Tank: Saskatoon boasts close races, futility in council bids

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Few candidates probably believe in the well-worn adage that every vote counts, like Dave Whalley did 45 years ago.

Whalley shrugged off his apparent loss in the Saskatoon city council election on Oct. 24, 1979, according to an account in The StarPhoenix the following day: “Ah well, I’ll give it a whack next time.”

Graham Parsons had been declared the winner of the race to represent Ward 4 by a 25-vote margin over Whalley after the final four polls were counted. But 45 rejected ballots were discovered, and that shifted the victory to Whalley, an education consultant for the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

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The discovered ballots awarded a one-vote triumph to Whalley, one of five rookie councillors elected in 1979.

Parsons’s reaction? “I’m trying to find a judge now,” Parsons told The StarPhoenix the day after the vote. (Counting ballots dragged on until 3 a.m. the following day, a legacy of late results in Saskatoon that inexplicably continues today.)

Parsons found his judge, but that judge ruled on Nov. 7 that he had no jurisdiction to order a recount, since there was no evidence that ballots had been counted improperly.

Whalley was relieved to keep his council seat, but started the process to reconsider the rules for recounts so candidates did not have to seek a judge like Parsons did.

A month after his election, Whalley tried in vain to save the historic Capitol Theatre downtown from the wrecking ball. He wrote a letter to the editor of The StarPhoenix in 2020 in response to stories on the 50th anniversary of the controversial demolition.

Unlike the other four rookie councillors elected with him in 1979, Whalley would serve only one term. Three others went on to be among the longest-serving councillors in Saskatoon history: Glen Penner (26 years), Kate Waygood (24 years) and Pat Lorje (22 years).

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The other, Marshall Hawthorne, served 15 years on council.

Whalley, however, picked probably the worst year to leave council and run provincially for the NDP: 1982. He ran in the Saskatoon Mayfair constituency, but was trounced by his Progressive Conservative opponent as Grant Devine led his party to an unprecedented landslide victory.

Whalley left Saskatoon and opened a hardware store and lumberyard in Shell Lake, according to Jen Pederson’s book on council history. He was also ordained as a United Church minister.

His lasting legacy on council, in addition to his very narrow win, may be a better process to review elections results — although Kevin Boychuk might not agree.

RECOUNT DENIED

Boychuk lost a very close race in Ward 1 this year for the second straight election. He lost this year by 52 votes to newcomer Kathryn MacDonald after losing by 56 votes to veteran Darren Hill in 2020.

Boychuk asked for a recount four years ago, but the returning officer, Scott Bastian, determined that since the number of rejected ballots, 14, was lower than the winning margin, no recount was justified.

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Provincial legislation allows for a recount if the rejected ballots outnumber the difference in votes between the winning and second-place candidates.

Boychuk wanted the 181 ballots for which no preference was indicated checked again. No recounts were requested after this year’s election, city hall confirms.

Saskatoon’s assistant city archivist Ken Dahl said in an email that close margins of victory were very common early in the city’s history because fewer votes were being cast, particularly for city councillor spots. Saskatoon has elected councillors in wards, but also at large.

The closest race in recent history came in 2012, when Mike San Miguel lost in Ward 3 to Ann Iwanchuk by 28 votes. That marked San Miguel’s second loss in two years to Iwanchuk after she beat him in a 2010 byelection.

San Miguel ran again this year in Ward 3, but lost to Robert Pearce.

A handful of other candidates tried to win council seats for the second time this year, aside from Boychuk, including Kyla Kitzul (Ward 5, after running in 2020 in Ward 1), Jonathan Naylor (Ward 6) and Ron Mantyka (Ward 8).

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Terry Alm, who represented Ward 7 for one term, ran this year in Ward 6, even though he lives in Ward 5. And Cary Tarasoff finished fourth in the mayoral race for the second time, while former mayor Don Atchison again placed third.

Yet San Miguel at three strikes does not set the futility record for Saskatoon city council, according to research done by the city’s archives staff.

Thirteen candidates ran for city council at least three times from 1920 to the 1960s when elections were held annually, Dahl explained. Some did get elected, he added.

But the interestingly named H.T. Pizzey ran for council at large in five straight elections from 1931 to 1935 without success. F.E. Guppy was elected by a four-vote margin to council in 1908 in Ward 4 and again in 1926. But he failed in bids in 1927 to 1929, 1933 and 1937.

W.J. Greengrass tried to join council four times in 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1946, but failed in all.

So Saskatoon city council races boast a legacy of either dogged determination or futility, depending on your perspective.

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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