1977 Edmonton municipal election

The 1977 municipal election was held October 19, 1977 to elect a mayor and twelve aldermen to sit on Edmonton City Council, nine trustees to sit on the public school board, and seven trustees to sit on the separate school board.

This was the first election in which a nine-member public school board was elected instead of the seven member board that had previously existed.

It was also the last election to use only four wards for election of the city councillors. Beginning in 1980, two aldermen were elected from each of six wards.

Electoral system

Mayor was elected through First past the post.

Councillors were elected three per ward, through Plurality block voting where each voter could cast up to three votes.

School board positions also were filled through Plurality block voting as well.^[1]

Voter turnout

There were 116,525 ballots cast out of 305,342 eligible voters, for a voter turnout of 38.2%.

Results

(bold indicates elected, italics indicate incumbent)

Mayor

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Independent	Cec Purves	38,720	33.92%
	Independent	Laurence Decore	29,682	26.00%
	Independent	Terry Cavanagh	28,941	25.36%
	Independent	Ivor Dent	13,818	12.11%
	Revolutionary Workers League	Donald Tapscott	1,395	1.22%
	Independent	Eddie Keehn	1,108	0.97%
	Independent	John Horobec	479	0.42%

(William Hawrelak had been elected mayor in the 1974 election, but had died in office. Cavanagh was selected by council to replace him.)

Aldermen

Guide:

• E.C.G.A = Edmonton Civic Government Association
• E.V.A. = Edmonton Voters Association
• U.R.G.E. = Urban Reform Group Edmonton

Ward 1				Ward 2				Ward 3				Ward 4
Party		Candidate	Votes	Party		Candidate	Votes	Party		Candidate	Votes	Party		Candidate	Votes
	U.R.G.E.	Lois Campbell	12,958		Ind.	Gene Dub	11,202		E.C.G.A	Ron Hayter	11,425		U.R.G.E.	Bettie Hewes	16,560
	E.C.G.A	Kenneth Newman	14,619		E.C.G.A	Olivia Butti	10,553		Ind.	Ed Leger	10,760		E.C.G.A	William Chmiliar	14,473
	E.C.G.A	Paul Norris	12,014		Ind.	Percy Wickman	8,755		U.R.G.E.	Edward Kennedy	9,957		E.C.G.A	Buck Olsen	14,090
	Ind.	Carl Paproski	11,926		U.R.G.E.	Gerry Wright	6,311		Ind.	David Stewart	6,342		Ind.	Sheila McKay	10,876
	E.C.G.A	Bud Salloum	10,693		Ind.	Bob Caine	5,304		E.V.A.	Walter Doskoch	4,290		E.C.G.A	Darryl Smith	8,958
	Ind.	Nick Fedorak	7,440		Ind.	Solomon Agronin	5,153		Ind.	Clarence (Chuck) Bolton	3,408		Ind.	Mitchell Wijcik	6,515
	Ind.	Donald Eastcott	5,390		Ind.	Kenneth Burton	4,668		Ind.	Ernest Whitely	3,362		E.V.A.	Ed Ewasiuk	6,192
	Ind.	Cal O'Brian	4,624		E.C.G.A	Ed Baxter	4,138						Ind.	John Lakusta	3,031
	E.V.A.	Gerry Paschen	3,983		Ind.	Henry Rutkowski	3,167
	Ind.	Johannes Bosch	2,703		E.V.A.	Robert Blakely	2,867
					Ind.	Olga Cylurik	1,870
					E.V.A.	E. J. (Slim) Powell	1,800
					Ind.	Richard Guthrie	1,171

Public school trustees

• Shirley Forbes - 38468
• Mel Binder - 37438
• Ernie Lund - 35406
• Jim Patrick - 33618
• Don Massey - 33444
• Catherine Ford - 33170
• Richard Jamieson - 32371
• James Falconer - 31754
• Elaine Jones - 27494
• Lorne Mowers - 26792
• Vernon Johnson - 25896
• Douglas Sorenson - 24397
• Molly Glass - 21330
• John Mason - 16319
• Clare Brown - 16252

Separate (Catholic) school trustees

• Leo Floyd - 16438
• Jean McDonald - 15123
• Barry Cavanaugh - 11506
• Phil Gibeau - 11207
• Laurier Picard - 11071
• Raymond Pinkowski - 10342
• Joe Donahue - 9810
• William McNeill - 8664
• Zan Matishank - 8436
• Patrick Murphy - 7873
• Lyle Lavender - 7039
• John Kash - 6506
• Paul Haljan - 4659