As government budgets are impacted by COVID-19, library budgets may become vulnerable to funding reductions. EPL viewed the 2021 municipal election is an opportunity to play an active role in ensuring candidates had opportunities to learn about EPL’s impact in the communities' candidates wanted to serve. EPL also engaged with the public in-branch and online, enhancing the profile of public libraries while ensuring Edmontonians had access to the content they needed to make informed voting decisions.

EPL’s advocacy strategy was an integrated approach implemented over 7 weeks leading up to election day on Oct. 18, 2021. It included launching epl.ca/vote2021 for the public to learn more about the election and EPL, luncheons and tours for the candidates; I heart EPL merchandise was distributed at all branches and I heart EPL gifs were on Instagram/Facebook stories. We hosted a virtual mayoral forum for the public to learn about candidates’ visions. Engaging content was key — blogs, testimonials, video and photos.

The advocacy campaign resulted in 9000+ views to the web content, 10,000+ views of the I heart EPL gifs and 3500 pieces of merchandise (lawn signs, window decals, buttons) were distributed to customers and 30 candidates attended the lunch and learns. 2,500 households registered for the virtual mayoral forum (largest viewership of any forum). The recording has been viewed 5,500 times and used as a tool by teachers during their grades 5 and 6 classes. Media pitches resulted in 48 mentions and over 21 million in readership.