Wednesday, August 24, 2022 Vol. 45, No. 34
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Your Local Paper
Viking voters choose experience By-election sees former councillors Ewashko and Nearing voted back in Patricia Harcourt Editor
Unofficial results are in; the majority of people voting in the Tuesday, August 23 byelection went with experience this time around to fill two council seats. Former councillor Clinton Nearing received 167 votes, the most of any candidate. He was followed by Dana Ewashko with 130 votes. Both are incumbents from former councils and ran on their knowledge and experience in that regard. There were four candidates for the two council positions, and they received the following vote count: Creeann Anderson, 24; Phil Chicoine 97; Dana Ewashko 130; and Clinton Nearing 167. During the election campaign, both Anderson and Chicoine gave heartfelt statements concerning their desire to help the community get back on track, and to get into the spirit of renewal for the town. In the last municipal election in October 2021, Nearing lost his bid to become mayor so wasn’t able to run for a council seat at that time. Ewashko did run again for council after serving a four-
year term but was not re-elected in the October 2021 municipal election. Now both men have taken the lion’s share of votes to be returned as experienced councillors after a year off. They will serve out the rest of the existing term, or three years, before there is another election. All this happened after three councillors resigned their positions, starting with the resignations of new councillor James Buttner and incumbent Debbie O’Toole Balaban in March. Both expressed frustration at how council was being run. This was followed by the resignation of councillor Gary Hafso in June. By last spring, it had become apparent that the new council was becoming dysfunctional. The resignations left only two remaining officials, Mayor Laura Yakiwchuk and Councillor Cindy Lefsrud. But this was not enough to have a quorum for voting or to hold meetings. A municipal administrator was appointed by Municipal Affairs to take over council’s duties until a quorum could be re-established. With three new councillors this should now be possible. Nearing and Ewashko will
be joined on council by a returning Buttner, who had previously resigned, which had helped to kick in the byelections in the first place. However, after being asked by loyal residents to go back onto council he reconsidered and placed his name for nomination in the second by-election that had been triggered when Hafso left. Buttner won the third vacant seat by acclamation, meaning no by-election in September was necessary. The unofficial list of five persons on Viking Town Council after the by-election includes: councillors James Buttner, Dana Ewashko, Cindy Lefsrud, and Clint Nearing; and Mayor Yakiwchuk. Voters are hoping the new council can now accomplish the job of holding meetings with the proper rules of order, make decisions based on open discussion and with propriety and respect. Most on this new council want to go back to livestreaming meetings for the general public to watch, something the former council stopped after receiving negative feedback. This, after initially campaigning on the need for transparency on council in the last election.
Dana Ewashko
Clint Nearing