Janz confirms his run for re-election

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Michael Janz is looking to represent ward Papastew for a second consecutive term.

The city councillor formally announced his intention to run again at an event Friday evening at the University of Alberta’s Room at the Top.

He confirmed he will be running as an independent, even though the province has changed the rules to allow for political parties in municipal elections in Calgary and Edmonton.

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“I love parties, I don’t like political parties,” said Janz.

Janz’s run for re-election brings the number of declared papastew candidates to three.  His rivals are Joshua Doyle, who is part of mayoral hopeful Tim Cartmell’s Better Edmonton party, and Rozalia Janiszewska, who has worked as a community support worker and stated on her website: “I can relate to the average Edmontonian because I am a frontline worker who started out making minimum wage.”

A former Edmonton Public Schools trustee, Janz was elected as the Ward papastew councillor in 2021, earning 40 per cent of the vote in a seven-candidate race. He said he comes into 2025 armed with the experience of being on a council that has had to make some hard budget decisions and recognize life is less affordable for Edmontonians.

‘Challenging four years’

“We’ve had a very challenging four years, post-pandemic,” said Janz. “The experience I’ve gained along the way, helping to build a more affordable city, a focus on strong public services, and demonstrating a willingness to stand up for the public interest, even when it’s uncomfortable.”

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Janz is planning a motion he’ll introduce in council next week that would call for a city-wide referendum on the proposed event park deal between the Oilers Entertainment Group, the province and the city.

He makes no secret of the fact that he’s a capital-P progressive, and he said he’s concerned by the number of extreme-right politicians who are running at every level of government throughout North America.

“And then there are candidates like me, who are committed to public services, committed to more housing choices, more transportation choices and making the city more affordable for everyone.”

Zoning, public safety the big issues: Doyle

Doyle said that Janz hasn’t been listening to his constituents on issues like zoning and policing.

“I’ve been knocking constantly at the door right now, and most people are talking about zoning,” said Doyle. “They are talking about infill. This is a huge issue that they don’t feel Michael Janz is listening to. I hope to be someone who can listen to them and represent them, and find a path forward that represents everyone.”

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Even though Doyle doesn’t oppose the one-year-old zoning bylaw as a whole, he thinks that councillors and administration need to admit that there have been some mistakes made along the way. In response to the one-year-old bylaw, Glenora and Crestwood residents are working to create restrictive covenants on their properties that would discourage developers from bringing higher density buildings into those neighbourhoods, and there have been rumblings from other communities about doing the same. Earlier this week, Janz introduced a motion that would limit the size of mid-block developments in mature neighbourhoods to six units, down from eight.

Doyle was already a declared candidate when he was approached by the Cartmell team. He said the fact both of he and the mayoral candidate are engineers gave him a sense of comfort.

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“I talked to him and I read up on him to see what he was all about, and we agree on a lot of the same issues and the solutions to solve them, as well,” said Doyle.

One of those issues is public safety.

“It’s not just an issue in my ward, it’s everywhere,” said Doyle. “There’s theft, there’s burglary, there’s a lot of social disorder, there are lots of problems that make us feel unsafe. If we had a great working relationship with our police service, we could probably help the public feel safer. Michael Janz has a terrible relationship with the police. He’s disrespected them publicly.”

And he said it’s time for council to stop blaming other levels of government for its problems.

“I don’t agree on using that as a crutch and doing your job as a representative. As a representative, you have to work with people who you disagree with. That’s the nature of the job. And I don’t think Michael Janz is working with people he disagrees with.”

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Janz said he’s against “big corporate money” and “big political parties” being involved in city politics, and he feels the two go hand in hand.

“I want to make it clear that I serve you, and I don’t serve the big corporate money,” he said. “We don’t need more big corporate money in politics. We’ve seen how toxic that is in the United States with Donald Trump and Elon Musk. We see how toxic it is in Alberta. We don’t need it at the city level. Our elections at the city level should be dictated by who has the best ideas, not who has the biggest chequebook.”

Janz’s hopes for the next four years? Balancing Edmonton’s growing population with the services the city can afford to provide.

“We have to focus on urban sprawl,” he said. “We have to focus on building in, not building out. I voted against the Lewis Farms rec centre because I thought it was much too soon… I voted for prioritizing growth areas and supporting a strategy that brings more into the City of Edmonton, not not expanding urban sprawl. Ultimately, we need a fair deal from our provincial government, whether we’re talking about policing, or whether we’re talking about paying their property taxes, or about them paying for public health care. We need a provincial government that comes to the table and truly treats Edmonton as the capital city of Alberta.”

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ssandor@postmedia.com

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