Fule to serve as mayor for a second term

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Strathmore has voted to have incumbent mayor, Pat Fule, represent the town for another four years in the mayoral office.

The results of the Oct. 18 municipal election came in shortly after midnight on Tuesday morning, showing Fule held a commanding lead over his competition. 

According to the Town, early estimates indicate 3,624 Strathmore residents cast a ballot. Of these, roughly 40 per cent were advance votes. 

The number of voters turning out to make their say rose 11.2 per cent this year compared to the 2017 municipal election, which saw 3,259 votes cast.

Fule was re-elected boasting a vote count of 2,019. Jason Hollingsworth, Fule’s closest competitor, received 994 votes.

Fule said he feels good about the results of the election overall and is generally unsurprised with the results. 

“I’m happy, but I also know that there’s a lot of work to be done and so I’m really interested in seeing what the next four years will be like,” he said.

“I plan to still carry myself the way that the public would want me to. I really tried to make good decisions and be honest and do good things and I think people expect that from me.”

With more people running against him than previously, as well as the influence from the COVID-19 pandemic, Fule added he expected his overall numbers to noticeably drop in comparison to the last election.

He said he stands firmly behind sentiments he has previously addressed in and outside of council.

“I think the public knew — at least I hope they knew, that I was consistent in what I believed in. I believed in trusting the science, I believed in trusting the medical community, both in our town with our doctors … and Dr. (Deena) Hinshaw and Alberta Health Services,” said Fule.

“There are a lot of people who don’t really believe in the seriousness of the virus or that vaccines are essential and safe. So, I knew I would lose votes that way.”

Not one to waste a moment, Fule plans to speak and work immediately with the new council to come together as a team and get things done. 

Fule included, the new council consists of Denise Peterson, Melissa Langmaid, Jason Montgomery, Debbie Mitzner, Brent Wiley and Richard Wegener. 

Peterson and Montgomery were both voted in as incumbent councilors.

“It’s a steep learning curve for the councilors because we’re going to hit the ground running in a couple of weeks. There’s a lot of things that have to be learned and a lot of things that have to start getting done,” said Fule. 

He explained he intends to address quickly that this council will be able to work cohesively together, rather than experiencing much of the frustrations that occurred in the tail end of the previous term.

“There was a lot of friction towards the end and COVID-19 didn’t help,” said Fule.

A common topic addressed by council candidates in their platforms was the town’s debt situation, which Fule acknowledged as being important within the community.

“I think we finally have a situation where with … new revenue streams, we can start to earmark some of that money towards debt, possibly towards certain projects,” he explained.

“I’ll be meeting individually with (each councilor) just to see what their passions are, what they want to see, what they would like to accomplish as a group in the next four years.”

Council will be sworn in next week and the first organizational meeting will be held on Oct. 27.