Saskatoon votes: Who's running in the civic election?

Saskatoon's civic election is inching closer, as candidates are now finalized ahead of voting day on Nov. 13.

The nomination period ended Wednesday, but councillors had until Thursday afternoon to drop out of the race.

Returning officer Shellie Bryant says now that nominations have closed, the hard work continues with mail-in ballot applications due by Oct. 15 and advanced polls beginning across the city on Nov. 1.

"Now is what we call crunch time. We’re, I think, 33, 34 days away from the actual election. We've got advance polls coming up on November 1st … we're in the process of training all the workers right now this week, next week and the week after," she said. "So yeah, it's go time."

Saskatoon is set for plenty of change for the 2024 election. This is the first election since 1988 with an open seat for mayor, after Charlie Clark followed Cliff Wright in not seeking re-election while in office, and there will be at least four new faces on council, with many councillors deciding not to run again.

Hilary Gough, David Kirton, Mairin Loewen and Sarina Gersher all decided not to seek re-election, and Cynthia Block has left Ward 6 an open race as she vies for the mayor's chair.

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In the midst of this dramatic turnover, Councillors Bev Dubois and Zach Jeffries will be back on council after running unopposed this time around.

There are five candidates campaigning for mayor and an additional 40 candidates running for various wards. Ward 8 leads the way with eight candidates in the race for that seat.

Including public and separate school board trustees, Bryant says there were just over 60 candidates in 2020. This year, that number has jumped to 93.

"It's a lot of candidates," Bryant said. "So it's a good selection for people to choose."

As Bryant and her staff test equipment and ramp up efforts, the next milestone for voters is the advance polls, which run from Nov. 1 to Nov. 4, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., with one location in each ward across the city. Voting day is on Nov. 13.

Here are all the candidates running in the 2024 civic election as of Thursday afternoon:

Mayor:

Don Atchison

Cynthia Block

Mike Harder

Cary Tarasoff

Gordon Wyant

 

City Councillor – Ward 1:

Kevin Boychuk

Dallas Burnett

Darren Hill

Kathryn MacDonald

Russel Nadin

 

City Councillor – Ward 2:

Franklin Arthurs

Jean Beliveau

Janna Horn

Fraser Kent

Karen Kobussen

Senos Timon

 

City Councillor – Ward 3:

Devyn Gregoire

Robert Pearce

Mike San Miguel

 

City Councillor – Ward 4:

Troy Davies

Courtney Saliken

Numaan Shafqat

 

City Councillor – Ward 5:

Randy Donauer

Kyla Kitzul

Tyler Knihnitski

Nick Prytula

David Prokopchuk

 

City Councillor – Ward 6:

Terry Alm

Tony Bassett

Terry Hoknes

Jasmin Parker

Jonathan Naylor

 

City Councillor – Ward 7:

Edward Agbai

Holly Kelleher

Jamie Kirkpatrick

Justin Wiens

 

City Councillor – Ward 8:

Darren Abrey

Henry Tsz Lok Chan

Scott Ford

Prathamesh Kale

Ron Mantyka

Malvina Rapko

Peggy Schmeiser

Kevin Zarycki

 

City Councillor – Ward 9:

Bev Dubois

 

City Councillor – Ward 10:

Zach Jeffries

 

Trustee – Separate School:

J.R. (Ron) Boechler

Diane Boyko

Hudson Byblow

Erik Carey

Dana A. Case

Michelle Christopher

Tanya Clarke

Kate Day (nee McGettigan)

Brett Florizone

Jacqueline Gress

Kim Hoffart

Tim Jelinski

Chelsea Jukes

Shane Keating

Richard Kolla

Erin Lockert

Myron Luczka

Annette Mireau

Sandra Molyneux

Eric Olauson

Mike St. Amand

Sharon Zakreski-Werbicki

Owen Fortosky

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 1:

Jennifer Barrett

Tanya Napper

Zach Nelson

Palash Sanyal

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 2:

Vernon J. Linklater

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 3:

Donna Banks

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 4:

Kim Stranden

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 5:

Debbie Miket

Darcy Overland

Jennifer Scherman

Mitchell Sepke

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 6:

Kirk Jones

Gretchen Peterson

Doug Porteous

Kath Stevenson

Lia Storey-Gamble

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 7:

Ross Tait

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 8:

Connie Kocsis

Lindsay Olver

Anne-Marie Rollo

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 9:

Robin Bellamy

Kevin Schmidt

Nadine Zettl

 

Trustee – Public School – Ward 10:

Angela Arneson