Northern Mayors A Mix Of Newcomers, Incumbents

Northern Mayors A Mix Of Newcomers, Incumbents

Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 14:02

 

 

A number of northern municipalities have new mayors, following yesterday’s civic elections.

 

Twenty-one-year-old Thomas Sierzycki was elected mayor of La Ronge.

 

Sierzycki had more votes than his three rivals combined — and had nearly four times as many votes as his closest competitor.

 

Sierzycki has repeatedly said that asking for public input is central to his approach to municipal governance — and as part of his effort to accomplish that, he plans to make good use of some new communication tools.

“I do want media to be a big involvement in council, including a new interactive website, Access Communications (cable programming), newspapers, possibly a Facebook page — just to keep the younger people involved in council. So I think we’re going to do the technological spin a little bit on that.

 

“And then hopefully as my time in council, in my three-year term, continues, then I’ll find my own edge, on how I’m different than my predecessor,” Sierzycki says.

 

Elsewhere, Fred Roy unseated incumbent Alex Maurice in Beauval.

 

Sandra Hanson defeated incumbent Daniel Powder in Stony Rapids, while Daniel Bear had the most votes among seven candidates for mayor in Sandy Bay, including incumbent Ina Fietz-Ray.

 

Donna Janvier is the new mayor in St. George’s Hill.

 

Patuanak’s new mayor is Hazel Maurice, Cliff Coombs defeated incumbent Ernest Sylvestre in Michel Village, Marius Montgrand is the new mayor in Turnor Lake and Harold Aubichon won in Cole Bay.

 

Horace Morin is back as mayor in Pelican Narrows, after defeating incumbent Ovide Michel by five votes.

 

On the re-election front, Bobby Woods is back in Buffalo Narrows, after narrowly defeating challenger Philip Chartier by 18 votes.

 

Duane Favel was re-elected in Ile-a-la-Crosse, while Fred McCallum got back in in Green Lake.

 

Tony Maurice was re-elected in Jans Bay, Air Ronge re-elected long-time mayor Gordon Stomp, and Stella Brown was re-elected in Weyakwin.

 

On a local council note, the new town councillors in La Ronge are Robert Watt, Brent McDougall, Doreen Polischuk, Vern Stratton, Brandi Bell and Erin Carter.

 

Polischuk was the only incumbent running for re-election as a councillor.

 

Meanwhile, Karla Hardcastle, Terry DesRoches, Greg Merriman and David Smallwood make up the new village council in Air Ronge, with DesRoches the only returning councillor.