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Clugston will serve second term, new faces elected to city council

Oct 16, 2017 | 9:41 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Mayor-Elect Ted Clugston calls the 2017 civic election his ‘redemption’.

“This says to me that ‘yeah, we gave you a chance the first time we elected you mayor but we kind of maybe liked the job that you did and we’re going to give you another go at it’,” he said after making his speech Monday night at the Beveridge Building downtown.

At 9 o’clock Monday night, CHAT News declared Clugston would serve a second term as mayor.

Numbers show Clugston had more than 56 per cent of the vote, coming in well ahead of former alderman John Hamill.

“I got around, talked to as many people, a lot of people showed a lot of support,” Hamill said upon hearing the news. “It’s always difficult to beat the incumbent, but we gave him a good run. I think I had him worried.”

Scott Raible finished in third place and Thomas Fougere rounding out the race with just under 500 votes.

Voters also elected a few new faces to city council.

“Just listening to people, everybody’s got a different perspective of the city,” said Kris Samraj, who ended up with the highest vote total among new councillors. “And then door knocking. You get to see all these different parts of the city that maybe you haven’t seen before.”

Samraj, running for his first term, received the highest vote-getter among new candidates, with 7,619 votes, enough for second place.

“I can’t believe it was 10 years ago, but I’m feeling very refreshed, I’m ready to go,” said Darren Hirsch, who previously served on council from 2004-2007. “[I have] a fire to get some things done in a well respected council and I think we’re going to have some good dialogue and some good debate, which I think is very much needed.”

Phil Turnbull is also back on council after running for mayor in 2013. 

“No one is going to silence me. I will ask the tough questions,” he said. “I will be a bear, an absolute bear when it comes to asking why do we do things the same way.”

The three new faces also bump out Les Pearson and Bill Cocks.

“No hard feelings,” Cocks said. “It was a fair campaign, it was a clean campaign and I just wish I’d been able to gather a few more votes.”

Now, council will focus on getting back to business.

“In the end, we have eight people who are now going to have to work together again, with the same mayor, and I’m confident with his leadership and our desire to work together collaboratively, we’re going to be able to get the job done,” said incumbent Robert Dumanowski, who received the most votes among council candidates.

With all polls reporting, Robert Dumanowski was once again the top vote getter, and will sit for a sixth term. He received 8356.

Julie Friesen will sit for a seventh term, receiving 7,056 votes for fourth place.

Jim Turner, elected for the first time in 2013, received 6,393 votes, enough for sixth place.

Brian Varga was also re-elected with 6,115 votes, and is currently in seventh place.

Finally, Councillor Jamie McIntosh earned the eighth seat on council, with 6,083 votes.

“After having done [the job as mayor] for four years, I feel that now we can really move forward,” Clugston added.