Jasper’s mayor is number one. 

Richard Ireland has been voted Best Municipal Elected Official in political watcher Dave Cournoyer’s Best of Alberta Politics 2024 Survey.

Cournoyer publishes the DaveBerta substack, where he writes and podcasts about Alberta politics and elections.

“The annual survey is all about celebrating the best in Alberta politics,” Cournoyer said.

When winners were announced on Tuesday (December 3), after Best Alberta MLA (Janis Irwin) and Best Alberta Cabinet Minister (Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Mickey Amery), it was Jasper’s longtime community leader, Richard Ireland, who took top spot as Alberta’s Best Municipal Elected Official. 

Cournoyer surmised Ireland’s landslide victory in the survey (91 percent of votes to Town of High Level Councillor Terry Jessiman’s nine) had a lot to do with how he’s handled the crisis during, and in the aftermath of, the July 24 Jasper Wildfire. 

“It’s tough to be a municipal politician anywhere these days, but perhaps nowhere is tougher in this past year than in the Municipality of Jasper,” Cournoyer writes. 

“While having the already unique job of managing his community’s relationship with Parks Canada, Ireland has been the face of Jasper in the months following the wildfire that devastated large parts of the scenic mountain park town.”

Cournoyer lauded Ireland for calling out “unhelpful and divisive rhetoric” about the Jasper fire, and noted the 69-year-old is one of Alberta’s longest serving politicians, having been elected chair of the Jasper Townsite Committee in 1989 and subsequently serving as mayor since the municipality’s incorporation in 2001. 

The DaveBerta substack included the Best Municipal Elected Official special category to recognize the hard work of local leaders before municipal elections are held across Alberta next year. 

Rounding out Cournoyer’s list of winners were NDP Edmonton-Whitemud MLA Rakhi Pancholi (Best Opposition MLA); Sherwood Park NDP MLA Kyle Kasawski (MLA to Watch in 2025); and Naheed Nenshi’s victory in the NDP leadership race (Best Political Play). 

Since 2017, Cournoyer has put out a list of the best political leaders and most engaging issues in Alberta. Winners are selected from a week-long vote for the top two choices in each category nominated by DaveBerta subscribers.  

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com