Yorkton welcomes new mayor Aaron Kienle, 2 new councillors

Yorkton residents vote in new mayor WATCH: In Yorkton, after four years of Mitch Hippsley as mayor, residents voted in Aaron Kienle. Sierra D’Souza Butts has more.

Yorkton, Sask. — The City of Yorkton has announced their 2024 preliminary election results declaring Aaron Kienle as the city’s new mayor, along with two new councillors and four returning members.

Kienle won against former mayor Mitch Hippsley by just under 1,000 votes as of the preliminary results Wednesday evening.

“I'm feeling good, I'm feeling a lot different than I did after election day four years ago. That's for sure,” Kienle expressed Thursday morning.

Back in 2020, both candidates ran against each other for the mayoral seat ending in Hippsley winning by 86 votes.

Now returning to city council four years later, Kienle shared what his plans will be for the new board.

“I want to start off slow. I want to get back into city hall, talk to administration and council, to see what things are currently scheduled to happen and what things have happened over the past four years, kind of get brought back up to speed,” he said.

“Then moving forward beyond that, really trying to work on building a relationship with the fellow councillors and build a solid foundation where we can work together as a team and accomplish a lot for the residents."

Newly elected councillors are Stephanie Ortynsky and Greg Litvanyi – Ortynsky carrying the second highest number of votes followed by incumbent Dustin Brears.

Re-elected councillors are Quinn Haider, Randy Goulden, and Darcy Zaharia.

"You know, it was my first time running so I wasn't sure how it was going to play out,” Ortynsky voiced shortly after results came in.

“I did a lot of academic work for the last 15 years so it's really exciting to be able to put that into practice and to give back to my community where I grew up and learned all of this."

Litvanyi also shared his enthusiasm that same evening.

"It feels great. It was a great race, we had a lot of great candidates,” he said.

“I'm very thankful for the support I received in the election, and I look forward to representing the citizens going forward."

Returning for a second term, Brears spoke on what his priorities will be for the next four years.

“You know, we have to work on infrastructure, public safety has been a huge one in Yorkton. It has come up in the last recent months,” he said.

“And, just responsible spending, making sure we're taking care of the books. Yorkton is in good financial shape, and we need to keep it that way."

All but one incumbent, that being mayor Hippsley, was re-elected. Brears was asked what his thoughts were on that.

“That’s a tough one. Mitch did a good job as a mayor, he was built for the role,” stated Brears.

“Change is always good and obviously the citizens of Yorkton wanted some change in that position, but I do give credit to Mitch. He did do a good job, and I appreciated serving beside him.”

Hippsley expressed his feelings on the matter.

“It's a statement on behalf of the citizens that want change,” he said.

“The mayor always represents the council, and seven people make that decision, but the mayor gets the accolades or takes the hit. That's the way it is.”

Despite the results, Hippsley said he is happy he put his name forward.

“You walk into this race not knowing what the end result will be. It’s part of the game you have to understand, respect, and accept,” he voiced.

Candidates who failed to capture enough votes to gain a seat on council included Lauretta Ritchie-McInnes, Gurjit Dhaliwal, Todd Kulscar and Ron Irvine.

The total number the preliminary results for all candidates can be found below.

Mayoral candidates

Kienle – 2,438

Hippsley – 1,476

Councillor candidates

Brears – 2,656

Ortynsky – 2,629

Haider – 2,590

Goulden – 2,229

Litvanyi – 2,080

Zaharia – 2,078

The city’s new council will officially be sworn Friday, Nov. 15 at city hall.