Cypress County sees three incumbents defeated

By Tim Kalinowski on October 18, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

Cypress County’s three defeated incumbents LeRay Pahl, Garry Lentz and Art Squire were reflecting Tuesday on their election losses.

Post-mortems of this sort can be gruesome, but for LeRay Pahl, the 30-year council veteran, it all comes down to one thing: Generational change in Cypress County.

“I told Shane (Hok) a couple of years ago I wasn’t going to run again,” admits Pahl.

Pahl, who has been hobbled by a bad leg and back after an accident earlier this summer, said he also couldn’t campaign the way he wanted to this time out.

“I couldn’t do the door-knocking I usually do, and I am sure it made a difference in the campaign,” he said.

Pahl said he was thankful for the many years his voters have supported him, and he wished all the newly elected councillors well, especially Hok, who Pahl feels is a good choice to replace.

“I have enjoyed the 30 years I have been there,” he said, “and I hope I have made decisions that have helped people and helped make the county a better place to live. I just hope the new members keep in mind the bottom line. I like to make sure we are spending money on council for the right reasons, and I hope these new councillors won’t simply be followers.

“You will have to have somebody stand up to the spenders. If some of those guys had gotten their way of the past four years, they would have spent us god-damn broke.”

Sixteen-year council veteran Garry Lentz was in a reflective mood on Tuesday.

“I am not that tore up about it,” said Lentz. “I will tell you what happened there: Robin (Kurpjuweit) used exactly the same strategy I did 16 years ago. That was to convince enough voters it was time for a change. And he was able to do that by 17 votes.”

Lentz said the campaign was well fought, but had its share of old school dirty tricks. Lentz had a life-size campaign sign of him stolen off a fence during the campaign only to have it mysteriously returned Tuesday morning.

“I think somebody was trying to support the other person’s (Kurpjuweit’s) cause,” stated Lentz. “If it was just a random theft, it would not have come back. Maybe it coming back shows a little bit of respect. I think I have accomplished quite a bit in my years on council. I got a lot of phone calls today thanking me for the service I have put in, and from various people who have enjoyed working with me.”

For his part, Art Squire credited his opponent Michelle McKenzie for running a good campaign and wished her well. Squire said it was good to see people in his ward caring about local politics again.

“We had a great turnout for the election,” said Squire. “I didn’t even realize there was that many people to vote up here. People were engaged, and it was good to see people coming forward who wanted to serve their communities. That was my main thing when I talked to anybody. I am there to do what I can. It was a very rewarding experience to serve on Cypress County council because that is what I like to do. I like to help people.”

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