Cynthia Block elected as Saskatoon's next mayor
After 2 terms as city councillor, Block becomes 1st woman to lead city hall
Cynthia Block will be the first woman to serve as Saskatoon's mayor.
Block defeated four other candidates in a wide-open race, with outgoing Mayor Charlie Clark not seeking re-election.
With 82 of 82 polls reporting, Block had received 30,412 votes. Former Saskatchewan Party MLA Gordon Wyant was in second with 20,259 votes and former Saskatoon mayor Don Atchison sat in third with 10,460 votes.
Block arrived at city hall Wednesday night after 11 p.m. CST to claim her victory as mayor-elect.
"I am honoured," Block said when asked how she feels about being the first woman elected mayor in Saskatoon. "I think representation matters. I want every woman and girl to know that they can lead.… But ultimately, I think that what connected most with residents in this campaign had to do with the vision of our city."
Block also thanked the "strong group of women that led many aspects of [her] campaign."
First elected to Saskatoon city council in 2016, Block spent two terms representing Ward 6 before announcing her run for mayor. The former journalist also ran for the Liberal Party in the 2015 federal election.
"This isn't my victory," Block said Wednesday night. "This is Saskatoon's victory. Saskatoon has chosen a city for all people. They want a modern 21st century city that's moving forward, not backward. A city with that is increasingly representative of places around the world."
Block's campaign focused on the economy and housing, and did not shy away from her record on city council. She touted her support for securing $41 million from Ottawa's Housing Accelerator Fund and said she'll continue to support LINK, the bus rapid transit system.
Block is very familiar with the downtown arena project, as she was city council's strategic lead for the Downtown Event and Entertainment District development.
Block often cited her promise to create a task force focused on homelessness and community safety. She also said the city needs more enhanced and basic shelter spaces and should establish 24-hour drop-in centres.
On the economy, Block promised to create a new tax sub class for small businesses and streamline permitting and licensing aided by a new business connection hub to help business owners navigate city hall.
Block also said she will push for new incentives targeting repairs of affordable rental units, lobby the province to change the Saskatchewan Income Support program and lobby the federal government to put more money into homelessness.
Block defeated four other candidates running for mayor: Wyant, Atchison, Carry Tarasoff and Mike Harder
In 2020, outgoing mayor Charlie Clark won his second term with 46.61 per cent of the vote. Rob Norris was second that year with 25.98 per cent of votes, while Atchison came in third with 19.96 per cent of votes.
In 2020, voter turnout hit 27.41 per cent, a big drop from the 40.09 per cent turnout in the 2016 election.
City councillors
Saskatoon elected six new city councillors and re-elected four incumbents.
In Ward 1, Kathryn MacDonald beat Kevin Boychuk 1,808 to 1,756 votes, with incumbent Darren Hill in third with 1,453 votes.
The new Ward 2 councillor is Senos Timon, who defeated five other candidates.
Robert Pearce won the Ward 3 race with 2,553 votes over Mike San Miguel's 2,242. Devyn Gregoire finished third.
Ward 4 incumbent Troy Davies easily won re-election, taking 3,144 votes to defeat Courtney Saliken and Numaan Shafqat.
Voters sent incumbent Randy Donauer back to council to represent Ward 5. First elected in a 2010 byelection, Donauer defeated four other candidates.
Ward 6 voters chose Jasmin Parker as their new councillor over four other candidates, including former city councillor Terry Alm. Parker won with 3,456 votes.
In Ward 7, Holly Kelleher won a council seat with 2,672 votes. She defeated three other candidates.
Scott Ford secured enough votes in a crowded field to win the Ward 8 seat. He defeated seven other candidates with 2,203 votes.
Incumbent councillors Bev Dubois (Ward 9) and Zach Jeffries (Ward 10) were acclaimed. Dubois heads into her sixth term as a city councillor. She was first elected as Ward 10 councillor in 2003. She lost the 2012 election to Jeffries, but came back to council after winning Ward 9 in the 2016 election. Jeffries enters his fourth term as Ward 10 city councillor.
Councillors who did not seek reelection include Hilary Gough (Ward 2), David Kirton (Ward 3), Mairin Loewen (Ward 7) and Sarina Gersher (Ward 8).
As of April, the mayor's salary is $165,365 and each councillor makes $76,068.
What's ahead
The new city council will take over stewardship of several significant projects that got underway during the previous term: the new downtown arena and entertainment district, construction of a new library, and development of LINK, the bus rapid transit system.
Community safety, an affordable housing crunch and policing consumed a lot of the attention of the previous city council, and those issues aren't going away. The ongoing debates around the Emergency Wellness Centre in the Fairhaven neighbourhood and the new downtown shelter will also be on council's agenda.
Outgoing Ward 7 councillor Mairin Loewen said on CBC News's live election special that the new city council won't have much time to celebrate before the work begins. The new councillors have a short window for orientation and then the 2025 budget to consider.
"Council will need to start making decisions for 2025 within the first four weeks of their having been sworn in," Loewen said.
Every council must learn to work together or risk wasting opportunities, she added.
"One thing a lot of us said about the previous council was that even though we were sort of characterized as being a divided council with a lot of close votes, it was a council that worked very well together and was able to spend most of our time focusing on the issues," she said.
"It takes time to sort of build up those relationships and figuring out how you want to work together to try to achieve your various goals and the commitments that you've made to your residents."
Council must also learn to work with a new provincial government that is leaning heavily on its rural base. The Saskatchewan Party government lost all but one seat in Saskatoon and Regina in last month's provincial election.
Momentum behind big projects like the downtown arena and LINK transit system will be hard to reverse, even if some of the winning candidates campaigned on scrapping them, Loewen said.
"I think you might see some candidates try to rescind or reconsider decisions of a previous council, but I'm not confident that that will ultimately win the day," she said. "You have to think of an alternative if you're not going to proceed with these things."
School board elections
Each ward also votes for a Saskatoon Public School Board trustee. Five candidates were acclaimed. The new public school trustees are:
- Ward 1 - Tanya Napper.
- Ward 2 - Vernon Linklater (acclaimed).
- Ward 3 - Donna Banks (acclaimed).
- Ward 4 - Kim Stranden (acclaimed).
- Ward 5 - Jennifer Scherman.
- Ward 6 - Kirk Jones.
- Ward 7 - Ross Tait (acclaimed).
- Ward 8 - Anne-Marie Rollo.
- Ward 9 - Kevin Schmidt.
- Ward 10 - Angela Arneson (acclaimed).
The Catholic Separate School Board election featured a list of 23 candidates vying for seven trustee seats. Voters from across the city vote for their preferred seven names, with wards not a part of the race.
The seven people elected in the separate school board race were:
- Diane Boyko.
- Owen Fortosky.
- J.R. (Ron) Boechler.
- Sharon Zakreski-Werbicki.
- Tim Jelinski.
- Kate Day (Nee McGettigan).
- Michelle Christopher.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
