Incumbent Mayor Omer Moghrabi will be joined by an entirely new set of councillors, as the most competitive election in the county’ s history saw a nest cleaning of the house.
Incumbent Mayor Omer Moghrabi will be joined by an entirely new set of councillors, as the most competitive election in the county’ s history saw a nest cleaning of the house.
The mayor-elect was re-elected by almost 700 votes ahead of Gail Broadbent-Ludwig. Darlene Beniuk, George L’ Heureux, Colette Borgun, Jason Stedman, Charlyn Moore, Sterling Johnson, Colin Cote and Lorin Tkachuk will join him in council.
“There were cheers around the room once it was declared,” said Moghrabi, who was celebrating the victory with a group of a few dozen supporters at Tara’ s Pizza in the Bold Center. “There was a great feeling of relief.”
The mayor-elect said that he’ s excited to have an entirely new council, though Moghrabi said there would also likely be some hiccups.
“The council will be fine,” he said. “They will get proper training mandated by the [Municipal Government Act] and we’ ll learn together.”
Of the three incumbents that ran, none of them finished as runner-ups in their wards in this election.
This was the most competitive election by number of candidates since the amalgamation of Lac La Biche with Lakeland County in 2007. There were 31 candidates competing for every seat except Ward 5, which was won by acclamation by Moore.
There was also more interest in the election by the voters. With more than 3,500 votes cast for mayor in this election, that was nearly 1,000 votes more than what was cast in 2013 and the 2014 byelection for mayor, which saw Moghrabi get elected to his first term.
Mayor Moghrabi said that the agenda that got him and most of the new blood in council elected would be first on the agenda of the new municipal government.
“We’ ll be working on some of the things brought up during the campaign, such as development, infrastructure and expanding tourism,” he said. “A lot of the things that were brought up by most of the candidates.”
The county will not release the official results until Oct. 20 at noon. The new council will be sworn in just before a meeting on Oct. 24.
The Lakeland Catholic School District and Northern Lights Public School board seats were all won by acclamation.
Results
Mayor
Omer Moghrabi (incumbent)-2,099
Gail Broadbent-Ludwig-1,407
Ward 1
Wanda Austin (incumbent)-89
Darlene Beniuk-170
Dixie Dunham-17
Alvin Kumpula-106
Ward 2
JodyMae Brown-103
George Buchanan-28
Arina Konev-40
George L’ Heureux-169
Richard Mahe-160
Ward 3
Colette Borgun-329
Nikola Skorohodov-148
Ward 4
David Phillips (incumbent)-67
Jason Stedman-194
Randy Zevola-140
Ward 5
Charlyn Moore - acclaimed
Ward 6
Kent William Davidson-14
Perry Eastman-46
Sterling Johnson-254
Cody Leach-65
Sandra Makokis-18
Darryl Montgomery-6
Ward 7
Dan Anderson-215
Bess Bliss-46
Cliff Chamberlin-211
Colin Cote-224
Brian Deheer-160
John Mondal-200
John Nowak (incumbent)-161
Lorin Tkachuk-465
