Nolan Crouse won a third term as mayor, edging his sole challenger Shelley Biermanski by 1,839 votes Monday night.
Nolan Crouse won a third term as mayor, edging his sole challenger Shelley Biermanski by 1,839 votes Monday night.
Crouse will be joined on council by incumbents Cathy Heron and Cam MacKay, the two strongest vote getters among council candidates, with 10,268 and 9,101, respectively.
Newcomers to council are Sheena Hughes (7,128) and Tim Osborne (6,949). Incumbent Wes Brodhead made the cut with 6,879 votes followed by newcomer Gilles Prefontaine with 6,375.
Missing the cut is one-term incumbent Malcolm Parker, as well as Bob Russell, David Climenhaga, Ted Durham, Gareth Jones, John Goldsmith, Mark Cassidy, Roger Bradley, Hughena Burke and Norm Harley.
The mayoral race featured the same two opponents as in 2010, when Crouse won by 5,800 votes.
"I'm really pleased at the fact that the positive message continues to be told," Crouse said in an interview at his results party at the St. Albert Inn and Suites.
When asked about his 10 per cent margin of victory – a smaller margin than in 2010 – Crouse said the community has given him another four year mandate no matter what the spread. He also noted that the new council is a young one.
"That's probably the most striking thing about it," Crouse said, looking at the white board which was used to display results. "It's a very young council. I'm the oldest."
Cathy Heron led all councillors just as she did in 2010.
"It makes me feel like I did something right," she said.
Heron had said at the beginning of the evening that she was nervous. When it was over she said she was "overjoyed" to win a second term. She said with her experience now, she can jump into council work "with two feet."
"I think we're going to have to build some bridges," she said of the new council.
Sheena Hughes, who came in third, said she's excited to have won a seat and is looking forward to the next four years.
"I'm humbled," she said of having so many people support her.
First up will be budget, and Hughes said council will have to evaluate it and try and make some positive changes. She said she's looking forward to meeting with the rest of the newly-elected council.
Wes Brodhead said he was "relieved" to be re-elected.
"I've got more votes than I did the last time," Brodhead said. "Being re-elected is a reaffirmation of my body of work."
Brodhead said the tone of the election - especially focus on city spending - is a head's up to council that they need to be fiscally responsible.
Gilles Prefontaine arrived at the St. Albert Inn and Suites results party after the results were in.
"I knew it was going to be tight," Prefontaine said, who came in sixth. "I was obviously pleased to be elected."
Tim Osborne said he'd been "feeling pretty good" about his chances. Now that he's been elected, he said he'll start doing the blog post he promised during the campaign, detailing summaries of council agenda items for the public.
First up will be "learning," he said.
"It's a new role," Osborne said, noting budget will be the first big thing council will tackle.
"It's going to be a challenge and I'm ready for it."
Public school board
Leading the way for the public school board was Glenys Edwards with 6,134 votes. She was followed by Cheryl Dumont (5,539), Gerry Martins (5,223) and Sheri Wright (5,202) and Kim Bugeaud (4,790.)
Merrin Nuc missed out with 3,361 votes.
Catholic school board
In the race for the four St. Albert seats on the Catholic school board, Joan Crockett led the way with 3,786, followed by Dave Caron (3,727), Serena Shaw (3,103) and Rosaleen McEvoy (3,064.)
On the outside looking in are Cathie Sarafinchan (2,526) and Vince Schiller (2,160.)
Voter turnout was 38.1 per cent, reported the City of St. Albert.
