As for Nickel, I almost wanted to believe that after he lost he'd finally drop the act and just say thanks to his fellow candidates and congratulate Sohi, but nope! His small man syndrome is so strong that he couldn't let the horse die without taking a couple more jabs at it on his way out. Good god we dodged a bullet. I don't totally discount everything he's said, and there definitely are large and growing problems Edmonton with have to deal with one way or another, but with him in the mayor's seat how could we've even started to solve them? Anyway, Mike tried to ride the conservative-populist magic carpet to the finish line, acting anti-social and arrogant to his fellow candidates along the way out of ego and pride in the automatic support he believed he had. He got quite far, but not nearly far enough before it came crashing down before him.
I guess the reason why I'm so interested in this is because, in my mind, Mike Nickel symbolizes one of the last bastions of the post war, car-centric conservative "Edmonton-ism" around, and a lot of "old-guard" Edmontonians followed behind him throughout his mayoral run. His loss symbolizes a huge loss for the old ways of city-management and planning, and an opportunity to turn a new leaf. Edmonton has been Alberta's more liberal black sheep for a while now, but this recent election has the potential to put this movement into overdrive and usher in some wild ideas and investment we thought we'd never see for a long time yet!
