Toews Victorious

(Stan Toews receives congratulatory hug from wife Mary)

Residents of Hanover have re-elected Stan Toews to a third term as Reeve. Toews picked up 1497 votes compared to challenger Clif Bakx who received 771.

"I feel a sigh of relief," says Toews. "All this hard work, it paid off. Still anxious moments in the end."

Toews received more votes than Bakx in 8 of 9 polling stations as well as in advance polls. The only polling station he received fewer votes was in Grunthal, where Bakx took 272 compared to 215 by Toews.

"I take it that people were satisfied with the job I was doing and I'd like to thank them for the confidence they put into me to lead them for another four years," adds Toews.

The Reeve says he had confidence heading into Wednesday based on what he was hearing on the campaign trail.

"I got a good feeling when I went door to door and a lot of people kept encouraging me and told me they would vote for me," he says.

Meanwhile, there were elections in two of the six wards. Gord Meneer took Ward 5 with 215 votes, compared to Neil Warkentin with 173 and Len Friesen with 91. In Ward 6, incumbent Henry Funk was victorious with 347 votes over challenger Doug Wiens who had 148 votes.

Voter turnout in Hanover was just under 37%.

Rounding out council are incumbents Bob Brandt, Bernie Stahn, Pete Hiebert and Dylan Barkman.

Toews says he expects the new council will continue to operate status quo.

"They will work well together," he says. "They see projects and they go after them as a group instead of trying to go off in different directions."

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