Former mayor Pat Fiacco and outgoing city councillor Andrew Stevens are among those who’ve endorsed candidates heading into next week’s election.
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As candidates enter the final stretch before next Wednesday’s municipal election, endorsements continue to emerge for mayor, councillor and school board trustee hopefuls, with at least one ruffling some feathers.
Ward 1 candidate Dan Rashovich said Wednesday that although mailouts distributed by Advance Regina appear to endorse him, he has no affiliation with the group, nor does he want to be perceived as having any sort of connection to it.
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“Anybody can endorse anybody, but that doesn’t mean you’re affiliated or getting funding or support,” Rashovich told the Leader-Post outside city hall.
Advance Regina is an advocacy group that caught attention for its billboards lambasting the previous city council while remaining opaque about its organizers or possible ties to the Saskatchewan Party and Conservative Party of Canada.
Rashovich said the unsolicited endorsement comes from answers he provided to a survey circulated by Advance Regina, but his responses were stripped down from paragraphs to just a “yes or no” scorecard flyer recently mailed out to voters. He says the mailouts do not accurately represent his answers and rejected the apparent endorsement.
“I want people to know I am not associated,” he said.
Advance Regina has published all 10 ward scorecards and candidates’ full responses on its website, with the exception of Ward 3 and Ward 7, as no responses were received.
Also this week, former mayor Pat Fiacco endorsed current Ward 4 city councillor Lori Bresciani, who is running for mayor. Speaking at a platform launch on Tuesday, Fiacco said Bresciani’s vision to restore “community pride” and clamp down on council “dysfunction” were why he decided to stand behind her campaign.
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“No one should have their own personal agenda. When you get elected on city council, you’re there to represent,” he said. “I think Lori has the leadership to bring a new council together with the administration. We need all of those working together for the common vision.”
Outgoing Ward 3 councillor Andrew Stevens has endorsed candidate Jessie Morris for Ward 1, along with Kale MacLellan (Subdivision 1) and Brandon-Shea Mutala (Subdivision 6) as public school board trustees.
“I might be on my way out the door, but I still care deeply about the neighbourhoods that were once part of Ward 3,” he said on social media. (Parts of Ward 3 will be redistributed to other wards when boundary changes come into effect with this election.)
“In my interactions with Jessie, she’s already putting in the time and effort to bring herself up to speed on difficult subjects. She’s equipping herself to be a strong elected official.”
Morris, MacLellan and Mutala were also endorsed by the Regina & District Labour Council (RDLC) in a list released in August.
RDLC also endorsed André Magnan (Ward 2), Deb Nyczai (Ward 4), Sarah Turnbull (Ward 5), Victoria Flores (Ward 6), Shobna Radons (Ward 7), Shanon Zachidniak (Ward 8), Reid Hill (Ward 9) and Chris Simmie (Ward 10) for city council.
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The Regina Civic Awareness & Action Network (RCAAN) has also weighed in on candidates running for public school board positions. The advocacy group is supportive of pro-parental rights candidates and has shared a list of who it is endorsing as trustees for Regina Public Schools and the Prairie Valley School Division.
For Regina Public, RCAAN endorses Kelly Bond (Subdivision 1), Carla Taylor-Brown (Subdivision 2), Mandeep Sinhmar (Subdivision 3), Tracey Sparrowhawk (Subdivision 4), Lee Harding (Subdivision 5), Doug Armbruster (Subdivision 6), and Lise Merle (Subdivision 7). Armbruster has said he is not a member of RCAAN or affiliated with the group.
RCAAN-endorsed candidates for Prairie Valley include Charla Sebastian (Division 2), Natasha Morrow (Division 4), Andrew Boschman (Division 8), and Melanie Martin (Division 9). A section for Regina Catholic Schools appears on RCAAN’s website but remains empty.
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A number of other community-based advocacy groups in Regina have also sent out surveys to candidates about special issues that are making the rounds online.
Regina Citizens Public Transit Coalition (RCPTC) endorsed seven candidates for city council, saying those individuals have identified safer, more affordable and accessible transit as a “critical election issue.” That list includes Bevann Fox for mayor and councillor candidates Morris (Ward 1), Magnan (Ward 2), Flores (Ward 6), Radons (Ward 7), Zachidniak (Ward 8) and Anita Adefuye (Ward 10).
Bike Regina has given top grades to Morris (Ward 1), Magnan (Ward 2), David Froh (Ward 3), Kofo Oni (Ward 4), Flores (Ward 5), Radons (Ward 7), Corey Terry and Zachidniak (Ward 8), and Adefuye (Ward 10) for their responses that support cycling infrastructure citywide.
Rally Around Homelessness (RAH) is also sharing survey responses from council candidates on the city’s Plan to End Homelessness and ways to address the issue, but the group has so far not made any explicit endorsements.
Election day is Nov. 13, with regular polls open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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