SASKATOON — The City Council is set to take their oath of office on Wednesday, Nov. 20, one week after the Civic Elections that made Cynthia Block Saskatoon’s first female mayor. There will be six new faces as council members.
Troy Davies (Ward 4) and Randy Donauer (Ward 5) successfully won their re-election bids, while Bev Dubois (Ward 9) and Zach Jeffries (Ward) were acclaimed after there were no challengers for their respective posts.
Kathryn MacDonald (Ward 1), Senos Timon (Ward 2), Robert Pearce (Ward 3), Jasmin Parker (Ward 6), Holly Kelleher (Ward 7), and Scott Ford (Ward 8) are the new Council members. Senos, who emigrated from South Sudan in 20000, could also be the first African elected.
Elected to the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Separate School Board Trustees are Diane Boyko, Owen Fortosky, J.R. (Ron) Boechler, Sharon Zakreski-Werbicki, Tim Jelinski, Kate Day (nee McGettigan), and Michelle Christopher.
Tanya Napper (Ward 1), Jennifer Scherman (Ward 5), Kirk Jones (Ward 6), Anne-Marie Rollo (Ward 8), Kevin Schmidt (Ward 9), and Angela Arneson (Ward 10) are the elected Saskatoon Public School Board Trustees.
Vernon J. Linklater (Ward 2), Donna Banks (Ward 3), Kim Stranden (Ward 4), and Ross Tait (Ward 7) were acclaimed to the SPS board with no contest.
All winners will be made official once Returning Officer Shellie Bryant certifies the results on Wednesday before all the elected members take their oath.
Block finished with 30,412 votes in a five-way mayoralty race, beating former Saskatchewan Party MLA Gordon Wyant by over 10,000 votes. She represented Ward 6 for two terms in the City Council, first elected in 2016 to replace outgoing Mayor Charlie Clark.
Clark, who served in the City Council for 10 years before being elected mayor in 2016, where he beat four-term and then incumbent Don Atchison, decided not to seek a third term to spend more time with his family.
Elections Saskatoon reported 68.701 votes were cast for this Civic Election, or 35.04 per cent an increase of 7.63 per cent four years ago. Voter turnout in 2020 was at 27.41 per cent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elections Saskatoon had various options—advance polls, drive-thru voting, post-secondary polls, mobile polls for homebound voters, special polls, hospital voting, mail-in ballot, and election day voting—for residents to cast their votes and even had free Saskatoon Transit rides.
