We take a look at each of the six new Moose Jaw City Councillors after Wednesday's civic election. The new council will be sworn in November 6th.

 

It was a long campaign with 22 candidates all looking for one out of a possible six seats. Toss in 6 incumbents and things get a little complicated. But when all is said and done we now have some new faces at City Hall thanks to Wednesday's Civic Election in Moose Jaw.

Darin Chow, Al Schwinghamer, Brian Swanson, Dawn Luhning, Mary-Dell Findlay, and Regina Sagal-Hendry now form the new city council in Moose Jaw under the guidance of Mayor Dale McBain.

Chow took a break to try his hand at provincial politics, but was unsuccessful. 3 years later he's back on Moose Jaw City Council.

Chow received 5764 votes, more than any other council candidate did. "I'm certainly surprised by the support but happy. Its nice to know that many people had the confidence in my to vote."

Chow says the first thing he wants to do is get up to speed with members of the administration on projects currently on the go in Moose Jaw and then with fellow councillors and the mayor on developing a team atmosphere.

Former Mayor Al Schwinghamer placed second in the council election this week with 4642 votes.

Schwinghamer decided to run for council instead of mayor due to health issues. Earlier this year he announced to 800 CHAB News he was battling prostate cancer. Running for council was a way to slowly move towards retirement.

"I'm certainly pleased that I still have the community support and I'm humbled that the people still support me the way they have. I know we have the opportunity here to get a really good, positive, cohesive working group out of this council that can once again start moving Moose Jaw forward."

Brian Swanson is also returning for another term on city council after finishing with 4402 votes in the election, good enough for third place. "I'm still trying to figure out what it all means. I know most everybody there so its going to be interesting to see how everything plays out and hopefully everything will turn out right for Moose Jaw."

71 per cent of voters supported the city's 15 million-dollar commitment to the multiplex project in Wednesday's vote, something we discussed with Swanson following the election. "I know that the multiplex is not financially viable the way it's modeled now and I thought I tried to explain that as best I could and yet it received overwhelming support so I don't know how to read that one."

Another incumbent back for another three years will be Dawn Luhning, one of three women on this new council. Luhning was the first woman to sit on council for 12 years in Moose Jaw and is pleased to be sitting with three this term. "Its just super and when you look at the statistics across the province and nationally we don't have fair representation from our population because there's only like 12 per cent nationally (women) that run for these positions."

Luhning decided to run for council again because she felt that there was some unfinished business to deal with. "I'm for the multiplex but I simply want to see it done properly. It’s a big project for the city and an expensive project for the city and I want to see it move forward so that we are planning properly for the generations to come. We can't just plan for 10 years down the road. Its got to be 25, 30, 40 or even 50 years down the road."

The fifth person to be elected to this new council admits she didn't really expect to win but she's more than ready to serve.

Mary-Dell Findlay was elected to Moose Jaw City Council on Wednesday finishing with 3449 votes.

The retired nurse and a tireless community volunteer is hoping to change the lack of team work that was pointed out by outgoing council members. "I've worked with Dale, Regina and Dawn on committees and they've always worked well and I've worked with Al and I can't see any reason that we can't work well together."

It was a squeaker and down to the last poll, but Regina Sagal-Hendry is our last of 6 Moose Jaw City Councillors. Sagal-Hendry finished with 3355 votes, sneaking by Incumbent Tony Dreger. A recount can be conducted if a request is received.

While Sagal-Hendry awaits that word from City Hall she's prepared to serve Moose Jaw as best she can. "I think first of all we need to work as a team and I think Dale McBain should provide some real good leadership... and obviously citizens have approved the 15 million and the communiplex is going to need immediate action and study so we're going to have to get on that right away."

The new council and the new mayor will be sworn it on November 6th.