An unassuming house in Saskatoon’s Caswell Hill neighbourhood is quickly transitioning from a campaign office to a dwelling that’s more domestic than political.
“It’ll be a little sad to not have my campaign team in the house every night, but it will be really nice to shift into a bit of a different mode,” Hilary Gough said during a Thursday interview at her home. She is the incoming Saskatoon city councillor for Ward 2, after defeating longtime incumbent Pat Lorje.
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Gough said she and her team of volunteers “were on the doorstep starting in July.” The effort paid off in a tight 139 vote victory over Lorje, who said she expected her race in Wednesday’s election to be close.
“There has been an indication talking to people that they were looking for change,” Lorje said at city hall Wednesday night.
Gough is one of four new incoming Saskatoon city councillors and was the only one to defeat an incumbent on her way to city hall.
Newcomer Sarina Gersher will join her after winning her Ward 8 council race by roughly 2,000 votes.
“I think I bring a strong community background; I’ve been spending a lot of time volunteering, working on city engagements,” Gersher, who grew up in the community, said Thursday.
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Unlike Gersher and Gough, Cynthia Block is not a political rookie. She ran unsuccessfully in 2015 for the federal Liberal party, which she said helped lay the groundwork for her victory Wednesday in Ward 6.
“I certainly knew what it meant to have hope and hard work,” Block said.
“Probably the same methodology was applied, which is basically, go out on the doors, be humble, listen, offer what you can and hope at the end of the day that the voters have the trust in you to move forward.”
Bev Dubios is also no stranger to Saskatoon politics. The former three-term city councillor will return to now represent Ward 9, after being defeated in the last civic election.
“I am able to hit the ground running now, I don’t have to learn my way around city hall like I did before,” Dubois said Wednesday night.
“It takes a while to do that.”
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Despite their differences in political experience, the four share an obvious commonality: they’re all women. Saskatoon will have a record six female city councillors when the group is sworn in Monday.
“We should always be looking to have our elected bodies, regardless of where, reflect our population, and I think we’re moving in that direction,” Gough said.