News

Grant Bachand
Team Member

t has been an intense couple of months. The city

of Prince George has some new and old faces
coming back to city council. Lyn Hall is now
Prince George’s new mayor, taking 53.08% of

the vote (10,463 votes cast his way). He beats
out Don Zurowski who got 44.9% and 8,850
votes. Both candidates came out with strong
platforms, and had good visions for the future
of Prince George.

During his campaign, Hall spoke of forming

student committees to work with city hall to help

give a voice to students; he also spoke of being in

favor of a student residence downtown, possibly in the
new Wood Innovation building. Hall also spoke of working
to help revitalize the downtown core and bring civic pride to
the area. Instituting downtown foot patrols from the RCMP
and creating an entertainment zone were among a few

of his priorities he stated during the election. Time will
tell if Hall follows through with his campaign ideas, but

it is clear that he holds a positive agenda for students.

Zurowski seems to holds no ill will towards the mayor

elect; Zurowski was seen shaking hands with Hall

and congratulating him on his win. In an interview

with CKPG at the campaign headquarters, Zurowski
attributed Hall’s win to the endorsement he had

received from the labor council, “I think it got tough

when there was the major endorsement out by the

labor council. That was a critical point. There are a lot of
union members in the City of Prince George.” Hall wasn’t

the only candidate to receive an endorsed by the unions; in
fact, all of the candidates endorsed by unions won. According
to CKPG these include Frank Everitt, Garth Frizzell, Murry
Krause, Jillian Merrick, Terri McConnachie and Brian Skakun.

Union funding was not the only type of money to come into
play in this election. Though it is unclear how much came
from the private business sector, historically it has housed
huge contributors to campaign funding. It is clear that after
tensions between the former mayor and the CUPE union

in previous labour negotiations unions will be getting

more involved in civic politics for the coming future.

City council also got a bit of a shuffle with Cameron Stolz and
Dave Wilbur losing their seats on council. Terri McConnachie

Municipal and School District 57 election results

(6,580 votes), Susan Scott (6,218 votes) and Jillian Merrick

(6,829) received new seats on council. Returning members
of council are Brian Skakun (12,674 votes), Murry
Krause (10,304 votes), Garth Frizzell (8,773 votes),
Albert Koehler (8,022) and Frank Everitt (6,788
votes). Jillian Merrick campaigned with a small
budget of only $5,000; she has been an advocate
of many issues which are important to students,
such as public transit and student housing. After
her win, she said to CKPG that it is great that all
three newcomers to council are women. Two of the
main issues, which are in the immediate future,
include approving the budget and handling the
results of the fluoride referendum, which the
city voted against. The new mayor and city
council will be sworn in on December 1.

There have been some shifts in the school
board as well. The trustees are: Trisha Bella
(7,338 votes), Tim Bennett (5,852 votes),
Tony Cable (5,843 votes), Bob Harris (5,492
votes), Brenda Hooker (6,658 votes), Sharel
Warrington (6,350 votes) and Bruce Wiebe
(5,685 votes). Although the BCTF strike is
over, trust needs to be rebuilt between the new
school board and the teachers. Both Tony Cable
and Bob Harris, two of the new faces at the board
table, agree and want to work on that. The new
school board will be sworn in on December 9.

One of the biggest victories was that of voter
attendance. In 2011, 15,027 votes were cast for the
Mayor of Prince George. This time around 19,313
votes were cast. That is a 4,286 voter increase from last
election. Advanced voting and social media are some of
the factors that contributed to the increase. There was a
big push by many different groups around PG to see a
larger voter turnout go up this election. Frustration
on the side of the voter towards the former mayor
could also be a factor; many believe Prince George
residents were looking for a major change.

It will be four years until the next election in
October 2018. That allows us plenty of time to

see what these new and returning faces can do.
Students issues are predicted to be more important
to this council, as there was a lot of talk during
the election about ways to help students.