On a more serious note, longtime political operative Ken Chapman wondered about the quality of the candidates, not one of whom is a particularly well-known name in Edmonton political circles.

“WOW!” Chapman said on Twitter. “27 candidates say they have the right stuff to serve Ward 12 on yegcc (Edmonton city council)! Encouraging participation but any wisdom in this crowd?”

Excellent question.

Pity the poor voter who hopes to make an informed choice. They’ll have an unprecedented amount of work.

While this number of candidates is a first in Edmonton civic politics, it’s part of a trend for ever increasing numbers of people to run for office. From the early 1900s to the mid-1950s, about two candidates ran for every one that got elected. In more recent decades, the ratio has been closer to four-to-one.

The first outburst of raging candidacy came in a 1994 when 18 people ran in a Ward 3 byelection. Sherry McKibben took the contest with just 2,098 votes. Six of the 18 candidates received fewer than 100 votes.

In the 2001 civic election, Coun. Ben Henderson was one of 18 candidates fighting for two Ward 4 council seats.

“I think it’s exciting for democracy, but it’s frustrating for the voters,” Henderson says of the numerous Ward 12 candidates. “They just go, ‘How could we possibly figure out who to pick?’

“I never want to discourage people from running, but it is ironically hard on the electorate … It just makes it very confusing for them.”

Coun. Dave Loken says it’s “tough when nobody has name recognition, which I don’t think anybody does there. There are no big names. It’s a dogfight.”