Brandon municipal election: very few candidates, some not seeking re-election

“It is literally huge,” said Rick Chrest, mayor of Brandon.

The road to Brandon’s municipal election is beginning to take shape.

Mayor Rick Chrest and councillors Jan Chaboyer and Ron Brown have announced that they will not be seeking re-election this fall.

Despite these announcements, only three new candidates have entered the race and only three councillors have filed their paperwork to seek re-election to council as of Wednesday.

“Usually when you have a mayor, especially a very popular one, announce that they’re not going to be running again, you’ll get more people signing up, coming out of the woodwork wanting to compete for that,” says Curtis Brown, a principal with Probe Research. “So it’s interesting that so far you haven’t seen that and you haven’t seen a lot of competition in the wards.”

Brandon is broken up into ten wards; five wards currently have no candidates, and those incumbents have yet to submit their documents for re-election.

“I think the last election in Brandon was pretty sleepy,” Brown says, citing an acclamation in the race for mayor, two councillors running unopposed, and the other eight wards only having two candidates each in 2018. “It seems to be happening again in this campaign, and you wouldn’t think that would be the case because the dynamics are different.”

City councillor Jeff Fawcett is so far the lone mayoral candidate. The ward he currently represents is one that has no candidates at this time.

He understands the hesitancy some people may have to run if they have a fear of losing. “You essentially put yourself out there publicly that you want to do that, and it is humbling,” Fawcett says. “However it isn’t a bad thing. It’s a good thing to be out there, to say ‘I want my community to improve and be better.’”

Fawcett is certain that the turnout for candidates will grow as the nomination deadline gets closer. “I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people that have reached out to me, so I know there’s more to come.”

More information on registering as a candidate can be found at BrandonVotes.ca. Election Day is set for October 26th.