Election forum a chance to hear from full slate of local candidates

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The candidates for this year’s municipal election will be in the spotlight at the Taber Legion Hall on Oct. 1 at 6:30 p.m. for a live, on-the-spot election forum. Nomination day closed at noon on Sept. 22 and six of the seven members of Taber town council declared for a return to office.

 Those include Andrew Prokop, Jack Brewin, Carly Firth, Monica McLean, Dan Remfert, and Joanne Sorensen. Veteran councillor Garth Bekkering opted out of another term, leaving room for at least one new face at the table.

 The mayoral race will be a two-man vote, with Alf Rudd vying for the position that Prokop has held for the last two terms. The new candidates for town council are Josh Antoniuk, Leanne Friesen, Phyllis Monks-Jensen, Randy Sparks, Dale Tilleman, and Naomi Wiebe.

 Jared Bell, president of the Taber and District Chamber of Commerce, will moderate the event and he said that the Chamber is asking everyone to submit their questions ahead of time to taberchamber@gmail.com.

 “It’s going to be a long night and we would like to try and streamline the process,” Bell said. “We will be doing the mayoral candidates first, then moving on to town council.  We are also extending an invite to the MD councillors that are running opposed, but have not had confirmation yet if they are going to participate.”

 If the MD councillors participate they will be next in line after the town councilors have wrapped up their Q&A.

 As the Chamber receives questions from the public via email, it will keep those questions under wraps until the moment they are directed to the panel of candidates at the forum.

The questions from residents will be prioritized, but Bell said, “I will be getting some questions put together in the event we don’t have enough questions from the public. It will be a function of time.”

 He expects the event to conclude by 9:30 p.m. Candidates will then have another 18 days to campaign before election day on Oct. 20. The Town of Taber does not run a ward system and upon election, town councillors serve the citizens of the town as a whole. The MD runs a division system in place of wards. Both the Town and MD provide the guidelines for all candidates but do not participate in any way with campaigns, platforms or endorsements.

 For more information, visit taber.ca/election or mdtaber.ab.ca/p/2025-election