Andre Proulx won the March 11 byelection to become Thompson’s eighth member of council, receiving 578 votes to beat Chiew Chong and Blake Ellis, who received 532 and 92 votes respectively.
1,202 ballots were cast in the byelection, a turnout of approximately 16 per cent of Thompson’s 7,422 eligible voters.
Proulx tied with Chiew Chong with 1,008 votes on election night Oct. 24, though the actual count was later revised to 1,009 votes for each of the two candidates following a judicial recount.
Ellis, the only incumbent councillor who ran for re-election but did not retain his seat, was much further behind this time than in October when he finished about 25 votes behind Chong and Proulx.
Chong launched a court challenge of the election results, but it was dismissed by Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Herbert Rempel in Winnipeg Feb. 19.
Under Manitoba’s municipal election law, a tie vote requires the holding of a byelection unless a recount breaks the tie.
A mechanic who moved to Thompson from The Pas in 2008 and opened a business a few years ago, Proulx campaigned on bringing new industry to Thompson to diversify the city’s economy and working with surrounding communities on solutions to problems affecting the city’s downtown core.
