Final council numbers are in; municipal election decided
By James Tubb on October 20, 2025.
NEWS FILE PHOTO
The unofficial results for the 2025 Medicine Hat municipal election were released late-night Wednesday.“I’m very, very grateful to have received all the support that I did,” Barnes said. “Tens and tens of volunteers, thousands of votes, lots of great ideas and comments by 15,000 Medicine Hatters at the doors, so very grateful.
“It’s time to move on, let’s not even look in the rear view mirror, mayor Clark has won a mandate and I would ask all Hatters to get behind what’s best for the City of Medicine Hat.”
–––––––––– The city has provided a pair of updates, at 12:05 and 1:04 p.m., neither update proving new mayoral or council updates. The update at 1:04 p.m. provided no update to any of the races. –––––––––– At 10:30 a.m., the returning officer proclaimed Linnsie Clark (incumbent) as the next mayor of Medicine Hat, despite no new mayoral votes since around 9 a.m. The News declared Clark as the mayor on Monday night. Official results will be declared at Noon on Friday. In a social media post, the city says a total of 18,106 ballots were cast for mayor in the municipal election. As of 11:11 a.m, Clark has received 5,844 of the 18,033 mayoral ballots reported. The city also says 18,265 electors voted in the municipal and school board election. Votes are still being counted in the council and school trustee races. –––––––––– The second update of the morning brought just a few votes in the council race and even fewer in the school trustee races, no votes were updated in the mayoral race. There has been just one mayoral update since 1:55 a.m. Tuesday. –––––––––– The city will resume reporting results this morning at 9. After a confusing Day 2 of the municipal election, staff provided the News an update Tuesday evening about the status of the ballot counting, that story can be found here. The News spoke with the four leading council candidates, Yusuf Mohammed, Ted Clugston, Stuart Young and Chris Hellman, all declared elected early Tuesday morning by the News. That story can be found here.Tuesday, Oct. 21
The city has informed the News that the Municipal Election results published at 5 p.m. today are estimated to represent: 90 per cent of the ballots cast for mayor, 70 per cent of the ballots for city council, 60 per cent of school trustee ballots. The city will not be making any unofficial declarations on any race this evening. Counting will continue until 10 p.m. this evening and reporting of unofficial results will resume at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. –––––––––– The city posted a few unofficial council and trustee results at 5 p.m. and says it is the final update for Oct. 21. They will resume reporting at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. The city will go 31 hours without updating the mayoral race, with the last votes reported at 1:55 a.m. Tuesday. The News is still waiting for a response on what percentage of polling has been counted and expects to have that information this evening. –––––––––– The city posted on their Facebook at 4:38 p.m. that counting is still underway and results will be updated at least once an hour during regular business hours as new reports become available until counting is done. When asked by the News, no answer was provided as to why no mayoral votes have been reported since 1:55 a.m. –––––––––– As of 3:30 p.m., there has been no new mayoral updates since 1:55 a.m. The News has learned the Big Marble Go Centre ballots and some advance/special ballots are still to be counted. A trickle of unofficial results have been reported in the council and trustee races. A source close to the Redcliff election has told the News there will be a recount of the council race Wednesday at 1 p.m. –––––––––– Ballot counting has resumed on the second day of the Medicine Hat Municipal Election with a wave of council votes coming in at 11:45 a.m. The News will continue coverage throughout the day as more unofficial results are released. In the school trustee races, the News projects Chuck Hellman, Kathy Glasgo and Richard Mastel will be elected to the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education and Pat Grisonich, Quinn Skelton and Catherine Wilson will be elected to Medicine Hat Public School Division board.Election night coverage
*Final update of the night, coming at 1:55 a.m.–the News will continue up-to-date coverage when the city resumes counting in the morning.News projects Clark as mayoral race winner
With more than 16,000 votes counted in the Medicine Hat municipal election, the News is able to project Linnsie Clark will retain her role as mayor for another four years. Clark led with 32.4 per cent of the vote to Drew Barnes who was in second with 28.2 per cent. She had an early lead in her second election and held it, going wire to wire to retain her seat atop the council horseshoe. While results are unofficial, it appears the citizens of Medicine Hat have elected to give Clark a second run after what was a tumultuous and often times controversial first term. She seemed to gain momentum following the official termination of CAO Ann Mitchell, which many Hatters saw as vindication for the mayor’s actions during the August 2023 dispute. Barnes entered the race with political experience and a prominent name having served as an MLA of the provincial government for three terms. He spoke of bringing calm to the perceived chaos at city hall and emerged as an early front runner. Leading up to the election, both Clark and Barnes seemed to have momentum and strong support. But in the end, Hatters chose Clark over change. Regardless of the final totals, Clark will not have nearly the mandate she had in 2021 when she received 66.4 per cent of the vote, amassing more than 13,000 votes. At 33 per cent, as of last update, her support has been cut in half and it appears likely she will have an entirely new council to work with. Former councillor Kris Samraj will likely finish in third, he was sitting at 19.9 per cent at last update. Former police chief and current councillor Andy McGrogan was in fourth at 13.2 per cent. Alan Rose was in fifth at 4.6 per cent followed by Mark Fisher 1.7 per cent. In the race for council, it appears incumbent Shila Sharps, who filed the original complaint against Clark that led to the mayor’s sanctions, is paying the price for it sitting 23rd out of the 39 candidates as of last update. Meanwhile, both Robert Dumanowski and Alison Van Dyke sit ninth and 12th respectively, on the outside looking in.News calls four council seats
The News is projecting Yusuf Mohammed, Ted Clugston, Stuart Young and Chris Hellman will all be elected to city council. An extremely tight race is unfolding for the final seats on council, with fewer than 65 separating seventh and 11th. Election results for Redcliff and Cypress County can be found via clicking the hyperlinks. The News is able to call the Redcliff mayoral race and the Cypress County race. Results for both Redcliff and Cypress County can be found in the hyperlinks in the previous sentence. Updated as of 10:38 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22, all results are unofficial.Medicine Hat
Mayoral
Linnsie Clark (Incumbent) – ELECTED: 5,875 Drew Barnes: 5,108 Kris Samraj: 3,604 Andy McGrogan: 2,391 Alan Rose: 834 Mark Fisher: 311Council
Yusuf Mohammed – ELECTED: 8,242 Ted Clugston – ELECTED: 7,757 Stuart Young – ELECTED: 7,006 Chris Hellman – ELECTED: 6,610 Bill Cocks – ELECTED: 4,455 Cheryl Phaff – ELECTED: 4,378 Dan Reynish: 3,969 Brian Varga: 3,870 –––––––––––––––––––– Adam Koch: 3,757 Robert Dumanowski (Incumbent): 3,756 Kirsten Spek: 3,607 Alison Van Dyke (Incumbent): 3,139 Pamela Kunz: 3,134 Brock Hale: 2,998 Immanuel Moritz: 2,916 Laura Butterfield: 2,819 Steven Pudwell: 2,808 Brian Robinson: 2,774 Jay Hitchen: 2,199 Kirby Schafer: 2,011 Kevin Monson: 1,927 Gordon Cowan: 1,907 Ron Fode: 1,878 Shila Sharps (Incumbent): 1,695 Troy Wason: 1,637 Michael Reid: 1,538 Dave Toth: 1,478 Stephen Campbell: 1,462 Don Fedoruk: 1,440 Randall Noble: 1,261 Kelly Allard: 1,224 Mark Albrecht: 1,207 Jodi Faith: 1,194 Christien Ellis: 1,110 Clayton Stevens: 998 Dana Christensen: 574 Donald Knudsen: 556 Kaleb Orge: 471 Micheal Starner: 437Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education Trustee
Chuck Hellman – ELECTED: 1,670 Kathy Glasgo – ELECTED: 1,528 Richard Mastel – ELECTED: 1,244 Bernard Thomas Kinch: 950 Ray West: 888 ––––––––––––––– Patty Jo Folliott: 810 Deanna Alford: 702 Monica Braat: 604 Alicia Doud: 573 Lindsay Heier: 428Medicine Hat Public School Division Trustee
Pat Grisonich – ELECTED: 4,573 Catherine Wilson – ELECTED: 3,432 Quinn Skelton – ELECTED: 3,171 Gwendoline Dirk: 2,614 Megan Hilgendorf: 2,601 ––––––––––––––– Deborah Forbes: 2,423 Yvonne Sissons: 2,285 Danielle Beach: 2,107 Wesley Paterson: 1,142 Jessie Bishop: 701 Becky Poirier: 640 Jan Kline-Farmer: 564 Jeneal Vargo: 500 140-139
One would think with the previous MESS at City Hall that the people would know better than to re-elect this Mayor? Sounds like a lot of slow learners still go out and vote……..I am sick and tired of MY PROPERTY TAXES GOING UP and up, and the WASTE OF TAX DOLLARS on freaking SOLAR FARM dreams……we don’t have the $$$$$ for these USELESS PROJECTS………haven’t we learned anything from the LAST CITY COUNCIL & MAYOR??? I guess NOT……..what a disgrace
Everyone loves to blame the Mayor while conveniently forgetting the real mess was made by the last council and the City Manager who got shown the door — along with her little fan club still clinging to the spotlight. The hypocrisy is wild. Now they act like responsible governance is “waste” just because it doesn’t fit their narrative. The truth is, responsible investment — even solar — builds long-term value, not just for the city but for homeowners too. If your property taxes went up, it’s partly because your home is worth more. That’s called a stronger city, not a failed one.
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Do all of you delusional voters need to be reminded of your lack of common sense with regards to this “responsible” investment? Mindboggling. If you disagree, you’re part of the problem.
Headly Lamar.
I swear the moderator of this site is censoring everything.
You can’t deny that.
Or this.
Or even this. I can go on, but all of you be triggered and delusional.