SASKATOON — Five candidates are officially vying to replace Charlie Clark as mayor. One of them is Don Atchison, who is attempting to reclaim his former job for the third time. Outgoing Ward 6 Councillor Cynthia Block hopes to become the first female city chief executive.
The civic elections are set for Wednesday, Nov. 13. Elections Saskatoon offers different ways for residents to cast their votes, including early voting from Friday to Monday, Nov. 1 to 4, and post-secondary advance polls from Tuesday to Thursday, Nov. 5 to 7.
Special polls, which will not be open to the general public, will be from Monday to Friday, Nov. 4 to 8, in different care home centres in the city. Hospitals and Parkridge Centre are exempted from the special polls, and both will operate on Election Day.
Separate special polls will be held at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital, Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon City Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital, and the Parkridge Centre on Gropper Crescent.
Former Saskatoon Northwest MLA Gordon Wyant, Mike Harder, and Cary Tarasoff, who is running for the second time, were the other mayoralty candidates who beat the 4 p.m. nomination deadline on Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Atchison was mayor from 2003 to 2016 but lost by 3,000 votes to Clark in his bid for a fifth term. He again ran in 2020 and finished third in a six-way race, with Clark earning a second term after beating former MLA Rob Norris by more than 10,000 votes.
Darren Hill is running to keep his Ward 1 City Council seat against Kevin Boychuk, Dallas Burnett, Kathryn MacDonald, and Russell Nadin; Franklin Arthurs, Jean Beliveau, Janna Horn, Karen Kobussen, and Senos Timon hope to replace Hillary Gough as Ward 2 councillor.
Devyn Gregoire, Robert Pearce, and Mike San Miguel are vying for Ward 3 councillor, while Courtney Saliken and Numaan Sahfqat will challenge incumbent Troy Davies in Ward 4. Randy Donauer will have Kyla Kitzul, Tyler Knihnitski, David Prokopchuk, and Nick Prytula as challengers in Ward 5.
Terry Alm, Tony Bassett, Terry Hoknes, Jonathan Naylor, and Jasmin Parker are the candidates hoping to replace Block for the Ward 6 City Council seat. Edward Agbai, Holly Kelleher, Jamie Kirkpatrick, and Justin Wiens are vying to become Ward 7’s representative.
Darren Abrey, Henry Tsz Lok Chan, Scott Ford, Prathames Kale, Ron Mantyka, Malvina Rapko, Peggy Schmeiser, and Kevin Zarycki are the eight candidates running for the Ward 8 City Council position. Councillors Bev Dubois (Ward 9) and Zach Jeffries (Ward 10) are running unopposed.
Gough (Ward 2), David Kirton (Ward 3), Marin Loewen (Ward 7), and Sarina Gersher (Ward 8) joined Clark for not running for re-election, while Block is seeking a higher office.
Twenty-three candidates are vying for the 10 seats on the Separate School Trustee, while 24 hope to be members of the 10 Wards for the Saskatoon Public Schools board, with five running unopposed.
Clark declines to run
In January, Charlie Clark announced he wouldn't be running for a third term as mayor. He cited two reasons for his decision.
Clark said he had only a "brief period of time to experience being a parent who is also not a public figure," and that he didn't get into civic politics to make it a career. But, he said, after 18 years on council, "I can tell it was time for a new chapter in my life, and I honestly don't know what that is yet."
