Mayor Elect Comments On Election Turnout

Although he was the eventual winner mayor elect Clive Tolley said he would like to see a better voter turnout next time around.

In last evening’s byelection win mayor elect Clive Tolley won by a mere 41 votes receiving 1290 votes against Councillor Crystal Froese who placed second after receiving 1249 votes.

Asked in the media scrum for his thoughts on the overall turnout Tolley said next time they need to work at bringing out more voters.

In the 2020 general municipal vote 5,800 people voted where a snowstorm was blamed for the poorer than usual turnout. In the byelection 5,999 people came out to cast their ballot. The 2020 general municipal election percentage wise for voter turnout was the worst in the City’s history. In both elections approximately 22 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.

Tolley became mayor with the support of approximately five percent of eligible voters. There are approximately 25,900 eligible voters in Moose Jaw.

“I’ve got mixed feelings. I want to thank those people that did turn out to vote. And I am a little bit disappointed we didn’t get a better turnout. This is our city. The decisions we make in City Hall are important I would like to see more people get involved,” mayor elect Clive Tolley said.

He said during the campaign he encouraged people to come out and vote even if not for him.

“Throughout the campaign I left many places where I spoke to people and said ‘get out and vote, if you are not going to commit to me at least get out and vote and express your opinion and have a role to play in the process’” he said.

“I am hoping to engage as many people as possible during the time I am mayor and hopefully get people re-engaged in the community and feel that they have a say. And perhaps in the next election we can bring more people to the polls.”

The official election results will be released Friday morning.