Grande Prairie City Councilor Chris Thiessen. Photo Credit: City of Grande Prairie.

By Shane Clausing

Chris Thiessen re-elected

Thiessen grateful to earn third term on city council after topping polls

Oct 20, 2021 | 5:00 AM

Chris Thiessen has unofficially been re-elected for his third term on Grande Prairie City Council.

Thiessen received the most votes out of any of the 19 council candidates in the 2021 municipal election, where he secured over 5,500 votes.

Thiessen tells EverythingGP he didn’t expect to receive so much support in this election.

“I was pretty blown away to be quite frank. Of course, everybody runs an election with the hopes to win,” he explained.

“I didn’t set my goals to be tops of the polls, (I did) just to get re-elected and to hopefully sit on a great team, and you know what? We got a great team. For me and Grande Prairie, I think that’s the most important thing.”

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Thiessen will be just one of three returning councillors retaining a seat from the last term – including Dylan Bressey and Kevin O’Toole.

While securing another four years on council, he says he wants to help accomplish a couple of things, especially coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think first and foremost is recovery, and when I say recovery, I think it’s multifaceted. I think our recovery of our community and recovery of our economy,” he explained.

“COVID has been hard on everybody and mental health is probably at an all-time low across the country. So, how can we get our community to bounce back and be more connected together going forward?”

He adds the city does have some exciting projects in the works, which will hopefully help the economy bounce back as well.

“We’ve got a new hospital opening up here, we’ve got the Hughes Lake Industrial Park area that we’re looking at, so there’s lots of opportunity in Grande Prairie to make this place even better than it already is, and the greatest place to live work and play and raise a family.”

Thiessen said while he was knocking on doors this campaign he heard from residents about their concerns in the city.

Some of those concerns consisted of issues with homelessness and housing in the community. He hopes he can help address those issues in the near future.

“They’re really hoping that council would continue the work the previous council did around addressing those issues and also hoping for a bit more. I know it was our number one priority on the last council. Hopefully, it will stay there or be close to the top of our priorities because we have still a lot of work to do and a lot of homes to build for people.”

Thiessen wanted to thank everyone who voted for him and those who helped out with his campaign. He says he looks forward to continuing to represent Grande Prairie on council.

Thiessen will also be joined by five new members on council, including Grant Berg, John Lehners, Wendy Bosch, Gladys Blackmore and Mike O’Connor.

Jackie Clayton narrowly defeated Eunice Friesen in the mayoral race to unofficially become Grande Prairie’s first elected female mayor.