The 1892 Edmonton municipal election, held February 10, 1892, was the first after the incorporation of Edmonton as a town in the North-West Territories on January 9, 1892,^[1] and was held to elect the new town's first town council (consisting of a mayor and six aldermen) for a one-year term.^[2] Matthew McCauley was acclaimed as Edmonton's first mayor, Voters elected six aldermen -Colin Strang, Daniel Fraser, Edward Carey, James Goodridge, John Cameron, and Philip Daly - from a field of fourteen candidates.

In 1891, the Canadian Pacific Railway's main line, which had passed well south of Edmonton, was extended northward into Strathcona, then known as South Edmonton.^[3] Edmonton came to fear that the presence of the railway across the North Saskatchewan River would result in it being surpassed by its southern neighbour, and calls for the railway to be brought to Edmonton grew louder (this objective would be achieved in 1905).^[4] As part of these efforts, it was judged appropriate to apply for a town charter, which was granted effective February 15, 1892, when the first town council was to be sworn into office. The election of the first council was fixed for February 10.^[5]

Nomination day was February 3, one week before the election, and nominations were accepted between ten am and noon.^[6] All nominated candidates ran as independents, as political parties did not begin to make their appearance until after Edmonton was incorporated as a city in 1904.^[7]

As Edmonton had yet to be incorporated at the time of election, most questions facing any municipality would have to be addressed in some form by the new council. The Edmonton Bulletin, in a February 6 editorial, listed several that it thought that candidates should be addressing:

• the level of taxation
• whether to incur liabilities for public purposes or to "live within our means"
• whether to implement some system of fire protection, or whether the substantial space between most of the town's buildings was sufficient protection itself against fire
• whether to levy taxes by a straight property tax, or whether to implement other taxes (such as dog taxes, drag taxes, boarding house taxes, poll taxes, etc.)
• how many municipal liquor licenses to issue
• what scheme of police protection to adopt
• how to establish productive industries^[10]

Additionally, in a February 13 editorial the Bulletin reminded the new council that the major purpose of incorporation had been to either construct a railroad bridge across the North Saskatchewan River or, in the event that Canadian Pacific Railway was not amenable to the idea, construct a traffic bridge to lead to the train station in South Edmonton.^[11]

(bold indicates elected, italics indicate incumbent)

After McCauley's acclamation, the Bulletin commented that this event, "while, no doubt, very pleasing to gentleman, is not less satisfactory to the large majority of the ratepayers of the town" and praised the new mayor as a man of "energy and good judgment that, shown in lesser offices in the past, has won for him the public confidence."^[10]

Only a few months later, Mayor McCauley would lead a mob of Edmontonians in disrupting the operation of a federal office, in the "Rat Creek Rebellion."