Sam Katz secured another term as Winnipeg mayor in Wednesday's civic election, winning more than 60 per cent of votes cast.
"I'm so grateful to stand here before you tonight, re-elected as your mayor," Katz told an assembled crowd of cheering supporters Wednesday night.
Katz said his victory proves Winnipeggers believe in his work over the last two years of his first mandate.
"Winnipeggers had a choice, a choice to go back to the way things were done, or a choice to move forward. Winnipeggers chose to move forward," he said.
"With the overwhelming mandate I have received today, I will continue to work together with the city council to continue to fix our ailing roads and bridges, to continue to work with our police to get even more police officers on our streets."
Katz defeated former NDP MLA Marianne Cerilli, who secured 22.5 per cent of the vote; Kaj Hasselriis, who had 13.2 per cent; and Ron Pollock, who won 2.6 per cent of the vote.
Cerilli said she felt pretty good about her campaign, despite coming in second to Katz.
"We wanted to run a campaign that was going to put issues in front of Winnipeggers, that was going to give them an alternative," she said.
"And give them someone that had been in government, that knew how government worked, that was going to be able to not only carry an agenda, but also be able to know how to implement that agenda in government."
Hasselriis, who at 32 was the youngest mayoral contender in this race, attributed Katz's victory to his familiarity to voters.
"Sam Katz is an incumbent in a city that traditionally re-elects incumbents. And Sam Katz is a very well-known person," Hasselriis said Wednesday night.
"But I think under the circumstances, considering no one really knew who I was four months ago, I think we did a pretty job of spreading the message and getting new ideas out there."
Voter turnout was near an all-time low, with 171,395 votes cast on Wednesday — about 38 per cent of the 450,000 registered voters in the city. In the 2002 civic election, 48.7 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.
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