Race comes down to the wire

The people of Yorkton have spoken, and they wanted a change. Five new faces are joining city council, and for most of the evening it appeared as though there would be a change in the mayor’s chair as well.

It would be the final poll which decided who would win the mayoral race, with Mayor Bob Maloney holding onto his chair by the thinnest of margins. Thirty-three votes separated him from his closest challenger, former councillor Chris Wyatt, who led the polls for most of the evening. It was the advance polls that decided the night, with Maloney getting 466 votes to Wyatt’s 386, just enough to eke out a victory. The final tally came in at 1933 for Maloney and an even 1900 for Wyatt. The remaining challengers, Calvin Tokarchuk and Andrew Probe, received 729 and 123 votes respectively.

In total, 4,819 ballots were cast in this election an increase over 2012 which saw 4,185 people cast their vote.

For his part, Maloney understands that there is frustration with the way some projects have gone in the city and had accepted earlier in the evening that he might not return for a second term.

“I thought, well, there were some things that didn’t go the way we  wanted to, and mayors take the blame for that. I’m glad that my numbers worked out okay, but somewhat sad to see so many familiar faces leaving, but we’ve got a new group coming in as well and they will be excited and ready for the challenge.”

The council race was consistent all evening, and the final result saw Quinn Haider lead the group with 2250 votes, followed by Aaron Kienle with 1866, Darcy Zaharia with 1865, Mitch Hippsley with 1858, Randy Goulden with 1767 and Ken Chyz narrowly beating out incumbent councillor James Wilson, with 1540 votes to Wilson’s 1457. Goulden is the lone incumbent to return to council, with Larry Pearen finishing in eighth with 1,282 votes, Ross Fisher in eleventh with 870, and Les Arnelien in 13th with 854 among the 24 people vying for a spot.

The remaining council contenders were Dustin Brears with 1,189 votes, Kyle Dionne with 999, Donna Brothwell with 861, Raymond Bucsis with 808, Brent Hamm with 667, Bernard N. Stephaniuk with 657,  Evan Johnson with 617, Mike Kirby with 586, Jordan Rosluk with 584, Don Anderson with 489, Shelly D. Ross with 432,  Brad Haberman with 371, Brent Murdock with 230 and Christopher Kosteroski with 195.

Maloney would like to thank the previous council for their work in the city over the past several years, and he admits that for him it’s not easy to see the previous council go.

“It’s difficult, I’m losing a lot of good friends on council. I’m glad councillor Goulden is coming back, she worked extremely hard on this campaign. But I would like to thank everybody who sat on council. We are turning a city in very good condition over to a new council.”

The two remaining people for the old council, Maloney and Goulden, and while Maloney is optimistic about the new council he hopes that their experience will help when getting the five new councillors up to speed.

“It’s going to be a steep learning curve for them. We’ve only got two people with any experience in a council room... I know Councillor Goulden and I will be willing to work with people, hopefully they will be engaged in the process and I’m sure they’ll do fine.”