By Rhonda Lafrance
After serving the County of St. Paul and the regional school division for eight years, Ray Danyluk will now have the chance to serve the entire Lac La Biche-St. Paul constituency after the next provincial election.
Over 1,600 people packed the Vilna Cultural Centre on Sunday to vote for one of four nominees who were up for the candidacy. A total of 1,609 ballots were cast with only 12 being spoiled, surprising considering a preferential ballot system was used. Voters had to rank the candidates in order of preference.
Danyluk received an overwhelming 818 votes. Tom Lett came in second with 430 votes and Dareld Cholak was third with 340 votes. Maxine Fodness followed up the pack. Through the preferential ballot system, the last place person is dropped and the second place totals from these dropped ballots are added to the top three nominees.
Danyluk was purely awestruck by the amount of supporters who came out to cast their ballots. "I never realized the impact this vote had on some people. People that were ill stayed around and waited for the results."
After Danyluk's acceptance speech, the remaining three nominees threw their support behind Danyluk and said everyone has to work together now to win the next provincial election and have a local Conservative sitting in the Legislature.
