Meet a Council Candidate: Jesse Watson

What matters most to the people running to lead our city? In the lead-up to October’s election, Urban Affairs is profiling a select group of city council candidates who stand out for their ideas, lived experience, or community roots. Know someone who deserves a spotlight? Email us at editor@odvodpublishing.com with their name and a few sentences about why they’re noteworthy. For a full list of registered candidates, visit the City of Edmonton’s elections page.

Meet a Council Candidate: Jesse Watson

Jesse Watson credits famed urbanist Jane Jacobs with his approach to city-building. Jacobs championed the idea that well-used streets are safe streets. Watson saw this firsthand when he opened Boxcar Coffee Shop in Calder, a north-side neighbourhood with a somewhat rough reputation. People have questioned the wisdom of opening a coffee shop here, he says, sitting on the cafe’s patio on a sunny, windy March morning. “But I’ve lived here for 12 years and run a business here, and I’ve never personally had a negative experience in Calder.”

As if to prove his point, a woman approaches the patio table during the conversation, handing Watson a large set of keys he had left on a bench on the front sidewalk earlier. “See, that’s so neighbourly,” he says, sharing a laugh.

Watson never set out to be a politician, but after years of volunteering in his community and listening to the concerns of his customers at the cafe, he felt compelled to step up. Now, the local business owner and former City of Edmonton employee is running for a council seat in Ward Anirniq, citing a need for stronger fiscal responsibility, common-sense decision-making and a renewed focus on revitalizing struggling areas of the city.

“People have been telling me my whole life that I should be in politics,” Watson says. “Between being a business owner, a landlord, a city employee, I think I know the city A to Z by now. I was at a peak, essentially, in the job I just left (with the city), so it was time for me to move on and try something new. I’m ready.”

Watson, 42, spent a decade working for the city in parks, roads and real estate, dealing with the day-to-day operational challenges of managing municipal assets. He built a reputation as a hands-on community advocate, serving as Calder’s community league president for eight years and helping to bring in new tenants and businesses to revitalize the local hall. When he left his city job in January, he had already begun weighing a run for office.

The decision was borne, in part, of frustration over Edmonton’s recent trajectory. “Over the last four years the city has been breaking records, but not the records you want,” he says, pointing to rising debt, tax increases and a record-high commercial vacancy rate. He also notes increasing friction between the city and its citizens, citing backlash from Dunluce residents over a contentious neighbourhood redesign as one example.

He believes Edmonton’s struggling downtown could benefit from the same grassroots investment that makes Calder a good neighbourhood to live and work in. “The only way you have a thriving city is money coming in, people happy, people walking around. The more people walking around, the safer it becomes.” He supports free downtown parking and floats the idea of free leases for downtown businesses. “We need to be radical about getting businesses back in.”

His campaign is rooted in fiscal pragmatism — what he calls a “Volkswagen instead of Rolls Royce” approach. He’s troubled by the city taking on heavy debt to build expensive projects when it could be making more efficient choices, pointing to the rising costs of city infrastructure projects like the Lewis Farms rec centre. He also emphasizes the need for performance-based funding for social services. “We choose to give money to organizations without accountability to get stuff built. That’s never really meeting the goals we’re trying to achieve.”

When it comes to dealing with the provincial government, Watson stresses the importance of rebuilding relationships. “If you and your neighbour have a broken fence, do you fix it by throwing stones over it? Or do you say, ‘Hey, let’s work together.’” He believes the city needs to take a more cooperative approach to engaging with the province.

Watson says his focus is on practical solutions, not ideology. His campaign is independent, though he acknowledges the challenge of running without party backing. “I think I can be more effective through boots-on-the-ground door knocking,” he says. “I don’t care what you do in your bedroom — I care that you have housing.” He believes Edmonton’s challenge isn’t a housing crisis but an affordability problem in some areas and wants to see the city take a more direct role in creating affordable housing options.

As the election approaches, Watson hopes to convince voters that his experience in business, city operations and community engagement makes him the right person to push Edmonton toward a more fiscally responsible and livable future. “Every day, I hear the good, the bad and the ugly, right at the till — the true issues going on in neighbourhoods,” he says. “As a city councillor with the right team, I believe I can make change.”