New faces among elected mayors in 5 N.W.T. communities
Mayor and council results for Hay River, Fort Simpson, Inuvik, Fort Smith and Norman Wells
In communities across the Northwest Territories, voters cast their ballots for council and mayoral candidates on Monday.
Three new mayors were elected and one acclaimed, while Lynn Napier-Buckley was re-elected as the mayor of Fort Smith.
Below are the mayoral and council election results from Hay River, Fort Simpson, Inuvik, Fort Smith and Norman Wells.
Hay River
In Hay River, Kandis Jameson was previously acclaimed as the new mayor.
Nine candidates vied for the eight councillor spots in the community. While the results for council are in, there will be a recount Tuesday for the three candidates with the fewest votes.
Under the Local Authorities Elections Act, a recount is automatically triggered when two or more candidates are divided by four or fewer votes. If Monday's results hold after the recount, Sandra Lester will be the candidate on the outside looking in.
- Steve Anderson (incumbent) with 809 votes
- Linda Duford with 725 votes
- Keith Dohey (incumbent) with 655 votes
- Robert Bouchard with 631 votes
- (Mary) Emily Chambers with 617 votes
- Brian Willows with 576 votes
- Jeffrey Groenewegen with 454 votes
- Joseph Melanson with 452 votes
- Sandra Lester with 451 votes
Fort Simpson
In Fort Simpson, Sean Whelly was elected as the mayor with 239 votes. Patrick Rowe came in a close second with 203 votes.
Eight councillors were also elected from 10 candidates:
- Muaz Hassan (incumbent) with 340 votes
- Troy Bellefontaine with 334 votes
- Liza McPherson (incumbent) with 316 votes
- Marie Lafferty (incumbent) with 282 votes
- Michael Rowe (incumbent) with 236 votes
- Celine Antoine with 231 votes
- Kirby Groat with 212 votes
- Clayton Moreau with 212 votes
Inuvik
In Inuvik, Natasha Kulikowski was elected as the new mayor with 563 votes. Vince Sharpe received 176 votes.
Kulikowski said she is excited to take on the role, noting she is the first female mayor elected in Inuvik since she was born in the community in 1982.
"I'm happy we had a great voter turnout, I'm happy to see how the numbers came in and super excited to represent Inuvik and do great things for the community," she said.
Kulikowksi said her first step in the new role will be getting to know the new councillors. She said they need to focus on keeping the lines of communication open with other groups in Inuvik.
All eight Inuvik councillors were acclaimed:
- Steven Baryluk (deputy mayor, incumbent)
- Desmond Loreen
- Gary McBride
- Paul MacDonald
- Alana Mero (incumbent)
- Raygan Solotki
- Kurt Wainman (incumbent)
- Clarence Wood (incumbent)
Fort Smith
Lynn Napier-Buckley has been re-elected mayor of Fort Smith, with 437 votes. Brad Brake received 254 votes, and Don Matthews received 61 votes.
In an interview with CBC News, Napier-Buckley said she was "excited" and identified her top priority as fighting for Aurora College.
"I'm very glad for the opportunity to represent Fort Smith and to fight for Fort Smith for the next three years and to do great things for our community with the new council," she said.
She said other top issues she hopes to address include reclamation work from the landslide, downtown development and recreation centre renovations.
Eight councillors were elected from fourteen candidates:
- Jessica Cox with 583 votes
- Ann Pischinger with 557 votes
- Bob McArthur (incumbent) with 521 votes
- Chris Westwell with 521 votes
- Kevin Smith with 478 votes
- Kevin Campbell with 392 votes
- Mike Couvrette with 358 votes
- Louise Beaulieu with 349 votes
Norman Wells
A year after the territorial government dissolved the town council in Norman Wells, N.W.T., voters have elected a new mayor and six new councillors.
Frank Pope has been elected mayor with 200 votes. Harry Cassie, who received 35 votes, and Timothy L. Melnyk, who received 61 votes, had also vied for the top spot.
Pope said council will begin training and then "get down to the business of making this town the way we used to have it, a great place to live, raise a family and to go to work."
As mayor, he said he wants to be open and transparent, get public input on committee initiatives and put out newsletters.
"There's a lot ahead of us, I would say the first thing I want to really do over the next period of time is get the community back saying 'council are there for us,'" he said.
"That's what I'm there for to make sure that we have the community's support in a lot of the initiatives we get involved with."
Six councillors have been elected from 15 candidates:
- Pascal Audet with 202 votes
- Jean-Paul Bernard with 200 votes
- James (Jim) Boyle with 125 votes
- Alexis Peachey with 168 votes
- Trevor Smith with 140 votes
- David Wever with 114 votes
With files from Jamie Malbeuf, Mackenzie Scott and Katie Toth