The Edmonton municipal election is coming up on Oct. 20, 2025. If reading that evokes little emotion from you, maybe give this article a read. You’re not alone.
Elections Canada, covering federal elections, notes that the 2021 Canadian federal election had a youth turnout of just 47 per cent — the lowest out of all voting age demographics. According to election research on reasons for not voting, 42 per cent of non-voting 18 to 24 year olds claimed “everyday life reasons” like being too busy, while 33 percent said they’re “not interested in politics.”
If youth are disengaged from voting in a country-wide election, you can imagine how this might also impact smaller, municipal elections.
While statistics on youth turnout in city elections is scarce, the 2021 Edmonton Elections Report shows that total voter turnout in the 2021 Edmonton municipal election was 38 per cent.
Municipal elections, for all ages, just don’t attract as much voting.
Edmonton municipal elections matter, says NAIT grad and JCI President
Jorgia Lindquist, NAIT Bachelor of Business Administration grad and President of JCI Edmonton, was recently on a CBC segment encouraging youths to participate in municipal elections. JCI Edmonton, a youth-oriented civics program, hosted an “Espresso Your Voice” initiative with mayoral candidates to open a more casual, inviting dialogue to ask questions related to youth interests.
In an interview with the Nugget, Lindquist says she got into municipal politics during her time as former NAITSA VP Internal in 2021. “The last time there was a municipal election was when I was working as an executive,” she says. She speaks of her experience working with other young students: “It’s kind of shown that maybe we care the least about municipal politics, but it actually has a really big impact on our day-to-day lives.”
Lindquist believes there was a reason for youth apathy in the last municipal election. “I think a lot of the reason why is maybe because we feel like we don’t have a space for that.”
Leading up to the 2025 municipal election, student associations in Edmonton did host municipal election events. The Students’ Association of MacEwan partnered with the university to host a downtown municipal election forum, and the UAlberta Students’ Union hosted a meet the candidates forum in partnership with the Edmonton Student Alliance — an event for students from post-secondary institutions across the city.
But it can be hard for students to work events like this into their busy schedules.
“It’s kind of in the super busy season of being a student, so it’s kind of like the last thing on my mind right now,” says Jada Lee (they/them), a second year Business Administration Marketing student at NAIT. Lee says they also hadn’t heard anyone talking about the municipal election. “Absolutely nobody. No, no one has talked about it,” says Lee.
Still, Lee concedes that the election is important.
“It’s probably going to impact me in a major way that I could not describe.”
Busy students can approach Oct. 20 election with basic knowledge
The trouble is that it’s tricky to parse who stands for what, and how a vote might affect you. Lindquist points out, “We don’t know enough about [municipal elections], because it’s not as black and white as like, this party, this party, this party, right?”
Between articles, forum pages and navigating the City of Edmonton websites with ward info, it can all seem quite opaque.
Don’t let that get you down, though.
Lindquist proposes an answer. “I am a very firm believer in just talking straight to the head. So it might sound intimidating, but I cold emailed all those candidates,” she said. “A lot of the time, if they’re not answering personally … someone on their team is.”
If that’s too intimidating, just having a high-level understanding of what each candidate stands for will go a long way in understanding the city you live in. Lindquist recommends watching mayoral candidates debates online or following candidates on social media.
And if you’ve gotten through this article and are interested in further youth participation in civics, consider reaching out to JCI Edmonton. “If you have an idea, if you have a question about maybe the upcoming election or just different things in the community that you find is a big issue … we’d love to hear it,” says Lindquist.
NAIT students can learn more about JCI Edmonton by visiting their website. For information about the municipal election on Oct. 20, students can visit the Edmonton Elections page on the City of Edmonton’s website.
For students unsure of who to vote for, Taproot Edmonton offers an online survey that matches voters to candidates that align with issues they care about.
Feature image via NAIT Content Collective
