For the second time in less than four months, David Campbell has been elected mayor of Lynn Lake and this time he actually got to assume his position as the northwestern Manitoba municipality’s head of council.
Campbell, who served on the town’s council from 2018 to 2022, received 111 votes to defeat fellow candidate Brandon Dulewich, who received 82 votes. The winning candidate received 19 more votes in the Feb. 15 byelection than he did on Oct. 26 of last year, when he beat former mayor and Brandon’s father Audie Dulewich in a 92-65 vote.
That election, however, was essentially a formality and Campbell was never sworn in. Instead, because there was only one candidate for four councillor positions, meaning council had only two members, one shy of the minimum for quorum, an administrator appointed by the provincial government took charge of what would normally be the responsibilities of mayor and council on Oct. 27 and town administration was tasked with re-running a municipal election as soon as possible.
Six council candidates registered for the Feb. 15 byelection, with Eugene Shin, Tyler Hunt, Anne Kenny Thompson and Vicki Phillips all receiving over 100 votes apiece to become councillors. Mitch Skomorowski and Ashley Moreau were the unsuccessful candidates.
Campbell and the winning council candidates were sworn in at the Lynn Lake Arena the day after the election and their first formal council meeting will be held Feb. 28 in council chambers at the town office. The appointment of the administrator would be revoked once Campbell and the councillors are sworn in, a provincial government spokesperson told the Thompson Citizen previously.
After winning the mayoral election, Campbell told the CBC that the biggest piece of upcoming business for the town is commissioning its new water treatment plant that is nearing completion.”I know the community is looking forward to the time we can turn on those taps and drink the water again,” Campbell said.
