After a drawn-out night of hand-counted ballots and an even longer few years of political déjà vu, Edmonton’s 2025 municipal election wrapped up with a familiar face on top — and a familiar group pulling the strings behind the scenes.

With most ballots counted, Andrew Knack leads the mayoral race with about 38% per cent of the vote, ahead of Tim Cartmell at roughly 29%, and the rest of the field trailing far behind. It’s a decisive, if uninspired, win that signals continuity — not upheaval.

Turnout sat around 30%, one of the lowest in city history, suggesting most Edmontonians have checked out of civic politics altogether.

But those who did vote seemed content to stick with the same direction that’s given them record tax hikes, relentless infill battles, and an obsession with bike lanes over basic services.

Working Families Edmonton, the self-described grassroots progressive group, insists it isn’t a political party. Yet it endorses slates of candidates, spends tens of thousands backing them, and enjoys the kind of union and NDP infrastructure most registered parties would envy — all without declaring its donors or expenditures because it refuses to register as one.

Columnist Lorne Gunter put it bluntly in the Edmonton Journal: “You tell me whether it’s a party.”

It’s a clever dodge: they get to run a campaign without any of the transparency.

And Gunter points out the irony — the same Working Families bloc that now claims to be “taking back the city from developers and lobbyists” has actually controlled council for the last four years. Eight of its endorsed candidates were already in power.

“Either they were the ones approving and enabling the powerful lobbyists and rich developers,” Gunter writes, “or they didn’t clue into the corporate interests they claim control our city.”

In their own election literature, Working Families actually celebrated rising property taxes as a civic virtue — declaring that “taxes help Edmonton,” “enhance well-being,” and “strengthen affordability.”

Their argument? The city’s tax hikes aren’t the problem — the province’s “underfunding” is. If the province took more money from you as a provincial taxpayer, they claim, the city wouldn’t have to take as much from you municipally.

Meanwhile, Edmonton’s vote count moved at a snail’s pace — hours behind Calgary’s, even though both cities had to hand-count ballots after tabulators were banned. Edmonton officials stopped counting at 1 a.m. and didn’t resume until 9 a.m., prompting accusations of bureaucratic disorganization.

It’s fitting, really: a city that runs on delays, indecision, and committees somehow managed to make its election results just as tedious as its policies.

Knack’s expected victory cements Edmonton’s reputation for cautious, tax-heavy governance. The same ideological bloc is set to continue steering the city — still railing against “corporate power,” still punishing homeowners and small businesses, and still insisting it’s not a political party.

So yes — the election is over. But in Edmonton, nothing has really changed except the calendar.