Edmonton’s mayor says that the issues behind homelessness, opioid overdoses and mental health crises cannot be fixed by cities.
While I was in Edmonton recently to write about the city’s deeply ingrained nostalgia for the Oilers’ glory days and the excitement around the team’s trip to the Stanley Cup finals this year, I met with Amarjeet Sohi, who became the city’s mayor in 2021.
Mr. Sohi has an unusually varied background. When he returned to his native India from Edmonton in the late 1980s — the wonder time for the Oilers — he was imprisoned for 21 months and endured torture after being arrested on what the Canadian government, and ultimately an Indian court, deemed to be false terrorism allegations. He has been a taxi driver and a bus driver, a federal member of Parliament and a minister in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.
