'The people of Saskatoon have spoken clearly': Rob Norris concedes election, blasts Don Atchison

Rob Norris on election night (Pat McKay/CTV Saskatoon)

Saskatoon — After the results of Friday night’s civic election started to come in, it was immediately clear that incumbent Charlie Clark would once again occupy the mayor’s office.

Candidate Rob Norris, who finished just over 12,000 votes behind Clark, took to the podium at his headquarters to wish him well.

“I will be reaching out to Charlie Clark shortly to congratulate him on this victory was a hard fought campaign,” he said. “The people of Saskatoon have spoken clearly, and the people are right to move in the direction that they have selected. That’s the democratic process.”

Norris’ campaign was aggressive right from day one, especially in critique of Clark’s administration, but he said that didn’t have any negative affect on the results.

“I’m happy with the campaign that we've waged. Anytime you're taking on an incumbent, we need to make sure that we're--we spelled out a very, very clear choice. I tried to do that respectfully, but I tried to do it forcefully,” he said, before changing gears. “I think the larger factor tonight that we're seeing is actually the vote split, and that Don Atchison had a significant impact on this campaign, and that is: Don Atchison helped to reinforce the status quo.”

Norris said he believes the results could have been quite different had Atchison not run.

“Certainly the early numbers we're looking at, every indication is it would have been a two horse race.”

While Norris wouldn’t reveal what his future holds in politics, he did say he hopes the ideas and policies he brought forward during his campaign will have an impact on the next city council and administration.

“There are thousands of people across our fine city that obviously found the policy, perspectives, and proposals we put forward, that they resonated,” he said. “

“And I do hope that mayor and council will be attentive, and to think very carefully about the message that that sends. I think people are deeply concerned about issues of affordability, deeply concerned about safety, deeply concerned about prosperity and the next generation of jobs, and want to see a more welcoming Saskatoon. I think those themes resonate. Obviously, Mr. Clark had his own platform, and he's in a position to judge not simply the inputs and ideas that I've offered, that this campaign is offered, but also ideas from the other candidates as well.”