Acclaimed Swift Current Mayor Al Bridal is looking forward to working alongside a veteran council team for the next four years.
Bridal is happy to see the return of Ryan Plewis, Ryan Switzer, Tom Christiansen, and Leanne Tuntland-Wiebe while welcoming Bruce Deg and Courtney Stewart to the table.
For Bridal, he is excited to once again have the chance to work with the familiar faces, while also now getting to know the two new members.
"I can go to sleep tonight knowing that I'll be working with the four experienced councillors that I was with last time, one experienced councillor from the term before in Bruce Deg, and Courtney Stewart who doesn't have any experience on council, but she's got experience on boards. It'll be exciting to work with all six of these people."
Since Bridal was acclaimed, this election wasn't nearly as stressful as when he ran during the pandemic four years ago. When Bridal first came into the job in 2020, he beat then-mayor Dennis Perrault by 597 votes. Having received a total of 2,497, Bridal alone almost matched the total voter turnout this year in his initial campaign.
"Last election I was on the edge of my seat waiting for every poll to come in," recalled Bridal. "This one, I'm curious, so I was seeing who I'm going to be working with, but I wasn't on the edge of my seat."
Council will be sworn in on Monday, with it also being their first council meeting together. From there, training lessons will be held for every member, including Bridal.
This go around, the voter turnout was far lower than in years past. Only 2,957 voters cast their ballots in Swift Current. Bridal was hoping to see a lot more of the registered voters making their voices heard in this election.
"I'm disappointed in that," said Bridal point blank. "I thought the province at 53 per cent turnout was disappointing, but I mean, this is like 20 per cent."
In the previous election, there was a total turnout of 4,450 voters in Swift Current.