Edmonton mayoral candidate corners headbanger vote with Motorhead endorsement

With no incumbent and a reportedly close race for the Edmonton mayor's chair, cornering the metal-head vote may turn out to be a deciding factor.

The Alberta capital's civic election is just a week away (Oct. 21), and independent candidate Josh Semotiuk has just landed a huge endorsement from Motorhead.

The world-renowned heavy metal group shared a link on its official Facebook page showing the electrician clad in a leather jacket and wearing a Motorhead t-shirt.

"We would vote for you Josh!" says the post, which quickly garnered more than 300 likes.

"I might move to Edmonton JUST so I can vote for him!!!!" commented fan Tamara Grant.

"One for the metal heads. Well done Josh," added Stephen Seaye, who, alas, also appears not to be an Edmonton voter.

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It's not exactly Bruce Springsteen campaigning for Barack Obama but Semotiuk couldn't be more thrilled, especially after Motorhead's Lemmy Klimister gave his personal endorsement.

"My kind of Mayor!" he posted on his Facebook page. "Good luck Josh! Cheers!"

"Pretty awesome," Edmonton's Gigacity news reported Semotiuk saying. "How would you feel if one of the gods of rock backed you as mayor's candidate?"

Semotiuk is in a race with six other mayoral candidates and by no means a favourite.

Semotiuk, 29, is campaigning as an "average guy," in contrast to his rivals who have political, professional or business backgrounds, the Edmonton Journal says in its candidate profile of him. He's spent just $600 on his campaign, including the $500 needed to file his nomination papers. The rest was spent on campaign pins, according to Gigacity.

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“I got talking to a couple of buddies about it and we thought it might be a lot of fun," he told the Journal. "We got into it, and started getting more and more serious.”

Semotiuk received cheers at election candidates' forums but told CBC News he knows his biggest challenge will be getting the headbanger vote out to the polls.

"One third of people showed up to vote last time," he said. "That means two-thirds of the people didn't even care, didn't show up, they had better things to do."