With three months to go before the municipal election, a former employee of the City of Edmonton has decided to run for mayor against Don Iveson.
Aside from Iveson, Edmonton’s only other mayoral candidate so far is Fahad Mughal.
“There are two choices that you have: either complain or do something,” Mughal said.
He told CTV News he spent the last few months door knocking, in a planned bid to run for councillor of Ward 10.
“A lot of people were saying ‘We need a new mayor’, I was surprised that I didn’t see any councillors stepping up,” Mughal said.
As a result, Mughal quietly announced he would run for mayor.
He immigrated to Canada, and moved to Edmonton in 2011 – at that time, he said he relied on supports for new immigrants to the area.
“I’ve lived in Capital Region housing for two years with my family, I got access to additional healthcare for my kids because of that,” Mughal said.
He was hired as a business analyst for the City of Edmonton, a job he quit in order to run in the election.
“I have identified gaps where our council is not accountable, transparent and fair to its citizens,” Mughal said.
Political analyst John Brennan said he wasn’t surprised to see someone challenge the incumbent.
“People don’t always run for public office the first time with the intention of winning,” Brennan said. “It’s possibly to gain experience for a future campaign.”
For Mughal, Brennan said his run for mayor will be a huge undertaking, but not impossible.
“Nobody should be counted out because in this day and age, electorate is very volatile and you never know,” Brennan said.
As for the launch of Mughal’s campaign, Brennan called it unintentionally brilliant – as he did it without a huge media launch.
“Even without knowing it, the way they’ve done it is actually quite brilliant because he’s staggering his media rather than having it all jammed in once,” Brennan said.
Nomination day for the municipal election is September 18 – Brennan said the second mayoral candidate may inspire others to throw their hats into the race.
Edmontonians go to the polls on Monday, October 16, 2017.
With files from Amanda Anderson
