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Babcock, Beck, former mayor Fontaine all stand in mayor's race; council candidates, school trustees confirmed

Election officials have confirmed the names for all candidates in the upcoming mayoral, city council and school board elections.
city-hall
Flin Flon City Hall.

Election officials have confirmed the names for all candidates in the upcoming mayoral, city council and school board elections.

For the mayor's seat, city councillors Tim Babcock and Leslie Beck will be joined by a heavy hitter from the City's recent political past. Former mayor George Fontaine is running again for the seat he held from 2010-2014. The retired shop teacher was defeated in the 2014 vote by now-outgoing mayor Cal Huntley by only four votes.

Nine candidates are running for the six seats on Flin Flon city council - Allison Dallas-Funk, the executive director of the Lord's Bounty Food Bank; Judy Eagle, an attorney; Vair Ellison, a tax specialist; long-time councillor and incumbent Bill Hanson, Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 73 member Ted Highfield; Steve Lytwyn, the principal of Hapnot Collegiate; Heather Richardson, a board member for Community Futures Greenstone; Roger Siemens, a former school board election candidate and member of the 21 Field Engineer Squadron in Flin Flon; and car salesman and Flin Flon Bomber volunteer Mike Slipp.

Only five candidates stepped forward for the seven seats on the Flin Flon School Division (FFSD) board of trustees. The five candidates include incumbents Tim Davis and Leslie Fernandes, newcomers Jackie Hucaluk and Coralie Jays and Angie Simpson, who served on the board for more than 40 years before losing her seat in the 2018 local election.

As a result of the lack of entrants, all five candidates - Davis, Fernandes, Hucaluk, Jays and Simpson - will be acclaimed to the board. According to a statement from the FFSD, the board itself will appoint two people to fill the seats, as laid out in section 26(6) of the province's Public Schools Act.

"Except in the case of an interrupted election, if a trustee position is not filled at an election, the members of the new school board... shall appoint, where necessary, as many qualified persons as will constitute or complete the number of trustees requisite for the school board," reads the act.

The next local election will take place October 26 at City Hall, with an advance poll taking place October 19, also at City Hall. The Reminder will host its regular candidate questionnaires for all entrants in the mayoral and council races.

Snow Lake

Town council in Snow Lake saw a lot more action than Flin Flon's council election, with 14 separate candidates stepping forward for the community's six seats. Two candidates have stepped forward for mayor - geologist and Canadian Ranger Ron Scott and former mayor Kim Stephen, who held the seat from 2014-2018. Mayor Pete Roberts is not running for reelection.

The candidates for council, in alphabetical order, are Jeremy Campbell, Shelley Chrapun, Randy Cockle, Cole Dunbar, Greg Erickson, Bryson Foy, Dave Mayer, Kirk Melnick, Sharon Meuse, Don Pleasance, Chris Samborski, Jason Samborski, Tyler Samborski and Lars Stoltz. Chrapun and Chris Samborski head into the election as the only two incumbent councillors.

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