Edmonton Griesbach shaping up as multi-candidate showdown in 2025 federal election

Former MP Kerry Diotte is looking to reclaim the seat he lost to Blake Desjarlais in the 2019 election. CTV News Edmonton's Nav Sangha reports.

It’s hard to know, as it is with several federal ridings any given vote, what to expect in Edmonton Griesbach as election day approaches.

Not so much questioning where the incumbent NDP member of parliament for the northside riding, Blake Desjarlais, stands or what the newcomer Liberal hopeful, Patrick Lennox, hopes will resonate with voters come Monday, April 28.

It’s that we don’t know what’s on the mind of Kerry Diotte, the Conservative candidate and former MP of the riding who went down to close defeat in the 2021 election to Desjarlais.

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Over the course of the campaign period which began at the end of March, Edmonton-area candidates have been mum – unwilling to talk to media, it seems – on their thoughts, stances and ideas.

The federal Liberals and Conservatives have been close in the polls, with each party leading them at times over the past few months and the Liberals currently holding a slim edge.

Perhaps it’s not so much Diotte’s and others’ choices to decline comment but a party stance. All one can do is guess why.

Desjarlais says regardless of what Diotte’s and the Conservatives’ intentions are, he told CTV News Edmonton he wants to be “a voice we deserve in our electoral system, which is really for 343 mini elections across the country.”

“(Edmonton Griesbach constituents) are my bosses. They expect, like I do, a community that is accountable, a community that is democratic and a community that is well-represented,” Desjarlais said last week.

“In Ottawa, you shouldn’t just elect someone who’s going to say the party message over and over and over. You need to elect someone who’s going to say the good people in Edmonton Griesbach are facing serious challenges like poverty, like housing, like a health-care system that’s collapsing, and they’re even more scared than ever because their jobs are now on the line.

“They need someone they can trust with the values that say we’re going to take care of each other, sent to Ottawa who understands them, who sees their faces, who shows up at their door.”

Lennox, an academic and author of several books on Canada-U.S. relations, said the election is about who is going to run and govern the country, about a choice between the Liberals and the Conservatives to decide who is best to “maintain our sovereignty, to maintain our national unity, to maintain our integral values of equality and inclusion, and universal health care.”

“I firmly believe this is a crucial moment in our history,” Lennox told CTV News Edmonton. “This is a time when Canadians have to come together.

“I think there should be strong Alberta voices inside the government. I want to give the constituents of Edmonton Griesbach an opportunity to vote for a strong Liberal candidate so that they can be represented on the government side of the House of Commons.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Brandon Lynch