When interVivos first started brainstorming for this year’s issues awareness event (Inform Yo’self), we discussed as a board what that would look like and how we would make it relevant to the upcoming municipal election. We threw around several topics we thought young professionals would gravitate towards. In the end, rather than interVivos deciding what issue to focus on, we decided to put it to a public vote and let you–an Edmonton young professional–decide.
interVivos researched topics that were consistently in the public sphere and were reported on the most in local news and media.
Nine topics were identified:
- Residential Infill
- Photo Radar
- Safe Injection Sites
- Transit
- Homelessness and Housing
- Police Carding
- Preserving Historic Buildings
- Diversity on Council
- Cannabis Sales and Consumption
We created a survey with these nine topics and provided a tenth option to allow responders to submit a topic they felt was missing or needed to be added. Responders were told to select their top five.
On August 11 we asked, “What matters to you most as an Edmonton young professional in this upcoming election?”
By August 18, nearly 200 of you answered.
The top five topics were:
- Transit (87.6%)
- Homelessness and Housing (80.5%)
- Residential Infill (68.1%)
- Diversity on Council (53.1%)
- Safe Injection Sites (41.6%)
You have spoken. These top five topics will be featured at Inform Yo’self: Edmonton Municipal Election 2017 on Monday, September 18 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm at the newly opened Cartago. A panel of expert speakers with diverse perspectives will also be present to engage and discuss with you and your peers. Tickets are limited–register now!
| Topic | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Transit | 87.6% |
| Homlessness and housing | 80.5% |
| Residential infill | 68.1% |
| Diversity on council | 53.1% |
| Safe injection sites | 41.6% |
| Photo radar | 35.4% |
| Preserving historical buildings | 32.7% |
| Cannabis sales and consumption | 32.7% |
| Police carding | 31.9% |
| Grocery deserts | 5.3% |
| Arts and culture | 5.3% |
| Council accountability and transparency | 4.4% |
| Taxes | 2.7% |
| Indigenous issues | 2.7% |
| Sexual assualt | 1.8% |
| Capital projects | 1.8% |
| Regional collaboration | 0.9% |
| Less government | 0.9% |
| Fire pits | 0.9% |
| City charter | 0.9% |
| Building communities | 0.9% |
| Jobs for newcomers | 0.9% |
| Classroom sizes and education | 0.9% |
| Municipal affairs | 0.9% |
| LGBTQ issues | 0.9% |
| Long-term development | 0.9% |
Note: we grouped topics together that were repeated or were familiar in nature
Kelvin Chen is a Board Member and Treasurer for interVivos. He is a business graduate from the University of Alberta and holds a Communications and Advertising Accredited Professional (CAAP) designation. He is an Associate at Incite Marketing and specializes in business building, brand planning and communication solution design.
