It's almost election season across Alberta. The 2025 Strathmore municipal election is scheduled to take place on October 20.
Mayor of Strathmore Pat Fule is set to run again for a third term in the mayor's seat.
Fule was elected to the council in 2010 and took over the mayoralty in 2017.
Making the decision to run for a third term was not an easy one for Fule, but he explained that he has a newfound energy for the job.
"I'm energized. I feel better. I had a bit of an illness in the spring. I've been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and I got really ill this early spring. I was starting to worry about that, but my doctor has a really good health plan for me, and I'm feeling so much better," said Fule.
"If I was elected, I think you need some experience in leadership as far as understanding what's going on in the processes that must be followed, because you can't just come in saying that you're going to clean house and you're going to change everything, because every counselor only has one vote."
Fule was re-elected in the 2021 election with 2,019 votes in a landslide victory. Jason Hollingsworth was the nearest competitor and received less than 1,000 votes.
"The other reason I decided to run was this town is about to experience its most explosive growth in the next two to three years, and I think that knowledge and experience are going to be really important as far as building that growth," explained Fule.
"Ensuring that subdivisions and new growth areas are done mindfully so that there's connectivity and pathways, there's green spaces, there's attention to home varieties."
Over the last four years, Fule has been proud of the work he and the town have done in building a relationship with Siksika Nation.
"We had a committee where we worked with Siksika to try to better the situation for our Siksika neighbors and friends who are either coming to town to shop, stay, dine, or get other services," added the mayor.
"The other thing I'm really happy with is our budgeting process in our last four years. Our finance team, the senior leadership team, and CAO put together the most clear, understandable budgeting process that I've ever been involved in in my 15 years with the council."
Fule also states that the town has lowered its debt.
"Our debt limit was $59.1 million. That's how much you can borrow, and we only utilized 23.5% of our debt, which we're allowed to have. Many municipalities around Calgary of our size are at their debt limits."
Fule is so far the only candidate to announce a run for Mayor.
The nomination deadline to run for mayor or council is September 22.