With 31 candidates running for nine council seats, voter turnout for the 2021 Lac La Biche County municipal election was expected to continue on a steady increase — and it was.
Acccording to official results approved by municipal election officials on Friday, the October 18 Lac La Biche County election saw one of the highest voter turnouts in recent history. Municipal officials say 3,290 voters out of an eligible 5,890 residents currently living in the municipality cast ballots in the election. The high number translates to 62 per cent of eligible voters.
The 2013 municipal election saw just 37 per cent of eligible voters at the ballot boxes. The total voter turnout for the 2017 election was estimated at 3,847, or 51.6 per cent of eligible voters in the municipality at that time.
In the 2017 election, approximately 3,500 votes were cast in the mayoral race between eventual winner Omer Moghrabi and candidate Gail Broadbent-Ludwig. Moghrabi received 2,099 of the total votes.
Of the 31 candidates in the 2021 Lac La Biche County election, all nine incumbents from the previous term chose to run again.
The 2017 vote for Ward 1, which saw three candidate running, drew 382 total votes. Darlene Beniuk received 170 of those votes for the win. The 2021 vote had six candidates, including the incumbent, vying for the county seat. Beniuk took the seat with only 83 votes cast for her out of the 364 total votes. Beniuk's 83 vote win was within 20 votes of three other candidates in the ward.
In Ward 2 in the 2017 vote, five candidates drew 500 voters, with George L'Heureux taking 169 of them for the win. L'Heureux's victory was a narrow one, just nine votes more than the 160 earned by runner-up Richard Mahe. The 2021 election in Ward 2 had four candidates running, minus L'Heureux who decided to run for mayor. Newly elected Kevin Pare won with 282 votes out of 492 ballots cast.
The Ward 3 vote in 2017 attracted 477 votes, with Colette Borgun taking 329, more than doubling up on her opponent Nikola Skorohodov. In the 2021 election, with no other candidates running in the ward, Borgun was acclaimed to the council seat.
Ward 4 in the 2017 vote saw Jason Stedman win the seat with 194 of the 401 votes cast in the three-person race. Stedman was again voted in as the ward's councillor in this election, taking 210 of the 361 votes cast in the four-person race.
Charlyn Moore was acclaimed to her Ward 5 seat in the 2017 election. This year, Moore and Terry Colosimo had one of the municipality's closest races, with Moore taking 221 votes to Colosimo's 208.
The Owl River area Ward 6 vote in 2017 saw newcomer Sterling Johnson easily take the seat, securing 254 of the 403 votes split between six candidates. The 2021 results also showed Johnson as the clear winner, taking 234 of the 337 votes cast in the three-person race.
The Ward 7 vote, electing two councilllors for the hamlet of Lac La Biche, garnered the most voter turnout of the wards in 2017, with 1,684 votes cast. The 2017 vote in Ward 7 was also one of the closest results of that election, with five of the eight candidates finishing within 65 votes of the 225 that saw Colin Cote elected. Candidate Lorin Tkachuk notched 465 of the total vote to be elected as the other ward council representative. This time around, Tkachuk was voted back into his seat, with 334 votes — more than 100 fewer than the previous election. Newcomer John Mondal was elected as the second councillor for the ward, taking 295 votes. Cote was voted out of his seat, earning 216 votes. The total voter turnout for Ward 7 saw 330 less ballots cast for seven candidates in the 2021 vote compared to 2017
Repeat Ward 7 candidates
Of the eight candidates running for Ward 7 in the 2017 vote, five — including Cote and Tkachuk — also entered the 2021 vote. In the 2017 vote, Brian Deheer received 160 votes. He received 89 in the 2021 vote. John Nowak took 161 in 2017 and 148 this election. Dan Anderson received 216 in 2017 and 149 in the 2021 vote.
Lac La Biche County councillors will be sworn into their council seats at a ceremony at the start of the coming week.
