North Battleford has a new city councillor, but he is no rookie to municipal politics.
Brad Pattinson was the winner of Wednesday's municipal byelection, called to replace Rhonda Seidel when she moved to Swift Current earlier this year.
Results saw Pattinson receive 620 votes, easily holding off Brian Maunula with 304, Greg Lightfoot with 268, Krista Crockett with 105, Morley Dickson with 34, Thomas Schwab with 25 and Dianne Frank with 10.
Pattinson now returns to the council position he held for 15 years before an unsuccessful run for mayor in the 2009 municipal vote.
"I'd like to congratulate all the folks who let their names stand and show an interest in the governing the city, and I'm pleased with the win," said Pattinson.
He says his immediate goal will simply be to get reoriented with what he needs to know for the job.
"There's a couple of years of internal documents that I've got to study and get up to speed on. Of course I've followed the governing of the city through the media, but there will be a bit of homework for me before I can pick true priorities."
Pattinson now gets right back to work as a councillor, with his first regular council meeting set for September 26.
The election followed a brief and fairly low-key campaign from what was a large field of candidates who entered the byelection race. Both Maunula and Lightfoot got their message out with lawn signs throughout the community. Some candidates relied on Facebook pages to get their message out.
Citywide voting took place at the Civic Centre throughout the day Wednesday, September 14. As well, an advance poll was set up at North Battleford Public Library on Sept. 10 which, according to the count, saw 150 people cast ballots. Overall turnout was 12.3 percent.
Several of the candidates were at city hall Wednesday where the results were tallied. Pattinson never trailed in the vote count, which was over well before 9pm.
Runner-up Maunula was not at city hall on election night, but third-place Lightfoot was one of the several candidates at city hall who personally congratulated Pattinson.
Lightfoot had run one of the more visible campaigns in the lead-up to the by-election vote and felt he had done "fairly well considering this is my first kick at the can."
He adds that he plans to try again in the general election in 2012. "Absolutely, I'm going to throw my hat in there again."
