After a long night of counting votes from three polling places and advanced polling, Estevan residents chose Anthony Sernick to be their next mayor.
"Quite simply, to friends and family, and also all the supporters...this is our victory - not my victory," he expressed.
In a narrow decision, he picked up 1,254 votes, which is only about 140 votes ahead of his next opponent, former city councillor Rebecca Foord. Sernick noted that both candidates knew it was going to be a close race. "We've known for a few months. We did have a talk and... we both knew that we were going for the mayor's chair. [I've] worked with her the last four years on Council. Again, I knew it was going to be a tight race."
On top of the general election, a plebiscite was added to see if the community would support the construction of a new ice surface - with Sernick being the councillor to bring up the inquiry in August. He admitted that from the people he's spoken to, he's heard mixed feelings about the idea. Even he, himself, was torn on the question, which pushed him to put the question on the ballot. Similar to the mayoral race, Estevan's voters voted NO to a new ice surface with a close 1,538-1,046 result.
"That's that's a higher number than I expected. I was expecting 20-25%, yes. So, that's promising on that front. It was just another way for the voters to have their say."
He also attributed the high voter turnout to the addition of the plebiscite. Sernick was pleased to see the engagement from the community in this year's elections. "It was excellent to see. Obviously, yeah, you want as many voters as you can. That was the goal of the plebiscite as well. Just [for] maybe those people that assume, or don't go vote because of something, I was hoping that the plebiscite would get them out. It was great to see voters turn out absolutely."
From councilman to the city's top job, Sernick admits that he's got a steep learning curve ahead of him as the new mayor. Outside of finishing the Downtown Revitalization Project and the upcoming budget deliberations, he said that his focus during his first year will be listening to the constituents. "In my mind, it's just going to be a big learning curve. I'm going to be doing a lot of listening there won't there won't be too much action on the ec-dev (economic development) side of things. I know a big percentage of all the projects, but again, just getting in a little deeper. Then, Year two, three and four, we can get a little more aggressive and, as I said, go on the offence and see what we can do for this city.
Now that the slate is set, he's looking forward to working with the incumbents and the new councillors. "We campaigned individually, but now that we're all in the Chamber, that's when we all need to be a team in a sense, and obviously try to be as united as we can. That's the only way we will get things done."
Official vote tallies will be announced later today by the City of Estevan. Sernick and the councillors are slated to be sworn in this Friday at 4:00 p.m. inside Council's Chambers at City Hall.