After hours of uncertainty Wednesday night, Brandon voters have re-elected Jeff Fawcett to a second term as mayor. “Thank you very much everybody, that took almost as long as the election,” Fawcett told a crowd of supporters said with a smile. “Let’s get back to work.” The close race tested the patience of Fawcett’s supporters. An hour after polls closed, electronic machines had counted only four of 28 polls. Early margins between Fawcett and Len Isleifson, a former Brandon East MLA, were fewer than 100 votes. Results in most Winnipeg races were declared quickly, leaving Brandon voters waiting. “The reality is if that could have come in 45 minutes there wouldn’t have been very much stress,” Fawcett said. “It was probably more frustration on the process. The tabulation process four years ago was hand counted which did take longer but at least we knew it was hand counted.” In a statement to CTV News, Heather Ewasiuk, the city’s senior election official, said the delay in having the results available online was “largely due to not having a direct upload of the vote tabulator SD cards to the Brandon Votes webpage.” That required results to be entered manually and could only be submitted one poll at a time, the statement said in part. Whatever the pace, Isleifson, who is also a former Brandon city councillor, was gracious in defeat. He lost by 908 votes, with the official tally at 5,753 for Fawcett and 4,845 for Isleifson. “Although I would love to change spots with him, I wish him the best and again, we’re all here to build our community,” Isleifson told his supporters Wednesday night. “Obviously it’s disappointing, but part of the goal was to make sure people are engaged, to make sure people are listened to.” “I’m relieved, because I didn’t want to let people down that were pulling for me,” Fawcett said. Four years ago, Fawcett defeated his only competitor Elliott Oleson by 2,982 votes. According to Ewasiuk, 10,598 of Brandon’s 38,328 eligible voters cast ballots in the mayoral race this year, a turnout of 27.65 per cent. In 2022, 6,536 of 36,528 eligible voters cast ballots, or 17.9 per cent. Ewasiuk said the voters list grew by 1,800 people, but 4,062 more people voted in 2026. “Under 30 percent of eligible voters, that’s really quite disappointing,” said Kelly Saunders, a political science professor at Brandon University. “I don’t really know what the problem is there because there was a lot of buzz about this municipal election.” “Municipal issues are the issues that impact us on a day-to-day basis. Can we travel on the roads or are they jam packed with snow? Is our garbage going to get picked up? Do we feel safe in downtown Brandon? These are the things that really matter and yet it requires us to get out and vote at the municipal level to have a say.” Four of the 10 members of Brandon city council are new. Ron Shaluk defeated incumbent Heather Karrouze in Ward 1, while Deveryn Ross, Craig Shanks and Norah Woychyshyn will represent Wards 2, 3 and 9, respectively. Bruce Luebke was acclaimed in Ward 6. Shaun Cameron (Ward 4), Greg Hildebrand (Ward 5), Shawn Berry (Ward 7), Jason Splett (Ward 8) and Tyson Tame (Ward 10) were all re-elected. Saunders said she would have liked to see more women and people of colour elected, given Brandon’s changing demographics. “Brandon’s become an incredibly diverse city over the last 20 years that I’ve lived here,” Saunders said. “I think this is the most diverse set of candidates we’ve ever seen. I was disappointed that none of those diverse candidates got elected. It was pretty status quo.” Fawcett said he is eager to get to work and welcome the new faces on council, adding he will be a leader for every Brandonite. “It’s just like a hockey game, you win 9-1 or you win 2-1,” Fawcett said. “When it’s over, it’s over and you carry on and you move forward and you represent all the people no matter the outcome.” Fawcett pointed to Manitoba Hydro investments as a building block for attracting growth in the coming year. “We do know the Portage transmission line should be activated in Brandon in early 2027,” he said. “That’s great, and people know that. That’s why you’ve seen a lot of investment going into industrial land because, really putting into it prior, there wasn’t the capacity. Hydro may come to the table with another large project.” Fawcett said property taxes will remain on council’s agenda as it looks to raise revenue to maintain Brandon’s aging infrastructure. CTV News asked Fawcett about downtown investment, after a number of businesses closed and others reopened during his last term. “This was one of the things I was most excited about, because there are a lot of things that are really close in the downtown,” he said. “A lot of private investments that are going in. We’ve had a lot of funding coming in from the province and the federal government for housing. Market housing that’s going in. Watch, over the next year, there will be a lot of things changing in downtown Brandon.”
