Don Iveson served as Edmonton’s 35th Mayor from 2013 to 2021 with a guiding leadership principle to make things better for the next generation. This longterm view is now embedded in: Edmonton’s smart-growth City Plan; City Council’s Energy Transition Strategy; and Edmonton’s nation-leading work on stormwater management and climate adaptation. Since retiring from City Hall, he continues to live in Edmonton — to see how it all turns out.
Carrying on these themes, he is ramping up Civic Good: a public policy advisory practice working on climate, housing and complex governance projects with like-minded clients ranging from startups to governments — including working with Co-operators as Executive Advisor for Climate Investing and Community Resilience.
Believing strongly in connecting passion with service, he volunteers as Board Co-Chair of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. More recently he has been appointed Co-Chair of the Task Force on Housing and Climate. Don has also accepted an appointment as a School of Cities Canadian Urban Leader at the University of Toronto.
If you would like to collaborate with Don, you can contact him here.
As Mayor, Don’s political leadership extended to the national stage, serving as Chair of Canada’s Big City Mayors during an unprecedented rise in the prominence of cities in the national political landscape, including leading during the COVID crisis which hit municipalities especially hard. His advocacy helped to shape the National Housing Strategy and influence the Federal Government to commit to ending chronic homelessness nationwide — goals that cannot be achieved without robust partnerships with cities. He also served as an Honourary Witness to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and implemented the first trauma-informed all-staff Indigenous awareness and reconciliation training program at a major Canadian city.
Don worked tirelessly to build grand coalitions and bridge the urban/rural divide, both nationally on the board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and locally in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. This included a complete overhaul of Edmonton’s economic development apparatus: he helped to found Edmonton Global in partnership with other Metro mayors to better support investors and promote the region; and he oversaw consolidation of tourism and convention assets under Explore Edmonton, plus spinning off Health Cities and Innovate Edmonton to support entrepreneurs and Edmonton’s growing bio, tech and AI sectors; and co-founded the Edmonton Region Hydrogen Hub.
First elected as a City Councillor in 2007, he served Edmontonians for 14 years in all. Prior to entering public life, he studied Political Science at the University of Alberta, then served as president of Canadian University Press in Toronto. He returned home to a city that appeared to be exporting young, smart leaders, thinkers, creators and entrepreneurs faster than it could attract them. The challenge of building a sustainable, vibrant city that could attract and retain more people inspired him to seek office. Since then, one of his key performance indicators – as both a father and as Mayor – has been to build the kind of city where his kids will see a future for themselves and will choose to stay and build their own opportunities.