David Gillan has been elected as the new mayor of North Battleford. He is shown here from the mayoral forum last month. (File photo/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Action-Packed Race

Gillan elected mayor in City of North Battleford council race

Nov 9, 2020 | 10:35 PM

It was an exciting night for candidates running in the City of North Battleford council race.

The big winner of the night was David Gillan who was elected mayor, beating incumbent Ryan Bater and three other contenders for the spot.

“I guess some of the main issues I brought up resonated with a lot of people,” Gillan told battlefordsNOW.

In the tally from election night and advance polls, Gillan gained 1,198 votes, followed by Bater with 988 votes. Candidates Lois Laing, picked up 74 votes, Misa Nikolic 40 votes, and James Sieben 50 votes.

Gillan is a former City of North Battleford finance director, as well as the outgoing Town of Battleford finance director.

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“We’re pretty excited,” he said of the mayoral win. “I just tried to be myself, and bring out what I thought were key issues.”

Gillan said Bater called him after the results were in to congratulate him.

“It was a close race after all,” Gillan said. “It could have went either way.”

While there was a steady stream of voters on election day it was not considered a high number, possibly due to poor road conditions from the weekend’s snowstorm.

Winning the six councillor spots were incumbents Kelli Hawtin with 1,516 votes, Kent Lindgren – 1,278 votes, Greg Lightfoot – 1,151 votes, Len Taylor – 1,148 votes, and new candidates Thomas (Bill) Ironstand – 983 votes, and Ross MacAngus with 780 votes.

Ironstand said he is humbled by the support.

“It’s starting the good work we all envision for our city,” he said.

MacAngus is also looking forward to starting his first term and joining the team.

Some of the close contenders in the race who did not manage to get a seat of the total 13 candidates were Warren Williams with 741 votes, Matthew Parker with 726 votes, and Dennis Mercer with 700 votes.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW