine he partially owned killed six workers. This had a profound effect on Walter. Over the next few years, fires and flooding destroyed some of his other businesses. And when the High Level Bridge opened in 1913, his ferry service was no longer needed to cross the river (a fact that Walter apparently celebrated).

But the most significant blow came in 1915. That's when the worst flood in the city's history washed away many of Walter's businesses and industrial sites along the river, including his sawmills. His businesses never fully recovered. Five years later, Walter passed away following an operation.

While the river may have wiped away his empire, Walter's legacy remains. The three homes he built are now historically protected and form the John Walter Museum near the Kinsmen Sports Centre. In addition to the Walterdale neighbourhood, his name is also on the Walterdale Bridge, which is a fitting linkage for someone who helped people get across the river. The Walterdale Bridge may become even more vital in the future, as there are discussions to temporarily convert it to two-way traffic, to ease congestion, while three other bridges undergo major renovations over the next few years.

This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.

Here are some events happening this weekend in the Edmonton area.

• July 4: Nanaimo Nightowls vs. Edmonton Riverhawks starting at 7pm at Re/Max Field
• July 5: Local Authors Book Sale starting at 9:30am at the Edmonton Public Library (Stanley A. Milner)
• July 5: Street Sparks: Ride, Learn & Explore starting at 11am at Booster Juice Recreation Centre in Terwillegar
• July 5: 124th Food Walk Tour starting at 1pm at Helen Nolan Park
• July 6: Ottawa Redblacks vs. Edmonton Elks starting at 5pm at Commonwealth Stadium
• Until July 13: Edmonton International Street Performers Festival at Churchill Square
• Until July 20: As You Like It at Louise McKinney Riverfront Park

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• July 7: Wild Mushroom Walks at University of Alberta Botanic Garden
• July 7: Build, Test & Learn – Design Thinking at Edmonton Unlimited
• July 12: Canada's Men's Rugby vs. Belgium at Clarke Stadium
• July 14-27: REELING: Dance on Screen at Mile Zero Dance
• July 19: Zoobrew Vol. 2 at Edmonton Valley Zoo
• July 22-24: Technology Alberta in the Innovation Zone at KDays at Edmonton EXPO Centre

Taproot is taking a publishing break from July 7 to 18, but the Taproot Edmonton Calendar is full of events to help you plan your summer days and nights.