It will be a four-way race for mayor in the Oct. 24 election, with three of the current councillors – Penny Byer, Colleen Smook and Ron Matechuk – seeking to become the head of council, with Ryan Brady also in the running.
When the election is over, there will be more winners than losers in the race for council, as three more candidates – incumbents Kathy Valentino and Duncan Wong and newcomer Dave Tugwood – completed their registrations before the nomination period closed at 4 p.m. Sept. 18, bringing the total number of wannabe councillors to 20. Blake Ellis and Judy Kolada are the third and fourth incumbents seeking re-election, with the other candidates including Adey Adeyemi, Paul Beck, Godfrey Buhagiar, Chiew Chong, Earl Colbourne, Malanie Cutler, Les Ellsworth, Jeff Fountain, Tim Gibson, Martin Grier, Brian Lundmark, Andre Proulx, Serena Puranen, Kathy Valentino, Rita Werstroh and Bryan Young. With Mayor Dennis Fenske and Coun. Dennis Foley not seeking re-election and three other current councillors in a race which only one of them, at most, can win, a minimum of four new councillors will be overseeing city affairs until 2022.
More than half of the school board will be new come Oct. 25, with Don MacDonald, Guido Oliveira and Leslie Tucker seeking re-election as incumbents after all registering on the final day for nominations, along with Michelle Tomashewski. They join previously registered candidates Peter Aarinola, Lindsay Anderson, Saima Aziz, Samantha Chartrand, Susan Oxford, Jill Quilty and Samanth Scibak to make 11 candidates for the seven available seats.
Following the passing of the withdrawal deadline at 4 p.m. Sept. 19, candidates’’ names were drawn randomly to determine their order on the ballot. The mayoral ballot will feature Smook at the top, followed by Matechuk, Byer and Brady. Oliveira will be first among trustee candidates, with Oxford, Quilty, Tomashewski, Anderson, Aarinola, MacDonald, Chartrand, Aziz, Scibak and Tucker below. The top name on the councillors ballot will be Werstroh, followed by Adeyemi, Puranen, Fountain, Colbourne, Wong, Cutler, Lundmark, Chong, Proulx, Ellis, Young, Buhagiar, Ellsworth, Kolada, Valentino, Gibson, Grier, Tugwood and Beck.
