One of the worst-kept secrets in the Edmonton election — and in some ways simultaneously surprising and not-surprising — is that Edmonton Journal City Columnist Scott McKeen will announce his candidacy in Ward 7 this morning. This election, already pretty damned compelling after city council’s airport decision on Wednesday, is going to be a good one, I think.

If you’re Tony Caterina, and you didn’t see this coming — I’d like to say I did, but I’d be lying — you’ve got to be a little pissed off. McKeen spent the last three years criticizing Caterina (some recent examples for you here and here), and though they’re soft-ball blows, they clearly aren’t friendly to Caterina.

This makes for three candidates, that we know of, running in Ward 7, some of which covers the Highlands and Alberta Avenue areas. Caterina, McKeen, and Brendan Van Alstine will duke it out. A few ideas I’ve heard lobbed out there include:

• Van Alstine and McKeen will split the vote on one side, allowing Caterina to take the Ward — but probably by a small margin all the same.
• McKeen’s got name recognition, and despite some of his more silly articles in the Journal and his constant references to his scooter, he’s actually a sharp guy and will take the ward.

I like McKeen as a columnist. And as a columnist I believe he’s been able to watch and assess how city council’s done over the last little while. Hopefully he’s got some fresh ideas and insights he’d like to share now that he’s on hiatus from the Journal.

Now we just need to come up with a clever hashtag for McKeen… Any ideas?

Update: you can view McKeen’s election website here.