BONNYVILLE - With the nomination deadline looming for candidates looking to vie for a seat in the Oct. 18 municipal election, the MD of Bonnyville election is generating some interest.
Would-be candidates have until noon on Monday, Sept. 20 to file their nomination papers. With a week to go, there are only two wards uncontested as of press time Monday. Mike Krywiak is looking to hold onto his seat in Ward 3 and Ben Fadeyiw hopes to be back representing Ward 6. No one has stepped in as of yet to challenge the incumbents in either ward.
However, for the reeve’s chair it looks to be shaping up to be a repeat of the 2017 election when Greg Sawchuk and Barry Kalinski were both on the ballot and are again. Sawchuk is looking to hold onto the MD’s top elected spot after securing the win four years ago with a vote of 1,835 to Kalinski’s 1,576.
Admitting to being a bit of a “wild card’ heading into the 2017 election as he had no former MD council experience, Sawchuk said even now with four- years spent at the helm of the MD, making a bid for another term was not an easy decision.
“It takes you away from your own business, your family and it’s truly a 24/7 commitment if you want to do the job well. So, it’s a tough decision going into it.” However, he said back in 2017 he “saw something that needed fixing and I decided to go for it” and now he wants to keep the momentum going.
Meanwhile, Kalinski is no newcomer to the MD political arena having served 10 years as the Ward 4 councillor before throwing his hat into the ring for reeve in 2017 following Ed Rondeau’s decision not to run in that election.
In Ward 1, incumbent Marc Jubinville is being challenged by Louise White who has former municipal government experience as a councillor in Beaumont.
Ward 2 incumbent Darcy Skarsen is squaring off against two other candidates at this point – Kurt Richard and David Fox.
Ward 4 incumbent Edward Duchesne is being challenged for that area by Don Slipchuk.
In Ward 5 there is now a six-way race with incumbent Dana Swigart up against five other contenders – Angela Cook, Roy Dell, Monika Iverson and Erwin Thompson and Andy Wakaruk.
