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A small town that had been placed under provincial administration has an all-new mayor and council after voters in three resort communities in Manitoba went to the polls Friday.
Terry Calof was elected mayor of Winnipeg Beach with 57.9 per cent of 863 votes, defeating former mayor Stan Potten and Sig Trautwein in one of three general elections held in communities around Lake Winnipeg this week.
The community — which had a permanent population of 1,500 people as of the 2021 census, but has roughly about 2,600 eligible voters — was placed under a provincially appointed administration earlier this year after a death and two resignations left its council unable to form quorum.
“We were very pleased with the turnout yesterday,” senior election official Leah McIsaac said Saturday. “And at the end of the day, our new council is all new faces, no one that has served in the town previously.”
Kim Trombinski, Andrea McCann, Christine Sokaluk and Linda Campbell were elected to Winnipeg Beach council in Friday’s vote, besting five other candidates in the community about 55 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
“It’s very invigorating for the town to be able to look forward knowing there’s new ideas, new faces,” McIsaac said.
“They all got very creative ideas, very sound ideas as well.”
Campaign sings in Winnipeg Beach. The Rural Municipality of Victoria Beach, the Town of Winnipeg Beach and the Village of Dunnottar hold their general elections every four years on the fourth Friday in July. (Rudy Gauer/CBC)Long-time mayor unseated in Dunnottar
South of Winnipeg Beach in Dunnottar, Kathy Magnusson was elected mayor with 58.7 per cent of 775 votes, unseating long-time incumbent Rick Gamble.
Gamble had been serving as mayor of the community — which had a population of just under 1,000 in 2021 — since 2002.
Rosalyn Howard, Ed Strauman, Brenda Walker and Jim Kotowich were also elected to the village’s council.
Across the lake in Victoria Beach, no one ran in opposition to incumbent Mayor Penny McMorris, who was elected by acclamation in the rural municipality about 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg this June.
Preliminary election results posted online Friday showed Liz Murray, Rob Monkman, Graham Randle and Ian Chadsey as being elected to council, placing in the top four of seven candidates with 3,514 votes cast.
Victoria Beach had 689 permanent residents as of 2021, but numbers swell up to the thousands during the summer vacation season.