Creighton, Denare Beach elect incumbent-heavy councils, all-new school board

The votes have been counted. Creighton and Denare Beach have elected two local councils and a school board, with a mix of familiar and fresh faces.

Voters cast ballots Nov. 13 in elections for Creighton town council, Denare Beach village council and for the board of trustees for the Creighton School Division. While the vote ended Wednesday night, full results were shared Thursday.

Creighton council

Creighton's next council will look much the same as its last council, with one new face to replace councillor Colleen Stallard, who did not run for reelection. All five candidates running for reelection earned their spots back.

Neal Andrusiak, Kory Eastman, Darren Grant, Dan Hlady and Anita Rainville, all incumbents, will be joined on council by Jenn Johnsgaard.

Grant led the way in the voting with a commanding 193 of 229 total votes - almost 85 per cent of total votes cast had Grant's name on them. Following him was Hlady, who received 179 votes, then Eastman and his 175 votes. Rainville got 170 votes, while Andrusiak took on 167 votes.

With the one spot still left up for grabs, Johnsgaard received 150 votes to Courtney Biberdorf's 106, giving Johnsgaard the final spot left on the council.

The five incumbents and Johnsgaard will join Mayor Bruce Fidler on council, who earned a seventh consecutive term as mayor. Fidler will start his seventh term as mayor, having run unopposed every time. Fidler has occupied the mayor’s chair in Creighton since 2003 and has served on Creighton council since 1994.

Denare Beach

In Denare Beach, the new council will include four incumbent councillors and a pair of new faces. The top two vote-getters, Jesse Madarash and Bruce Ritchie, will serve on council for the first time. Incumbent councillors Nicole Bayless, Dale Holmgren, Beverly Wheeler and Karen Thomson also earned spots on council - one incumbent councillor, Frank Wiegers, came up short of the threshold to return.

Madarash and Ritchie both received 153 of 232 total votes cast in the election, just under two-thirds of all combined ballots. The two newcomers were the only candidates to clear 50 per cent of all votes cast.

Bayless received 114 votes in total to come third, while Holmgren earned 110 votes. Wheeler received 108 votes and Thomson picked up the final council seat with 105 votes.

The race for the final council seat was a close one. Alannah Skot narrowly missed the final spot on council with 101 votes, coming up just four shy of a tie with Thomson and five shy of earning a seat outright. Wiegers picked up 100 votes, missing out on reelection by just six votes. Jennifer Hysert received 97 votes, also missing out on a seat by less than 10 votes. Paul Trottier, a former councillor, received 55 votes in total.

All six will work closely with Mayor Carl Lentowicz, who ran unopposed. It will be Lentowicz’ tenth term in the mayor’s chair in Denare Beach, having served in that position since 1997 - if he serves out his full four-year term, Lentowicz will have been Denare Beach’s mayor for over 30 consecutive years.

Creighton school board

The biggest election by candidate number and votes cast was the one for the Creighton School Division board of trustees, where 13 candidates ran for just four seats on the five-person board. When the dust settled, voters elected a completely different board from the previous one, with neither of the two incumbents running winning seats.

By the time all votes were tabulated Thursday afternoon, Tracy Andrusiak, Mel Durette, Lisa Linnick and Meredith Norman stood as the elected board of the division. Norman led all candidates in votes, with her name on 196 of 463 ballots.

The election saw 10 of 13 candidates finish with over a hundred votes, with another close race for the final seat. Behind Norman was Andrusiak, who received the second-most votes - 173 in total - with Linnick third with 167 votes. The final seat went to Durette, who had 141 votes. The closest candidate to the board was Shannon Anaka, who had 137 votes in total - just four shy of a tie with Durette.

Behind Anaka was Crystal Banting, who had 132 votes, followed by Joleen Rossington (127), Donna Ferguson Anaka (126) and Wally Olson (122). Lacy Hynes had 101 votes in total, followed by incumbent Janet Clark (81 votes), Cari McLean (69 votes) and Amanda Gauthier (68 votes).

While Olson wasn't elected in the general vote, he will end up on the five-person board. Olson was chosen Thursday as Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation's (PBCN) representative on the board - PBCN appoints a representative to the board following each election. 

Together, Andrusiak, Durette, Linnick, Norman and Olson will serve alongside Creighton School Division director of education Steve Lytwyn and oversee operations at Creighton Community School, which offers Kindergarten-Grade 12 classes for kids from Creighton and nearby communities. The school has a total enrollment of 463 students this year - the same as the number of voters who cast ballots in the election, according to the Creighton School Division.