Vince Byfield is a political commentator and manages TheChristians.com, which publishes the 12-volume history book series The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years.A few nights ago, I sat in the pews of a west-end church, watching a mayoral forum featuring four of the leading candidates vying to be Edmonton’s next mayor: Tim Cartmell, Andrew Knack, Tony Caterina, and Michael Walters.All four have served, or currently serve, on city council. All four are familiar names to voters who follow city politics. And all four had something to say about the usual buzzwords: homelessness, affordability, housing, and vibrancy.But for anyone paying close attention to what’s really happening in Edmonton — especially homeowners fed up with soaring property taxes and bloated bureaucracy — only one of those four demonstrated the necessary grit and resolve to do what must be done: make tough decisions and cut municipal spending..BARCLAY: Canada is a failing state.That candidate was Tony Caterina.Let’s talk numbers.As of 2025, Edmonton has one of the highest property tax rates of any major city in Canada — around 1.04%. Compare that to Calgary (0.66%), Toronto (0.72%), Victoria (0.44%), and Vancouver (0.28%)..Put differently: Edmonton homeowners pay nearly quadruple the property tax rate of Vancouverites. Let that sink in. Quadruple.That whopping property tax bill that arrives every year in our mailbox is like a monetary tax bomb that obliterates many hardworking families’ hopes of a vacation that year or even just savings for their kids' education or retirement.That just keeps getting bigger and bigger — like a cancer — is almost FOUR TIMES higher than Vancouver..HANNAFORD: Campus free speech strangled by workplace ‘safe space’ laws.We can argue about who provides what services and how snow clearing differs from coast to coast — but that’s just bureaucratic distraction. Edmonton has a spending problem. And instead of fixing it, council has doubled down, raising taxes year after year far beyond the rate of inflation..How did we get here? We have a 13-member council that votes like a monolith. The mayor — just one vote — is largely powerless without a team that shares his or her priorities. And right now, that majority bloc leans heavily toward more spending, more programs, and more virtue signalling — while your tax bill quietly grows.This fall marks a new chapter in Edmonton's civic politics. For the first time, municipal political parties are officially allowed to run.Tim Cartmell is leading a full slate of candidates under the banner of “A Better Edmonton.” Their campaign is polished, well-funded, and built for visibility..THOMAS: Davison and Sharp, bury the hatchet. It's Gondek who you're fighting.Then there’s PACE — short for Principled Accountable Coalition for Edmonton — a scrappier group with fewer candidates and far less money. But from what I can tell, they’re the only ones with any backbone. Their candidates are business owners, working-class Edmontonians, and fiscal realists who’ve had enough.And it’s precisely this group — PACE — that Tony Caterina should be aligning himself with.Unlike federal or provincial politics, where a strong premier or prime minister can whip their caucus into line, Edmonton’s mayor is functionally neutered without support on council. The mayor has no more voting power than a ward councillor..So even if Caterina wins the mayoralty, he can’t do a thing about runaway spending unless council changes too. That means voters must do two things this October. We must elect Tony Caterina as mayor and elect enough PACE-endorsed councillors to give him a working majority.If Caterina gets in but the council majority remains spend-happy, we’ll just be treading water — or worse, sinking deeper.Cartmell and Knack both speak the language of moderation. They’re polished. They sound reasonable. But behind that polished rhetoric is a record of enabling the very problems they now claim to want to fix..FLETCHER: Heritage law the BC government’s next act of surrender.Consider this: under the current city council, a bylaw was proposed that would limit lot sizes to 0.4 acres, a move that would outlaw larger homes with larger lots — the very types of “multi-generational homes” many cultural communities desire.Tony Caterina was the only one on council to vote against that bylaw. Knack and Cartmell voted for it.So while they now speak about affordability and inclusion, their actions say otherwise..And this is why Caterina’s independence is both his strength and his liability.He speaks plainly. He votes his conscience. He listens to ordinary people instead of pandering to special interests. But without a slate behind him, he risks becoming a lone voice — again.Municipal government is the most practical level of politics. It decides how much snow gets cleared, how your garbage is picked up, and — most importantly — how much of your income you get to keep..TUCKER: The death of conversation: How we mistake group identity for moral clarity.This is what I would love to see Caterina and PACE commit to: 10% reduction in spending in YEAR 1 followed by a 5% reduction each year over the next year for the next three for a total of 25% over the four-year electoral term. The average homeowner currently averages $5000 in municipal taxes, so a 25% reduction by year four would therefore provide one thousand two hundred and fifty after-tax dollars of desperately needed financial relief. Now that is a worthy goal for our next Edmonton council. To be fair, neither Caterina nor PACE have yet to commit to this, but I would love for them to do so before election day on October 20..Regardless, if you’re tired of seeing your property tax bill rise year after year.If you’re tired of city council debating things they have no jurisdiction over while ignoring crumbling roads and rising business closures.If you’re tired of being lectured by officials who fly pride flags while small businesses shut their doors.Then it’s time to vote differently..EDITORIAL: LGB breaking free from the rainbow alphabet soup.Tony Caterina may not have the glitziest campaign or the biggest budget. But he’s shown time and again that he’s willing to say no when it counts.And the candidates running under the PACE banner? They’re not career politicians. They’re everyday Edmontonians who’ve had enough.If we want to reverse course, we need a mayor who understands budgets and a council that will back him up.That’s why my vote this fall will be for Tony Caterina — and the PACE councillor candidate that’s running in my area.Because common sense isn’t a slogan. It’s a survival strategy.Vince Byfield is a political commentator and manages TheChristians.com, which publishes the 12-volume history book series The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years.
