Oilers take Game 1. One warm day before the cold.

Hi Edmonton,

Today's hitting 18 degrees, which in April is basically a gift we didn't earn. Soak it up, because Wednesday drops to 6 with a hard wind. Also inside: the Oilers squeezed Game 1 out with under two minutes left, Alberta's finally done moving the clocks, and a little cookie fundraiser in Highlands that's doing what Edmonton does best.

— The Edmonton Edit

Today's the outlier. 18°C with a mix of sun and cloud, maybe a few showers after dark but honestly who cares, wear the lighter jacket while you can.

Wednesday flips hard. 6°C, cloudy, and wind gusts pushing 40 km/h, so if you're walking to the LRT, layer up. Thursday stays cold at 4°C with even stronger wind, up to 46. Patio dreams on hold till next week.

After years of "are we or aren't we," Premier Smith's government confirmed Monday that Alberta's ditching the clock change for good.

Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally made it official at the legislature, saying we'll stay on daylight time permanently. If you're keeping score, we voted against this in a 2021 referendum, but barely, 50.2% to 49.8%. The wrinkle: B.C. already switched to permanent daylight time on March 8 of this year, so Alberta was getting sandwiched between two provinces on fixed clocks.

U of C psych professor Michael Antle says standard time would've been the healthier pick for circadian reasons, but that ship has sailed. For the rest of us it means no more dark 4 p.m. December afternoons, and no more losing an hour of sleep in spring. Feels weird for a week, then great.

Judith Gale, who leads Bear Claw Beaver Hills House (a First Nation-led volunteer group doing outreach downtown), is calling on city council to stop ticketing people under the public spaces bylaw.

The bylaw went into effect last May and covers things like visible drug use in public. Her point: the people getting these tickets are overwhelmingly folks experiencing homelessness, and the fines are an amount they simply cannot pay. If you've walked through downtown lately, you've probably seen the tension this bylaw is trying to manage and also seen why it isn't really working.

The bylaw is up for council review later this year, which is where this conversation is headed. Worth reading before that debate happens, because public-space enforcement in Edmonton is about to get loud.

You already know it's pothole season because you've hit one this week. The numbers are still wild. City crews filled 41,000 potholes just since January, and more than 650,000 in all of 2025, at a cost of $11.7 million. For context, Calgary fills 40,000 to 50,000 a year.

U of A engineering prof Ali Bayat says it doesn't have to be this way, and that we actually need better data on where and why potholes form, not just more trucks patching the same strip of 97 Street over and over.

Some of this is just climate, freeze-thaw cycles wrecking asphalt, but not all of it. Worth a read if you've been yelling at your steering wheel on the Henday.

The rec centre everyone in the west end has been waiting on since 2005 is over budget again. New estimate: about $343 million, up from the $311 million approved in 2021.

And that's after the project was already scaled back, losing a bouldering wall, a skatepark, and an outdoor rink along the way.

Ward Nakota Isga's Reed Clarke says the neighbourhoods out there really want this thing, which tracks, they've grown fast with almost no rec infrastructure.

Council debates the cost increase next Tuesday, April 28. Construction wraps in 2027, doors open fall 2028, assuming nothing else gets cut or added in the meantime.

Oilers took Game 1, but man they made us earn it. Edmonton jumped up 2-0 in the first, gave it all back in the second, fell behind 3-2 in the third, and then Jason Dickinson tied it before Kasperi Kapanen buried the winner with 1:54 left off a Leon Draisaitl feed.

Yes, Draisaitl. First game back from his knee injury since March 15 and he picked up two assists like he never left. Connor Ingram got his first career playoff win with 25 saves on 28 shots.

Game 2 is tomorrow at Rogers Place, 10 p.m. ET on CBC and Sportsnet, so around 8 p.m. our time. Bring the stress ball.

Date: 2026-04-22

Time: 7:00 PM (puck drop around 8:00 PM MT)

Location: 10220 104 Ave NW, Edmonton (Rogers Place)

Cost: $$$

Game 2 of the first round, coming off that heart-attack Game 1 win. If you've got tickets, you already know. If not, scroll one down.

→ Tickets / Info: https://www.rogersplace.com/events/

Date: 2026-04-22

Time: 7:00 PM

Location: 10232 104 Ave NW, Edmonton (ICE District Plaza)

Cost: Free

Outdoor watch party with the big screen, the crowd noise, and the communal groaning on every Ducks power play. Downtown on playoff nights is one of the best things this city does.

→ Info: https://www.rogersplace.com/events/

Date: 2026-04-22 Time: 8:00 PM

Location: 10320 82 Ave NW, Edmonton (Pawn Shop Live, formerly Union Hall)

Cost: $

NYC street-punk lifers with The Drowns opening, at the venue most of us still want to call Union Hall. A Wednesday that ends with ringing ears and no voice Thursday morning.

Date: 2026-04-23

Time: 10:00 AM

Location: 11455 87 Ave NW, Edmonton (Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium)

Cost: $$

Edmonton's Shumka Dancers doing a daytime show at the Jub. Ukrainian dance done at a level this city quietly produces better than most, and the morning slot is ideal if you've got kids in tow.

Date: 2026-04-23

Time: 7:00 PM

Location: 6107 104 St NW, Edmonton (Midway Music Hall)

Cost: $$

Soft-voiced Toronto songwriter who does the kind of set that lands somewhere between a breakup and a long exhale. Wyatt C. Louis opens. Midway's a great room for this one.

Date: 2026-04-23

Time: 7:30 PM

Location: 10320 82 Ave NW, Edmonton (Pawn Shop Live)

Cost: $

Toronto hardcore band playing their debut front to back, because that album turns 20, which is a sentence that makes me feel old. Cheap ticket, loud room, sold.

Date: 2026-04-21

Time: Various (see festival schedule)

Location: Various venues across Edmonton

Cost: Free

21st year running, and almost everything is pay-what-you-can. Open mics, poetry-music fusion nights, even readings at LRT stations. If you've ever thought about going, this week is a low-stakes way to just show up.

Date: 2026-04-21

Time: 7:30 PM

Location: 8882 170 St NW, Edmonton (The Comic Strip at West Edmonton Mall)

Cost: $

American comic who went viral for his Tim Hortons bits on Global Morning and a scared-frozen-boy reaction to an Alberta cold snap. Now he's doing it in person at the Comic Strip. $26.50 to $31.50.

Date: 2026-04-21

Time: 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Location: Farmer & Daughter Toy Shop, Edmonton

Cost: Free

Drop-in creative session for kids on a Tuesday morning, no registration. If you've got a squirrelly four-year-old and a PD-adjacent morning, this will buy you two hours.

Date: 2026-04-23

Time: All day (see mall hours)

Location: 2640 Millwoods Rd S NW, Edmonton (Riverview Crossing Mall, Mill Woods)

Cost: $

Wild Rose Shows' travelling carnival is back in Mill Woods for a second weekend, rides and mini-donuts and the kind of controlled chaos your kids will talk about for a month. Fair season is officially on.

Date: 2026-04-23

Time: 6:30 PM

Location: 11160 River Valley Rd NW, Edmonton (Royal Glenora Club)

Cost: $$

Chefs from Braven, Chartier, The Marc, MEAT and more cooking one night only at the Glenora, with money going to the High School Culinary Challenge that just awarded teams from five local schools. Eat well, feel good about it.

Date: 2026-04-21

Time: Various

Location: City Centre Mall (Artisan Market) and Kakio Studio Cafe, 10219 106 St NW,

Edmonton Cost: Free

Last day of one of the longest-running Indigenous film festivals in the world, started right here in the early '90s. Artisan market at City Centre, workshops at Kakio downtown, mostly free. Last chance to catch it this year.

Cuisine: Café / Coffee

Neighbourhood: 10906 105 Ave NW, Edmonton (Wîhkwêntôwin / Oliver)

Opening: April 2026

Price: $

Small café that took over the old La Prosciutteria space on 105 Ave. A second location is already in the works for Windermere. Good news for anyone in Oliver who's been looking for something that isn't a chain.

Cuisine: Filipino bakery

Neighbourhood: 17522 100 Ave NW, Edmonton (West Edmonton)

Opening: April 2026

Price: $

Filipino bakery known for pandesal and traditional breads, now open in the west end. If you know pandesal, you're already texting someone this address. If you don't, now's a good time to find out.

Saturday in Highlands, there was a cookie-off. Local spots (Backstairs Burger, Little Sweets, Emberly Bakery) went head to head with students at Highlands School, 6015 118 Ave NW, to raise money for the school's arts programming. Longtime CBC voice Mark Connolly emceed. Cookies were $2. A live auction of student artwork ran alongside it.

There's something about a school fundraiser where a burger joint bakes a cookie and a ten-year-old judges it that feels very specifically Edmonton.

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That's it for today.

Edmonton's a better place because people like you still read local. Thank you.

See you Friday!