By Greg Higgins

Mayor isn’t concerned over acclaimed candidates

Sep 23, 2016 | 2:13 PM

It’s North Battleford’s second election in a row where the mayoral candidate ran unopposed.

Councillor Ryan Bater is the newly acclaimed mayor to take over from Mayor Ian Hamilton who was the acclaimed candidate last election, but chose not to run as an incumbent.

Hamilton hopes having just one name on the mayor’s ballot is not a sign of the city losing interest in politics but their satisfaction with the current regime.

“I’d like to think that I was acclaimed last election and Ryan is this election because the issues that face the city and its future are currently being addressed,” Hamilton said. “We have a lot of initiatives that have already been started and it’s a matter allowing administration to implement the plans”

Hamilton said the city had a good number of years of planning and development and now it’s time for execution.

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When he first ran in 2009 he beat out four other candidates to become mayor. Hamilton was the acclaimed candidate in 2012. He said since there are 15 candidates running for six council positions, there is still a big interest in municipal government.

Hamilton admitted the position as mayor takes up a lot of time and devotion. There are numerous candidates with resumes suited for mayor and Hamilton thought they might not be willing to take on additional work.

“I think it’s the commitment,” Hamilton said. “There are expectations of the mayor that exceed those of the council members. There are a lot of very qualified individuals but I suspect their reasons for not running are along the same as my own for not running for re-election, the long term four-year commitment to the office.”

Hamilton said it can be really tough for someone who works a full-time job and has a family to take on mayoral responsibilities. He added there are meetings in Regina that are overnight trips and can take up weekends.

Hamilton also didn’t believe there were “burning issues” extreme enough in the city for someone to rise up and base their platform around right now. He added there are definitely issues but believes the current council, which includes Bater, has plans in place to handle them and the new council will execute them to a high standard moving forward.

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins.