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Twenty five seek seats on Whitehorse city council

There was a flurry of activity at Whitehorse City Hall yesterday morning as eight residents hurried to submit their nomination papers for the upcoming municipal election before the noon deadline.
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There was a flurry of activity at Whitehorse City Hall yesterday morning as eight residents hurried to submit their nomination papers for the upcoming municipal election before the noon deadline.

That brings the total number of candidates running for mayor and council to 25 people.

By comparison, 27 people ran in the 2012 election and 14 in the 2009 election.

Wilf Carter and Mandeep Sidhu both filed their papers yesterday, joining incumbent Dan Curtis in the mayoral race.

Sidhu ran for the position of mayor in 2012, finishing last out of five candidates with 480 votes.

Councillors Jocelyn Curteanu, Dave Stockdale and Betty Irwin are seeking re-election on Oct. 15.

Stockdale has served 11 consecutive terms since 1983, while Irwin is seeking a third consecutive term and Curteanu a second.

Both Mike Gladish and John Streicker have announced they won’t be seeking another term.

Former councillor Kirk Cameron, who was elected in 2012 but resigned in March over the firings of two senior city managers, won’t be running.

Cameron said he doesn’t believe he could fulfill his duties on city council because of his commitments to his consulting business.

“I treated my time on council very seriously,” he said, “and I put in a lot of time to giving citizens of Whitehorse the best service I possibly could.”

Samson Hartland, who served on city council from 2000 to 2003, is seeking a second term.

Dan Boyd also served two consecutive terms on council between 1994 and 2000.

Helen Geisler, Patrick Singh, Roslyn Woodcock, Cam Kos and Garth Brown are taking a second stab at the position of councillor after running unsuccessfully in 2012.

Woodcock was the closest of the bunch, losing a recount to Gladish by three votes.

Kos received 916 votes, Geisler had 660, Singh had 628 and Brown had 256 in 2012.

There are a number of rookie candidates in this year’s election.

Louis Gagnon, Rob Fendrick, Philippe Praprotnik, Mike Travill, George Arcand, Ken Giam, Micah Quinn, Peter Jickling, Jens Nielsen, Francine Thivierge, Serge Michaud, Keith Ellert and are running for the first time.

The overall voter turnout was 43 per cent in 2012, up by more than six per cent from the 2009 election.

The official list of candidates will be posted at noon on Monday, Sept. 28, per the provisions of the Municipal Act.

Contact Myles Dolphin at

myles@yukon-news.com