dickie

This year's race for mayor and town council in Shaunavon came to an end with incumbent mayor Sharon Dickie back at the reins for another four years.

With 624 voters out, 391 voted for Dickie, and 233 voted for newcomer Joel Sopp.

Penny Schreiner talked with Sharon Dickie after Wednesday's election win

"Joel ran a good campaign, and I'm happy to be representing the community again," Dickie said. "I know I'll have a good, strong council. I'm looking forward to the next four years and taking this community to good places."

Despite the loss, Sopp feels he ran a strong campaign, but admits there were things he could have done better.

Full interview with Joel Sopp

"Maybe a stronger door-knocking team, some more people could have got to know my face before the election may have helped me," he said. "I think, though, with my presentation at the forum, the way I handled the questions and handled myself, I think I wouldn't change anything I did about that."

Sopp adds that in the end, he just wants what's best for Shaunavon.

"It's not over... what I mean by that is just because I'm not sitting in the mayor's chair doesn't mean I can't help make Shaunavon stronger," he said.

But with the votes all counted and the campaigns wrapped up, Dickie says it's now time to get back to work.

"The first thing is, of course, to regroup as a council," she said. "We have many ongoing projects, we want to complete the official community planning, and of course, we're entering budget time, and that's always very time-consuming."

Numbers were counted late into the night and a new Town Coucil for Shaunavon has been announced, with some new faces and some incumbent councillors returning for another term

Incumbents Mark Benesh, Kyle Bennett, Mike Elmgren and Grant Greenslade will all be returning for another term, and the newcomers on Council include Riley Kornfeld and Tyson Skjerven.

Incumbant Richard Whyte and newcomer Trevor Lingenfelter came up short in their bids for Town Council.

The most votes went to Riley Kornfeld with 533.