Drew Barnes, left, finished second to Linnsie Clark in the 2025 mayoral race in Medicine Hat, but offered kind words, congratulations and a call focus only on moving forward.-- NEWS FILE PHOTO
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Mayoral runner-up Drew Barnes, who received 5,108 votes, congratulated Linnsie Clark on her victory Wednesday and called for unity among Hatters following results of the election.
“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.”
Barnes thanked his supporters and dozens of volunteers who aided throughout his campaign.
“I’m very, very grateful to have received all the support that I did,” he 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.”
Seeking a transformation and change, Barnes campaigned on bringing an easing period to city hall following a tumultuous term between council, staffers and the mayor.
“Many Medicine Hatters spoke out for a complete change, wanting the entire council and mayor from last time gone,” he said. “There are some significant changes. And when it comes to change, if you’re facing an affordability crisis, can’t afford to buy groceries, or can’t afford to pay your property taxes, it’s a serious problem. So I’m confident that Mayor Clark and the eight new councillors will respect that and do something.”
During public forums, the former MLA spoke about making Medicine Hat more appealing to business, lowering taxes and addressing crime.
“Many said they were concerned about our lack of growth and opportunities, many said they felt taxes were too high, and many wanted to do something to help the homeless, but hold all criminal activity accountable.”
Despite losing a close race, Barnes says his love for Medicine Hat remains and he plans to continue attracting business to the area and perhaps seek other opportunities in politics.
“I love Medicine Hat, I love this area, I love the people. I’m just going to continue to promote smaller government, lower taxes and if and when there’s another opportunity to be involved, I’ll look at it.”
Kris Samraj, who received 3,604 votes and finished third, says he was not surprised by the close results as many Hatters were split on large issues.
“There is obviously a lot going on in Medicine Hat. It’s not surprising that the results are quite divided. There are hard decisions and everyone has a different take on which direction to go.”
Samraj congratulated Clark on her victory and reflected back on connecting with different parts of the community during his campaign.
“Just for the mayoral race, there’s some real solid candidates there, I think it’s always nice when people have a choice for who to vote for.”
Samraj says it’s “prudent” new council takes a moderate approach to decision making.
“For those council members who got in, just for them to keep an open mind,” he said. “Because obviously between Drew and Linnsie, it was pretty much tied, so I think the community would ideally want some kind of compromise in between those two leaders’ positions.”
Encouraged by voter turnout and record number of candidates, Samraj hopes to see civic momentum continue to grow.
“I think coming out of these elections is, how to sustain some of this momentum. Obviously you need to keep working on a lot of these things and so you don’t want to lose all this momentum here that you’ve gained through the campaign.”
Samraj says generally speaking Medicine Hat is in “good shape,” and plans to continue being involved with city committees, including his role on the Resilient and Inclusive Task Force formed earlier this year.
Former police chief and councillor Andy McGrogan (2,391) finished fourth and is disappointed with the results but confident in those elected
“I think our future is bright,” said McGrogan. “I think we really did elect a really good team. A lot of those council members that got in are people that I would have been happy to work with.”
McGrogan is still surprised his campaign efforts did not yield more votes.
“I thought I’d get more votes than I did, we did run a really excellent campaign,” he said. “I had an excellent team, we worked really hard, we did over 12,000 doors. I’m surprised at the vote totals, but Hatters at the end of the day get to speak about who they want as their next mayor and I respect that.”
McGrogan says there is a lot of work to do moving forward.
“There’s big decisions to make around collective agreements, around the homeless shelter, our tax situation,” McGrogan said. “I think there’s some very competent people that have been elected and I look forward to watching and learning and listening.
“This was about service to our community, and I’ll land somewhere doing something and it’ll be because I love the community. Nothing more, nothing less, just like it always has been.”
Fifth place Alan Rose (834) says there was obviously difficulty connecting his message with voters.
“I think I did everything I could to get my message out to contact with people, I tried to make myself as accessible as possible, but apparently what I was saying was not connecting with people,” said Rose.
“I gave solutions for things I thought were a problem, and everyone else was vague … At least I can now go calmly and say I did get my message out.”
Rose says he ran to represent a positive transformation and fight for citizens who are struggling.
“They were hoping for someone that can empathize because they felt disenfranchised, and given my experience, I was very open about my experience and I’ve suffered like a lot of (people) are suffering now.”
Rose says he plans to reevaluate any future investments in the region.
“I have to make a decision if I keep investing here, or if I have to mitigate my investments, I mean, it’s just blunt,” said Rose.
Mark Fisher (311) finished sixth. Results are considered unofficial until Friday at noon.
Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect the city’s late-night update of final unofficial vote totals.
