Dan Curtis elected mayor of Whitehorse

Dan Curtis will be the new mayor of Whitehorse after winning Thursday’s election.

According to the unofficial results from the City of Whitehorse, Curtis got 2,375 votes, more than double the number of votes of his next closest competitor, Rick Karp, at 1,100. Bernie Phillips finished third with 988, followed by Scott Howell at 587 and Mandeep Sidhu with 480 votes.

The new mayor said he was proud of his campaign.

"I tried to be honest with myself and the citizens of Whitehorse," he said. "I tried not to offer grandiose things that aren't attainable or possible. I'm going to work on the issues that we have and the challenges that we face."

A recount of votes for councillors may be required as Mike Gladish finished in sixth place just two votes ahead of Roslyn Woodcock. By the unofficial results, council would be made up of John Streicker, Betty Irwin, Kirk Cameron, Jocelyn Curteanu, Dave Stockdale and Mike Gladish.  

Unofficial election results pegged Whitehorse voter turnout at 43 per cent.

Results from the city were slow to come in. It was almost two hours after the polls closed that the first results began to trickle in.

Rob Fendrick, director of corporate services for the city, said part of the delay was the large voter turnout.

"There's a huge number of candidates as well, so it just takes time to count," he said. "It's a manual system and it all has to be accurate, so we strive for accuracy and not speed."

Fendrick said the city may look at a mechanical or electronic counting system in future elections.

New mayor in Dawson City

It wasn't just people in Whitehorse who had a long wait. Results from Dawson City weren't available till 11:30 last night.

When the ballot counting was complete, Wayne Potoroka had defeated Peter Jenkins 474 votes to 182. Incumbents Stephen Johnson and Bill Kendrick are returning to council. They'll be joined by Darren Taylor and Kyla MacArthur.

Richard Durocher was re-elected mayor of  Watson Lake over challenger Fred Statham. Elected to the four councillor positions are Cynthia Kearns, Thomas Slager, Tim O'Brien and Brenda Leach.

"He's fairly new to town and did an awesome campaign," Durocher said of Statham. "I think Fred has to be congratulated on the campaign he waged."

George Nassiopoulos was re-elected mayor in Haines Junction. Angie Charlebois, Michael Crawshay, Bruce Tomlin and Dave won the councillor positions.

In Faro voters re-elected Mayor Heather Campbell.

Campbell said she's looking forward to working with newly-elected councillors Mel Smith, Debbie Carreau, Heather Grantham and Harold Boehm "and getting to the issues that the public has said are important to them like Faro mine closure issues and derelict housing."

Campbell said voter turnout was high in the community.

In Carmacks, Tara Wheeler, Lee Bodie, Pat McKenny and Tracy Burns were elected to council. Incumbent Mayor Elaine Wyatt was acclaimed. 

In Teslin, incumbent mayor Clara Jules was re-elected, and Brad Stoneman, Gord Curran, Denise Johnston and Steve Kramer were elected to council.