Keith Gerein: Rahim Jaffer channels Edmonton's past in bid to lead Edmonton's future
Rahim Jaffer said on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Edmonton that he will announce his candidacy for mayor on Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Photo by Greg Southam /Postmedia
As Edmontonians worry about a future seemingly full of risk and complexity, a newly emerged candidate in the municipal election is hoping a voice from the past might be the one to put the city back on a familiar and reassuring course.
Rahim Jaffer, who represented Edmonton as a Reform and Conservative MP from 1997 to 2008, will officially announce his candidacy for mayor Wednesday afternoon, making good on rumours that have been circulating for months.
In an exclusive interview with Postmedia ahead of that announcement, the local restaurateur and businessman talked about why now is the time for a political comeback more than 15 years after an inglorious end to his parliamentary career. In short, Jaffer says he wants to restore a vision of Edmonton when crime was manageable, taxes and affordability were reasonable, and local businesses were thriving enough to contribute to the city’s cultural and community life.
“I’ve been seeing this decline in the city for the last how many years, and all I’ve seen is people struggling, businesses that should be thriving that are closing or barely surviving, and the crime in the city — I never remember crime being at the levels it’s at,” he said Tuesday from a front booth at his Whyte Avenue restaurant.
“I couldn’t sit on the sidelines any longer. I think with my previous service and then of course my business experience, I really feel the city needs a hard reset, needs a fresh start and new vision, a new focus and new leadership. Win or lose, I am going to try to add that to the mix.”
Locals who have never heard of Jaffer or need a refresher may be surprised to learn that Edmonton Strathcona used to be a reliably conservative federal seat. The Ross Sheppard High School grad won four elections there — starting at the age of 25 — before losing a close one in 2008 to the NDP, which has held onto it ever since.
Jaffer’s years in Parliament had a number of highs, including two years as Conservative caucus chair, along with his share of controversy, such as when he allowed an aide to impersonate him during a radio interview that he couldn’t attend. Greater ignominy came in the years directly after his time as an MP, which I’ll get to in a moment.
Since then, if you haven’t heard or thought much about Jaffer, that’s more or less by design. He and his then-wife — Helena Guergis, also a former Conservative MP — quietly came back in 2012 to Edmonton where she went to law school and he became a stay-at-home dad to their son Zavier. The couple split a short time later but have remained close, Jaffer said.
After about five years at home, Jaffer re-emerged into the business world with his well-known family that has had interests in commercial properties, hotels and restaurants, among other investments. His parents owned and operated the Artisan Resto Cafe on Whyte Avenue from 2001 to 2017, when he brought them out and rebranded the space to The Rooster.
(His father, who Jaffer credits for many of the traits that have served him well in politics and business, died in February.)
“We are doing a lot more with a lot less. I wish some of our public leaders understood that in order to have businesses flourish you have to create an environment for success,” said Jaffer, now 53. “And that is something I remember so vividly growing up in this city … there was so much private money flowing from people who were successful into those public areas that it made it easier for governments to manage.”
Rahim Jaffer will be running for mayor in the next municipal election. Taken on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 in Edmonton. Photo by Greg Southam /Greg Southam
Path to victory
Can Jaffer win on Oct. 20 after being out of the political game so long? Can his disadvantage become his advantage?
History would say it’s a longshot going against two serving councillors. Just one mayoral candidate in the last 60-plus years has managed to win without any previous council experience.
Yet timing can be everything in politics, and I do see a path to victory for Jaffer that has some similarities to the one Bill Smith followed 30 years ago.
The mayoral field, as of yet, isn’t particularly crowded with major contenders. A substantial number of voters seem to be looking for change, which means they may be unusually open to an outsider over candidates tied to recent councils. Jaffer’s business experience may be a strong selling point in an era of economic anxiety. People may believe his conservative credentials can open some doors at the provincial government.
(Jaffer says he is not forming a party or joining one, and doesn’t particularly like their introduction to municipal politics, but will work with whoever is elected.)
He is also no doubt channeling nostalgia as part of his campaign, but in doing so, he may have to contend with the lowest moment in his own past.
I won’t go through all the details here as those are easily available to anyone with an internet connection. But the basic story is that Jaffer was charged with drunk driving and drug possession (cocaine) in 2009 after police in Ontario pulled him over for speeding. Those charges were later dropped while Jaffer pleaded guilty to a lesser offence of careless driving, which sparked outrage from some that he had received special treatment.
“I am fortunate, unlike maybe other future politicians, that I don’t have any skeletons in the closet. They are all out there if anybody wants to look at them. We all make mistakes, and I stumbled,” Jaffer said when asked how he plans to handle those questions.
“I sure paid a price in terms of how much negative attention I got during that time. Of course I am now focused on the future. And I think people seem to appreciate someone they can relate to who picks themselves up and actually continues to move forward.”
My sense is that the 2009 incident won’t play a major role in Jaffer’s election chances, given the years that have passed.
Rahim Jaffer, centre, celebrates his win in the 2006 federal election with his mother Razia and father Nizar. Brendon Dlouhy, Edmonton Sun
An outside chance
His bigger challenge is name recognition. Edmonton has grown considerably since he was an MP, which means there are a lot of voters who won’t really know who he is. And there isn’t a ton of time to change that.
“I have to do the hard work I used to do when I first ran for politics, which is get out there, meet people, knock on doors, get out to events, and remind them that with some of the challenges they have that here is someone who can listen to them but also share with them my previous experience.”
However, in doing that, he cannot just run a vibe campaign based on nostalgia alone.
Edmonton is not just bigger but also much more diverse, complex and beset by issues that can’t be solved by approaches of the past. I think Jaffer knows this, but how well he articulates his solutions and how much he can differentiate himself from his rivals — particularly Tim Cartmell — will determine how this goes.
Unlike his campaigns for federal politics, he will have the freedom this time to set his own course. If he can define a reasonable vision and carve out some public bandwidth as a legitimate agent of change, he absolutely has a shot at winning this.
After all, while I think Edmontonians enjoy a good comeback story as much as anyone else, they are ultimately less fixated on what someone did in the past than what they can do to shape the future.
