Henry Siemens takes over mayoral seat in Winkler

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Winkler residents have chosen the person to take over for former mayor Martin Harder, who was in office for 16 years.

Henry Siemens was elected as mayor for the city with 87 per cent of the votes.

Siemens is well known in the Winkler political realm, as he has been a councillor for 16 years, 12 of those years serving as deputy mayor.

He takes over from Harder who during his time on council helped grow the community from 7,800 people to almost 14,000.

Siemens said he wanted to become mayor because of his two children.

"I want Winkler to be a consideration for them someday. If in fact I want that, then I have to make sure that I'm prepared to continue to step into influencing the change, effecting the change that I believe we need in our community," Siemens said in a previous interview with CTV News.

He said as part of his platform, he wants projects like upgrades to the Centennial Arena and wastewater and water treatment work to be done.

He also wants to help rebuild relationships within the province.

"Over the course of the last 30 months Winkler has not shown well in the greater world," he said previously.

Siemens beat out Karl Krebs who was running on a more conservative platform.