WESTLOCK – Westlock County Div. 7 Coun. Christine Wiese, the woman who’s served as reeve since a stunning, secret-ballot result nearly a year ago, will let her name stand again for the position at the municipality’s Oct. 25 organizational meeting.
Wiese, a rookie politician who handily won her seat on council in the Oct. 18, 2021, municipal election by 130 votes, followed up by claiming the reeve’s seat following a secret-ballot win at the Oct. 26, 2021, organizational meeting over incumbent Coun. Jared Stitsen, who’d served as reeve from 2020-2021 and has been the Div. 2 rep since 2017. At that same meeting, Coun. Ray Marquette, who easily won Div. 3 by a 106-vote margin in the election, beat both Stitsen and Div. 5 incumbent Coun. Isaac Skuban in the secret-ballot vote for deputy reeve.
Wiese said her “farm lifestyle” has allowed her to tackle the role fully and attend a wide variety of board meetings outside of council chambers.
“I signed up to make a difference and that’s what I’m trying to do. I’ve really enjoyed it. There’s a been a lot of growth over the last year and I know there’s a lot more things to learn,” said Wiese. “I don’t have a nine-to-five job and I have an amazing support system with my spouse, so if I can’t be there to feed the cows, he can do that, or we can pull in a friend or a neighbour to do it. To me it’s important as the reeve to not only be there for the council meetings, but to get to all of the other things that are going on as well.”
Similar to a mayor, the reeve acts as the chair of council meetings and is the group’s spokesperson. Where the two positions differ is that a mayor is elected every four years by the entirety of the ratepayers, while a reeve is elected annually by council — in the Village of Clyde the mayor position mirrors the reeve.
Wiese, who’s only the second woman to hold the title of reeve following former Div. 3 Coun. Lou Hall, who sat in the head chair from 2017 to 2019, added she’ll have no hard feelings if anyone runs against her, or if they end up unseating her.
“I think we have a great council, and we have a great support system amongst each other regardless of who is running the meetings,” she said.
Wiese agreed that while the first six months for this council was chaotic and included the abrupt resignation of former CAO Kay Spiess in March, the municipality, under the new leadership of CAO Tony Kulbisky who signed a six-year contract at the end of August, is trending in the right direction.
“We needed leadership that could calm the waters and not stir it up. I think we now have someone in place with the background to actually steer the ship. I’m extremely hopeful for Westlock County and that’s why all of us signed up as councillors — to try and improve it,” said Wiese. “Coming up on our first-year anniversary we’re seeing how it’s supposed to be, and we’re excited for the years following.”
