After a hard fought and heavily contested campaign the City of Dauphin has a new council in place to guide it over the next four years following polling in Manitoba’s General Municipal Election, Oct. 26.
Headed by David Bosiak as mayor, the new council features incumbents Christian Laughland, Kathy Bellemare and Devin Shtykalo, who will be joined by newcomers Steve Sobering, Randy Daley and Ted Rea.
Bosiak earned the mayor’s chair by claiming 74.14 per cent of the popular vote, a total of 1,995 votes to defeat former councillor Kerri Riehl, who earned 696 votes.
Laughland topped a field of 17 candidates vying for six council positions with 1,418 votes, followed by Sobering with 1,363 votes, Bellemare with 1,309 votes, Daley with 1,297 votes, Rea with 1,187 votes and Shtykalo with 1,176 votes.
Unsuccessful in their bids were Joe Houston, who earned a total of 997 votes, Jason Alf with 902, Patti A. Eilers with 792, Rodney P. Juba with 781, Tamara Michele with 580, Bev Sarkonak with 561, Michael Winter with 529, Ken Tarrant with 468, Gerry Wieler with 388, Sharon Riehl with 287 and Carter Taylor-Luke with 130.
The results, Bosiak, said, fit perfectly into his philosophy about bringing good people together and getting out of their way to let them do their thing.
“When you look at who was elected and their strengths and backgrounds and interests, it so well represents what I think we need to do as a community going forward,” he said. “There were others who didn’t get elected who I thought could have done a great job, but the six who did are exceptionally talented and motivated and positive thinkers. And it bodes well for us going forward.”
Eager to get started, Bosiak has already met with senior administration at city hall and has been in contact with elected officials in other area municipalities.
“I talked to a few other elected people from a few other municipalities who congratulated me, and I them. And we talked about working together as a Parkland region on a couple of things, which again just bodes well, I think,” Bosiak said, adding he is sensing an air of optimism after two years of pandemic restrictions. “I think everybody just paused during COVID, especially us with the two former mayors and the untimeliness of their passings and how that impacted us as a community. But I think that everybody is ready to move on.”
We do have to keep in mind that COVID is still with us and could once again threaten public health, we just have to be ready to deal with it, Bosiak said.
“We can’t lose sight that we are still dealing with something big, but that we are moving on and we are learning how to live in our new reality,” he said. “And I think that is a key piece of this. The pause that we had during the beginning of the pandemic, I think, is done, but us now going forward it is something we have to consider. And again, I think that the mandate we have got reflects what the community thinks, let’s think about the community and what is important to us.”
Forty-four per cent of eligible voters came out to cast a ballot, which Bosiak believes signals an optimism in the community and the desire to see positive things happening.
“Some of my shtick about forward together and us together as a team manifested. It was destiny, karma, whatever you want to call it, it’s the truth,” he said. “The resounding turnout was nice to see. The notion that people paid attention. A lot of people were not vocal about it, but they voted with their feet. They showed up and I am humbled by the support and ready to work.”
Bosiak is aware that expectations are high, his included, and he is going to remain cognizant of that and try to temper that enthusiasm.
“And ensure we are focused and, like we have done in the past, we develop priorities and pick them off one at a time,” he said. “We work on more than one at once, but we can’t do it all at once, We will understand that process and move forward.”
His goal is to eliminate that attitude that “this is Dauphin, it will never happen here, it can’t happen here.”
“Oh, yes, it can. So in the realistic sense, and it is not like we are going to shoot for the moon, but we are going to chip away and with a positive outlook on things,” Bosiak said.
There is lots of issues for the city to deal with, Bosiak added, and not all of them are favourable and positive.
“But I think the approach we will take in dealing with them is all positive. What good can come out of this? What can we do with this challenge to turn it into an opportunity or a benefit for us? So I think if there is nothing else that I am so enthusiastic about, is the approach we will take to deal with the issues facing us,” he said. “So I am just really excited, enthusiastic and motivated. I have already talked to all of the council members who got elected and we are all happy to be working together.”
