Brent Ramsay is the new Mayor of Red Deer County.
With 2,216 votes, the former Division 5 councillor won a race between three incumbents to become Mayor. He garnered 48 per cent support and defeated his closest competitor by over 770 votes. Division 6’s Christine Moore finished second with 1,443 and Division 2’s Lonny Kennett was third with 952. Ramsay says “I think anytime you get a decisive win like that it is pretty positive. To me it shows that, you know, I tried to build my platform off the feedback I received from residents over the years and what I believed they wanted to see and turn that into actionable items. Throughout the campaign, I tried to stay positive and focus on what I could bring to the table as a leader, and that seemed to resonate well with residents.”
After one term on council, Ramsay felt it was a critical time for Red Deer County with long-time Mayor Jim Wood stepping down and there was going to be a big turnover in their council. He says “I really believed that we needed some strong leadership that could work with the new council collaboratively and get them on the same page and the better we work together, the more we can move forward and the more we are going to accomplish.”
Ramsay lives on a farm just west of Spruce View and notes that one thing he has been pushing over the last couple years on council is an agricultural viability strategy. He says “we need to look across Red Deer County because we are so diverse. You know, we have some key agricultural areas that I think we really need to protect and we’ve seen a lot of pressure from development and renewable energy development over the last couple of years. So I think we could use that strategy to find a way to protect some of our key agricultural areas, keep our industry viable and balance that with growth.”
Ramsay reflects on one of the accomplishments he was pleased with from Red Deer County council’s previous term. He says “there was a number of good things we did. Obviously, bringing the P & H Flour Mill to central Alberta was a huge win. They are really under construction right now and hopefully we will get started processing next year. I’m really excited to see what that does for our ag industry and what kind of other businesses that will attract to Red Deer County.”
The new council for Red Deer County will have just Ramsay and Division 3’s Dana Depalme as re-elected incumbents.
In Division 1, it was Lee Girard (516) winning over Wildred Hanson (271). In Division 2, Kelli Ritz (426) was elected and Monique LaGrange (333) finished second. Depalme was re-elected in Division 3 thanks to 357 votes. Sherri Ross was second (254) and Dean J. Turnquist (129) was third. Julie Brewster collected 398 votes to earn the council spot in Division 4 over Trevor Thompson (228). Carly Anna Hansen (530) won a fairly close race in Division 5 over Jordan Roy Staudinger (462). Division 6 had the most candidates with four and in the end Ryanna Hansen (288) was elected over Leanna P.E. Hamilton (257), Christopher Adam Jesse Pelletier (99), and Joeanne Matejka (31).
According to County officials, voter turnout was down from 38 per cent in 2021 to 30 per cent this time around.
The new Red Deer County council will be sworn in at an organizational meeting on November 4th.
Listen to 96.5 The Ranch’s conversation with Brent Ramsay.
