THE RACE IS ON

A knife salesman, a past Marijuana party candidate, a former provincial MLA
and a commercial refrigerator mechanic will all be on the civic election
ballot this October. A total of 88 civic election contenders officially
filed nomination papers at City Hall yesterday morning, vying for a total
of 29 spots on city council and the public and Catholic school boards.

Mayor Bill Smith, 68, was flanked by office staff and relatives, with his
four-year-old grandson, Will, in tow as he arrived to pay his $500 fee and
file his paperwork.

"I feel energized," Smith told reporters. "I'm as excited about it as back
in 1995. You have a much more experienced mayor that's going to run again
and we want to keep the momentum going."

Not everything went totally according to plan. Will wasn't interested in
holding onto grandpa's nomination papers or joining him in a thumbs-up sign
for the cameras.

And a four-metre tall mobile campaign sign asking voters to re-elect Smith
and "Keep the Momentum Going" got a parking ticket, after the van it was
mounted on sat for hours outside City Hall at an expired meter.

A total of eight mayoral candidates filed nomination papers yesterday,
including Smith's main challengers, lawyer Robert Noce and west-end city
Coun. Stephen Mandel.

"It's about leadership, and I'm the only one who can become a leader,"
declared Mandel, 59, who complained the recent smoking-bylaw spat between
Noce and Smith has turned the mayoral race into "an embarrassing soap opera."

Yesterday was the next step in a long haul for 37-year-old Noce, who's been
campaigning since January. "It is simply the day in which people will
finally know all the names of the candidates, but from our perspective,
it's just another day in the campaign."

A few lesser-known challengers for the mayor's chair officially confirmed
their candidacy too, including 65-year-old Dieter Peske, who blasted the
Sun for ignoring his election campaign. The former masonry contractor who's
now in the drycleaning business acknowledged he has no previous political
experience, but says he knows all about getting value for dollars.

"I sure do know how to take care of my house. City Hall is my house, and
the people at City Hall are just the people who are hired to spend my money
wisely," Peske said.

Dave Dowling, a former Marijuana party candidate, also entered the mayor's
race and vowed to push for the repeal of marijuana laws which are "a
blatant waste" of taxpayers' dollars.

"Most of the other candidates are for more police, more taxes, more white
elephant projects, and that's wrong," said Dowling, who wore a camouflage
jacket and sunglasses which he refused to remove for photos, stating his
eyes are sensitive to light.

Mayoral challenger Tilo Paravalos, a 26-year-old commercial refrigerator
mechanic, said he's eager to give back to the city. "I'm not preaching to
you that I know everything about city council, and maybe that's a good
thing," Paravalos said.

Among the myriad of council contenders is former provincial MLA Linda
Sloan, vying for the Ward 1 spot left vacant when Mandel decided to run for
mayor, and 20-year-old Kyle Balombin, a part-time knife salesman and former
Grant MacEwan education student who insisted he's a "serious candidate" for
Ward 3.