Photo courtesy of the City of Grande Prairie

By Shaun Penner

First Incumbent to enter race

Councillor Bressey to seek re-election in October municipal election

Jul 8, 2021 | 12:19 PM

Dylan Bressey will be seeking a second term on Grande Prairie City Council.

On Thursday, Bressey announced he has submitted his nomination forms and will officially be seeking re-election on October 18.

Bressey is in the midst of his first council term after first being elected in 2017,.

He says he knows the next council has a lot of decisions in front of it, decisions he wants to be a part of.

“Coming out of an incredibly hard year, we have struggling families, businesses, non-profits, and individuals to support. And ballooning RCMP salary costs will put a huge strain on the city budget,” Bressey said. “At the same time, Grande Prairie has unique opportunities before it, including key pieces of land coming available for development.

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“I hope to be at the table to help Council control costs while building a great community for our kids and grandkids.”

Bressey says a big part of his campaign will be connecting with members of the community, through one-on-one meetings, social media and what he calls Community Conversations.

He says this is something he learned worked well during his first election campaign, which he carried over into his council work.

“I continued writing about Council decisions, being active on social media, setting up coffee meetings, and hosting Community Conversations. Along the way, I’ve received lots of great feedback, perspectives, and ideas,” he said.

“I look forward to even more people engaging in conversation about how to make Grande Prairie an even better community to live, work, play, and learn in.”

Bressey has been vocal in recent months about his displeasure with the province choosing to have non-municipal issues placed on the ballot, like a referendum on equalization payments, as well as senate nominee elections.

He says his concern is that municipal issues, and the ideas of fellow candidates, may be drowned out by provincial and federal issues.

“I’m not worried about projecting my voice. I am worried about the ability of new candidates with less name recognition to project their voices,” said Bressey.

“I hope that our residents will be following all election campaigns, not just a few familiar names.”

Bressey is the first incumbent councillor to officially submit his nomination forms.

As of Thursday, there were seven other candidates running for council: Ejibola Folashade Adetokunbo-Taiwo, Shae Guy, Ngemital Paul Rovin, Michael Patrick O’Connor, Solomon Okhifoh, Grant Berg, and Neil Tuazon.

Bryan Petryshyn is the lone mayoral candidate to have filed his nomination forms, though Interim Mayor Jackie Clayton has announced her intention to run for the mayoral seat as well.