The Edmonton City Council is the governing body of the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Edmonton currently has one mayor and twelve city councillors. Elections are held every four years. The most recent was held in 2025, and the next is in 2029. The mayor is elected across the whole city, through the First Past the Post plurality election system. Councillors are elected one per ward, a division of the city, also through the First Past the Post plurality election system.
On July 22, 2009, City Council voted to change from having six 2-seat wards to a system of 12 single-member wards. Each ward is represented by a single councillor. The changes took effect in the 2010 election. In the 2010 election, Edmonton was divided into 12 wards each electing one councillor.
Before 2010, the city at different times used a variety of electoral systems for the election of its councillors: at-large elections with Block Voting; at-large elections using Single Transferable Voting (when the mayor was elected through Alternative Voting; and two different systems of multi-member wards, using Block Voting system (when the mayor was elected through First past the post).
In May 2019, Edmonton's Ward Boundary Commission began reviewing the geographical boundaries of the city's wards. The final report was delivered on May 25, 2020. On December 7, 2020, Bylaw 19366 was passed which included the new geographical boundaries and new Indigenous ward names. The Indigenous ward names were determined by the Committee of Indigenous Matriarchs and came into effect on October 18, 2021, the date of the 2021 municipal election. The Committee of Indigenous Matriarchs, also referred to as the naming committee, was composed of 17 women representing communities from treaty territories 6, 7 and 8, along with Métis and Inuit representation.
Voters were given the opportunity to vote on specific laws and measures at various times in Edmonton's history, through holding of plebiscites. Also ratepayers (property owners) voted on money proposals in the early years.
In 2025, the city adopted municipal political parties.
In 2021, the twelve ward boundaries were modified and the wards were given indigenous names in place of numbers.
In 2010, Edmonton adopted a ward system in which one councillor was elected from each of twelve wards through first past the post. (This was the first time in the history of Edmonton that councillors were elected one by one through first past the post.)
The mayor was elected from the city at-large through first past the post.
In 2010, council was elected to serve three years. In 2013 and 2017 they were elected to serve for four years.
In 1980, Edmonton adopted a ward system in which two councillors (aldermen until 1995) were elected from each of six wards through Plurality block voting. These wards were more organic (based on natural boundaries and divisions within the city) than the previous four-ward system.
The mayor was elected at-large through first past the post. Those elected served for three years.
In 1971, Edmonton adopted a ward system in which three aldermen were elected from each of four wards through Plurality block voting. Each ward was a northâÂÂsouth slice of the city so each contained territories on both sides of the river.
Mayor was elected through first past the post.
Still the mayor and the councillors were to serve for three years.
The 1968 Edmonton city election was different from the one before and the one after. Like the 1966 election the mayor and all the city councillors were up for election, councillors elected at large through Block Voting. Mayor elected through first past the post.
Unlike 1968 they were to serve for three years.
In 1968 Alberta's legislation had been changed to require elections every three years in all of the province's municipalities.
In 1964 two new aldermanic positions were added, bringing the total to twelve. As well Edmonton unstaggered its terms for city officials, meaning that all the council seats would be up for election each election, held every two years. In preparation for this, in 1964 the mayor and all aldermanic positions up for re-election were elected to one-year terms. All aldermen continued to be elected at-large through block voting, mayor through first past the post.
In 1948, the mayor began to be elected for a two-year term. the mayor was elected through first past the post.
Annual elections were still used to elect half the council each year through Plurality block voting at-large (no wards). The council continued to be elected at-large to staggered two-year terms until 1963, when the council seats up for election were filled just for one year (to prepare for the change in 1964 to all seats being up for election each election.
From 1912 to 1960, seats were guaranteed to southsiders. The guaranteed representation for the southside was cancelled after a 1960 referendum. (But in 1971 with the introduction of wards altogether south of the river, southside representation was re-established.)
In this period, following a referendum in 1927, the city returned to using block voting to elect councillors at-large (in one city-wide district). Aldermen continued to be elected on staggered two-year terms.
The mayor was elected every year to a one-year term through first past the post.
There was still guaranteed minimum representation for the south side of the North Saskatchewan River. This number increased over time. It was two until 1936, and three thereafter, to 1960.
In this period, following a successful referendum in 1922, the city used Single Transferable Voting, a form of proportional representation, to elect councillors. The effect was that no one party took all the seats up for election. Alternative Voting was used to elect mayors to ensure that the successful candidate had to have a majority of the votes to win. (No votes were transferred if one candidate took a majority on the first count such as is a certainty when only two candidates are in the running.)
The southside still had guaranteed representation, of at least two councillors.
The mayor continued to be elected annually, and aldermen continued to be elected to staggered two-year terms, with half up for election each year.
In 1927 a majority of voters voted to return to block voting to elect city councillors and first past the post to elect the mayor.
As part of the amalgamation agreement between the cities of Edmonton and Strathcona south of the river in 1912, council was expanded to ten members and adopted guaranteed representation, of at least two seats, for the south side. (Wards were not established, but at least two southsiders had to be elected.)
The mayor continued to be elected annually through first past the post, and aldermen continued to be elected to staggered two-year terms, through Plurality block voting.
Izena Ross, elected in 1921, was the first woman to serve on council.
Political parties - the Labour Party and the business-oriented Citizens Committee - first appeared in civil elections. (Candidates had run on shared platforms even previous to that.) Parties were eventually written out of city elections in the 1980s and then re-emerged in 2025.
Edmonton was incorporated as a city in 1904. The size of council was set at eight alderman plus the mayor, with the mayor being elected annually through first past the post and the aldermen being elected at-large (no wards) on staggered two-year terms, with half the seats filled each year through Plurality block voting.
The Edmonton Town Council was the governing body of Edmonton, Northwest Territories, from 1892 until 1904, when Edmonton was incorporated as a city and the council became Edmonton City Council. Throughout its history it included a mayor and six aldermen.
The mayor was elected annually throughout the town's history, but beginning in 1898 they were elected to staggered two-year terms, with half of them elected each year.
The mayor and aldermen were elected annually from 1892 to 1898.
Voter opinion was frequently polled in plebiscite questions held at time of elections. This happened in many cases including 1961, 1968, 1970 and 1974. Plebiscites held aside from the municipal elections were uncommon in Edmonton's history. The only ones were held in 1918, 1979 and 1981.
On March 4, 1918, a vote was held on the question of whether council was right in its hiring of an outside man to be fire chief, against wishes of the firefighters. The firefighters went on strike on the issue. A majority of city voters voted in favor of the firefighters' position; the final vote tallies being 6539 against the council's decision to 2250 in favour. The total turnout was larger than had been cast in the previous city election to fill the mayor's post.
In 1979, voters voted on cancelling a municipal law passed authorizing construction of a Trade and Convention Centre. Despite an adverse vote, the project was built and is now known as the Edmonton Convention Centre.
In 1981, voters voted on three questions - a yes or no question on designation of the old city hall as a historic resource; a choice of three options for how to house city hall workers, and a two-part question on the ward system - first a yes or no question on wards, then if you voted in favor of wards, whether the voter wanted one-seat wards, two-seat wards or wards that had more than two seats. (Wards had been adopted in 1971 after a favorable vote in a plebiscite held in 1968.
As well, in the early years ratepayers (property owners) voted on money proposals alongside many municipal elections and at other times as well.