Edmonton city councillor Michael Janz launched his re-election campaign for Ward papastew on Friday, speaking to a crowd of about 150 supporters at the University of Alberta’s student union-owned pub, the Room At The Top.

Janz told the crowd that the event marked a full-circle moment, returning to the same room where some of his earliest political work occurred.

Ward papastew councilor Michael Janz pitched to a crowd of about 150 at the University of Alberta's Room at The Top pub on Friday, June 20. Photo courtesy of the Janz campaign.

He opened with the story of his rise through student politics, first as a representative of his residence floor in Lister Hall, then as his entire residence tower’s rep, and finally with a successful run to become the university’s student union president.

I remember that run well, because the issue campaign that led to his victory—a fight for fairness against Aramark, the corporation which controls student meal plans in the residences—was my first feature story in UAlberta’s student newspaper, The Gateway.

As a student leader, Janz had yet to adopt the boldly leftist politics that he espouses as a city councillor, but his campaign against Aramark presaged the pugilistic councillor we have today. Then, as now, Janz was not shy about the necessity of naming enemies.

Today, says Janz, Edmonton has a few, and residents of the city should be concerned that they’re all lining up together.

Janz lauded his fellow councillors, as well as another acquaintance of his from the student politics era—former mayor Don Iveson, who worked with Janz at the students’ union—for clamping down on Edmonton’s urban sprawl.

Janz argued that developers who were profiting from sprawl are among the most significant funders of new conservative municipal parties.

“These people, the capital class who have for years dominated city politics, got bounced last election. They’re not happy about it and they’re coming back with a lot of money,” he said.

These corporate interests that Janz alleges are aiming to recapture council will have a significant leg up in the incoming municipal election. Thanks to legislative changes from the United Conservative Party, individuals will now be able to donate up to $5,000 to municipal candidates, and corporate and union donations will be legal again. Corporate and union donations to municipal campaigns were banned by the Alberta NDP in 2018.

The same legislation that brought back corporate and union donations across the province introduced political parties to municipal elections in Edmonton and Calgary. Like his council colleague Ashley Salvador, Janz firmly opposes them.

While it wasn’t the first to launch—they were actually beaten to the punch by a few days by a smaller rival party, PACE, whose papastew candidate Mark Hillman may be Janz’s leading challenger—Tim Cartmell’s party, Better Edmonton, presently appears to be the dominant municipal entity on the right in Edmonton. Both of the parties are conservative.

Cartmell, who presently represents the suburban ward of pihêsiwin, is a strong advocate for large infrastructure projects outside the city core—especially roads—yet frequently decries city spending in other areas. Along with councillor Sarah Hamilton he aligned with the UCP to undercut Mayor Amarjeet Sohi on policing issues through the Edmonton Public Safety and Community Response Task Force, a sort of shadow committee set up by the UCP in 2022 to do an end run around the mayor.

Janz says that corporate interests who profit from sprawl are trying to use the new UCP rules to buy a friendly city council using the new political parties. But for the proof behind that claim we may need to wait until September 30, the deadline set by the new legislation for candidates and parties to declare their financial contributions.

Leadership means moving the Overton window, argues Janz

Janz related in his pitch to the audience how one of his mentors, former councillor Allan Bolstad, impressed on him the importance of being willing to fight and lose.

Bolstad was a strong advocate for banning smoking from bars and restaurants in the city, a contentious battle that he took up and lost four times before finally securing a win in May 2001.

According to Janz, Bolstad got his bylaw because he was willing to lead and campaign to change public opinion. The public were firmly opposed to the ban when Bolstad first pitched it. But after a few years of effort, the city was reporting that constituent feedback had shifted to four to one in favour.

Janz has not been shy about staking out and fighting for unpopular positions in his time on council. He has been a strong advocate for commuter cycling infrastructure, despite the issue being a popular red-meat target for the conservative base. He proposed and campaigned for a mansion tax, though pushback from city administration led him to put that idea on hold. (He told the Report on Friday that he doesn’t intend to campaign on it this year.)

Janz's audience on Friday included notables from municipal and provincial politics, labour, extra-parliamentary groups and activists. Here he poses with Public Interest Alberta's director Bradley LaFortune. Photo courtesy of the Janz campaign.

This week, Janz is expected to launch a campaign demanding a referendum on the province’s plan to give nearly $100 million in funding to the Oilers Entertainment Group to expand the Ice District, funding that he characterizes as a stunt meant to divert attention away from the financial squeezes and clawbacks the province has been inflicting on the city and a handout to a UCP-aligned corporation.

But the highest-profile of Janz’s contentious positions, and the one that separates him most from the rest of the progressive voting bloc on Edmonton city council, is his critical view of the police.

Janz has consistently advocated for restraining the Edmonton Police Service budget and throughout his term frequently sparred with then-EPS chief Dale McFee and Edmonton Police Association president Michael Elliott in both print and social media. Elliott is now running for council in Ward pihêsiwin for Cartmell’s former council seat and as a member of Cartmell’s party. McFee now reports directly to the UCP as the provincial government's deputy minister of executive council and head of the Alberta Public Service.

The police remain very popular in Edmonton despite calls for at least accountability, if not outright defunding, that have been growing since the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis invigorated an international movement to end police brutality. But Janz is not retreating from the position and maintains his vigorous criticism of police in his campaign materials.

Joshua Doyle, the Better Edmonton party candidate for papastew, appears ready to attack him from that angle, and it may be the defining issue for the election in at least that ward. Doyle told the Edmonton Journal this week that “Michael Janz has a terrible relationship with the police. He’s disrespected them publicly.”

“There’s theft, there’s burglary, there’s a lot of social disorder, there are lots of problems that make us feel unsafe,” Doyle told the Journal.

The most recently released data from the Edmonton Police Commission shows that crime in Edmonton has decreased by over 25% since 2019. According to their 2024 annual report, last year Edmonton “experienced its lowest crime rate in over a decade.”