Edmonton's rapidly growing aboriginal population is not being reflected in the number of First Nations people running for a seat on city council, says candidate Duane Good Striker.

Good Striker is challenging incumbent councillor Ben Henderson in Ward 8. He believes he's the only aboriginal candidate out of more than 100 people running in the Oct. 15 election.

He said Edmonton could have a bigger urban aboriginal population than Winnipeg within the next 10 years.

For that reason, it's critical an aboriginal person sits on council to represent the issues affecting urban aboriginals, he said.

"The potential for all that to happen is here, the infrastructure is there, but there's no aboriginal person leading the charge from city council level, saying these are the programs we have to target, these are the things that we have to fix," Good Striker said.

"We have to address those things properly from an aboriginal perspective at the highest level."

In the last civic election, the aboriginal community in Ward 8 rallied around Lewis Cardinal, who lost to Henderson in a close contest.

Cardinal has since switched to federal politics and is running for the NDP in Edmonton Centre in the next federal election.