Get the party started: Why the Edmonton election will be unlike any other

Political parties making a foray into the 2025 municipal election in Alberta could frustrate voters, lose the public's trust and change how candidates express their views, experts warn. 

The Alberta government announced last spring that formal parties will be allowed to run candidates in Edmonton and Calgary in the Oct. 20 vote.

Brendan Boyd, an associate professor of political science at MacEwan University, said there's a reason the general public doesn't like the party system at the provincial and federal levels.

"It's the place where independent thought goes to die because you gotta toe the party line," Boyd said in an interview with CBC News in December. 

"So, that leads to what people call the democratic deficit. It undermines trust where people don't feel like, 'I voted for you, but you don't represent my interest because you have to say whatever the party tells you to say.' "

Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver said that political parties will make candidates' positions on issues more transparent. 

"I voted for candidate L and that candidate said they were NDP or said they were conservative and yet they voted the opposite way, then there's an accountability issue there," McIver said during the announcement last spring.

"You promised me you would vote along this ideological line and you didn't, then that's another way to hold elected officials accountable."

Political watchers are still confused by the province's decision, as their own public survey showed 70 per cent of respondents disagreed with introducing the party system. 

Alberta Municipalities, representing cities, towns and villages around the province, also opposed the move. 

Edmonton city Coun. Andrew Knack said he believes freedom of expression and choice will be lost with the change.

"It's going to be one perspective. It's the party's perspective because that's how the system works," he said in an interview with CBC News in December. 

"So you lose the ability to understand the complexity that exists in every single issue means you make a less informed decision, which ultimately harms the people we're trying to serve." 

Some current city councillors say they plan to run as an independent, but Boyd said there are advantages to running with a party.