Charlie Clark and Darren Hill are leaving office after 18 years, but Clark opted to walk away, while Hill was sent packing by voters.
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Darren Hill and Charlie Clark performed a rare feat in 2006: both defeated incumbent ward representatives to join Saskatoon city council.
That’s only happened three times in the five elections since then. Zach Jeffries beat Bev Dubois in 2012 and Hilary Gough defeated Pat Lorje in 2016.
On Wednesday night, Hill joined the ranks of defeated incumbents when he placed third in Ward 1, which he won for the first time 18 years ago by beating long-serving councillor Donna Birkmaier.
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It marks the end of a mostly impressive career for Saskatoon’s first openly gay councillor, whose sexual orientation rightly never mattered for the voters in the diverse ward that straddles the South Saskatchewan River and stretches from Forest Grove on the east side to Hudson Bay Park on the west.
But clearly Hill’s time was up. A controversial final term, which he won by a mere 56 votes over challenger Kevin Boychuk in 2020, sealed his fate. His desperate attempt to rescue his electoral fortunes with a Facebook ad claiming he wanted a referendum on the downtown arena district fell flat.
Business owner Kathryn MacDonald won Ward 1 Wednesday night with an impressive campaign that edged Boychuk, who returned for a rematch with Hill, this time by 52 votes. Boychuk lurked in the council chamber Wednesday night, scrutinizing the vote counting.
It’s the type of result that might prompt someone to gravitate toward election conspiracy theories — and Boychuk ran for the conspiracy-infused People’s Party of Canada and took part in a protest at City Hospital against COVID-19 measures in 2021.
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Both Hill and MacDonald said they had heard about incidents where voters were harassed and intimidated during the campaign.
But MacDonald’s election marks the start of a new era on council, while the very different departures of Clark and Hill close a chapter.
Clark decided eight years as mayor, following 10 as a councillor, was enough, becoming the first mayor since Cliff Wright in 1988 to walk away instead of wearing out his welcome with voters. Voters overwhelmingly backed incumbent councillor Cynthia Block to replace him.
Hill garnered 26 per cent of the vote compared to 32 per cent for MacDonald. A final four years during which Hill revealed he had been suffering from mental illness and was found to have violated code of conduct rules left most voters in his ward looking for someone else to support.
Yet Hill will be missed at city hall, even though citing his years on council before he offered his take on issues had become, well, old. Dubois, who resurfaced in Ward 9 after losing in Ward 10, now becomes the longest-serving current councillor at 17 years.
If Dubois, who was acclaimed this year, serves out her term, she will become one of Saskatoon’s most durable politicians.
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In addition to Dubois and MacDonald, Jasmin Parker (Ward 6) and Holly Kelleher (Ward 7) also won council seats. Including Block, that means five women emerged as victorious from only 11 female candidates out of 48 total.
And, for the first time, the changing face of Saskatoon has achieved representation on city council. Senos Timon, who immigrated to Saskatoon from South Sudan 24 years ago, became the first member of a visible minority with a seat on council after handily winning vacant Ward 2.
Jeffries was also acclaimed this year in Ward 10 and the other two incumbents, Troy Davies (Ward 4) and Randy Donauer (5), easily won again. Former SaskTel Centre executive Scott Ford topped an eight-candidate field in vacant Ward 8.
Ford’s closest competitor, Henry Chan, had declined to answer questions from The StarPhoenix about his residency and occupation.
In Ward 3, Baptist pastor Robert Pearce edged Mike San Miguel by 311 votes, marking a heartbreaking third failed attempt to win that seat for San Miguel. in 2012, he lost to incumbent Ann Iwanchuk by a mere 28 votes.
Pearce built his campaign on opposition to a provincial homeless shelter near the Fairhaven neighbourhood next to the location of his church. It remains puzzling how he plans to address that provincial government issue from city hall and how he convinced voters to support him.
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Thirty-five per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in this election after a severe snowstorm that delayed the election decreased turnout to 27 per cent four years ago.
Since acclamations tend to produce lower turnout and there were two on council and five for the public school board, this year’s turnout actually qualifies as pretty good. Regina had 26 per cent.
But, once again, most eligible Saskatoon voters can only blame themselves for failing to show up if they oppose what this new council does.
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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