One of Swift Current's longest-serving city councillors in history announced on Monday night he will not be seeking re-election this fall.
John Wall shared his decision at the end of his final council meeting ahead of the impending municipal election on November 13.
"After 19 years on city council, this is going to be my last meeting, so thanks to the public for voting for me in six elections," he said.
Wall was first elected in 1994 and held a council seat for five consecutive terms until 2009 when he stepped aside from politics. He returned to council in 2020 to serve a four-year term pushing his total tenure as a councillor to 19 years, a record he now shares with Dr. William Field for the longest in Swift Current history.
"I want to thank you John for your service to our community for school boards or city council," Swift Current Mayor Al Bridal said.
Bridal spent 10 years on council with Wall, from 1997-2003 and 2020-2024, and remembered one particular policy his co-worker was involved in creating for Swift Current.
"It was like 20-some years ago, we had this in-fill policy for old homes in the older part of the city," he said. "John was very instrumental in making sure that we got the policy passed that if you knocked down an old home and built a new one, you would get a five-year tax incentive. That was a big push for him."
Away from municipal politics, Bridal also sat on the Prairie Pioneers Independent Housing board with Wall about six years ago. There he witnessed Wall push for financial equality amongst the residents.
"John was always concerned about the underdog," he said. "He really had a passion in his heart because everybody was paying the same rent, and John just said 'it wasn't fair'. There were some of our retired people that didn't have much money. There were some people paying close to 90 per cent of what they got in pensions. John was passionate about that and made sure that we looked at it as a board. We changed that and adjusted their rent according to what they made."