Fort St. John has its say in the 2026 municipal election
Fort St. John will have a new mayor and a council table with plenty of familiar faces after voters had their say Saturday.
Preliminary results from the City of Fort St. John show four incumbent councillors returning for another term, with Gord Klassen, Sarah MacDougall, Jim Lequiere and Tony Zabinsky all holding onto their seats.
They will be joined by newcomers Lucas Wuthrich and Kevin Stigners, who finished fifth and sixth in the council race.
Klassen topped the council ballot with 3,050 votes, finishing just 24 votes ahead of MacDougall at 3,026.
Lequiere followed with 2,618, Zabinsky with 2,538, Wuthrich with 2,443 and Stigners with 2,163.
That left John Lambert outside the six council seats with 1,502 votes, followed closely by Jane Drew with 1,494. Ovvian Hill finished with 1,355 and Avery Cox with 1,104.
The mayor’s chair will also change hands.
Trevor Bolin received 2,934 votes in the mayoral race, while incumbent mayor Lilia Hansen received 1,521.
Hansen had served as mayor since 2022 after previously sitting on council, while Bolin entered this year’s race from his seat as a councillor.
A total of 4,490 ballots were cast in the election from an estimated 16,325 eligible voters, putting voter turnout at 27.5 per cent.
There was another fairly big decision sitting on the ballot too.
Preliminary results show Fort St. John voters also approved borrowing for the proposed new aquatic facility, with 2,965 voting Yes and 1,436 voting No. The referendum asked voters whether the city could borrow up to $90 million over as many as 30 years to construct the Aquatic Facility, including aquatics and an indoor fieldhouse.
Fort St. John’s next council will include four returning councillors and two newcomers, with Bolin moving from council into the mayor’s chair.
The Alaska Highway News would like to thank outgoing mayor Lilia Hansen for her years of service to Fort St. John and for the time and effort she has given to the community.
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