7,000 Jackpot
$
SUPER BINGO
OCTOBER 29TH, 2022, Saturday Evening Bingo at 6pm
$600 regular game with (1,200 double win)
ON THE TRADITIONAL TERRITORY OF THE LHEIDLI T’ENNEH
SAVE THE TAX
Since 1916
THURSDAY, October 20, 2022
PGCITIZEN.CA
PRINCEGEORGECITIZEN
SALE RK Furniture Gallery www.rkfurnituregallery.ca
Yu eager to get busy as new mayor
Meet the new city councillors
ARTHUR WILLIAMS
HANNA PETERSEN
Simon Yu will be the new mayor of Prince George next month, according to preliminary election results released by the City of Prince George on Saturday. Yu received 6,092 votes (40.2 per cent), ahead of Terri McConnachie (4,152 votes/27.4 per cent), Roy Stewart (2,424 votes/16 per cent), Adam Hyatt (1,773 votes/11.7 per cent), Lisa Mitchell (553 votes/3.6 per cent) and Chris Wood (159 votes/one per cent). “I’m so happy to see the size of support within the community,” Yu said. “This win, it was unexpected to say the least.” Brian Skakun (9,370 votes), Garth Frizzell (6,911 votes), Kyle Sampson (6,840 votes), Cori Ramsay (5,971 votes), Ron Polillo (5,685 votes), Trudy Klassen (5,515 votes), Tim Bennett (5,295 votes) and Susan Scott (5,224 votes) were elected to city council. Candidates Wesley Mitchell (4,790 votes), Cameron Stolz (4,401 votes), Karm Manhas (4,333 votes), Karen Muir (3,973 votes), James Steidle (3,947 votes), John Zukowski (3,440 votes), Colleen Mahoney (3,399 votes), Chris Stern
As well as a new mayor, Simon Yu, Prince George has three new faces on city council. City council incumbents Garth Frizzell, Cori Ramsay, Kyle Sampson, Susan Scott and Brian Skakun will be joined by Tim Bennett, Ron Polillo and Trudy Klassen. Bennett and Polillo previously served as School District No. 57 (SD57) board trustees before running for a seat on city council. “I am incredibly humbled with the support I have from the community. It has been an absolute honour to serve the community for the last 11 years as a trustee,” said Bennett, who was elected with 5,295 preliminary votes, coming in seventh place. He said it’s been no secret that the last few years have been a challenge for SD57 but he can’t wait to get to work on behalf of the community as a city councillor. “For me, it was important that I ran on a pillar of accountability and over the last few years there has been decisions made by the school district that weren’t necessarily decisions that the community always agreed with and it is important that I was held accountable for those.”
Citizen staff
(2,425 votes), Paul Serup (2,081 votes), Doug Jeffery (1,903 votes), Nour Salim (1,729 votes) and Richard Cook (1,202 votes) did not receive enough votes to be elected. The total voter turnout was 15,310 (26.27 per cent), up from 2018 when only 24 per cent (13,184) of the eligible 54,852 voters cast a ballot. Yu came to Prince George from Hong
Kong in 1975 to attend what was then called Prince George College, a Catholic boarding school. He’ll be the first first-generation immigrant to be mayor of Prince George, when he and the rest of the new city council are sworn in on Nov. 7. The first regular city council meeting will be held on Nov. 21.
See ‘I WANT TO GET THINGS DONE’, page 2
Snow Owls Are Wise: They secure the Best Travel Insurance Coverage Get a FREE QUOTE now!
See ‘I AM LOOKING FORWARD, page 2
Contact Gary Clarke
$2.00 5
Simon Yu celebrates his victory Saturday as the next mayor of Prince George with city councillor Brian Skakun, the top vote-getter among city council candidates.
00200
CITIZEN FILE PHOTO
58307
Go to snowowls.ca
250.564.2001 whoo@snowowls.ca
0
Citizen staff