Carr and McConnell win school board seats

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2023 (725 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With all polls reporting in, Kirk Carr has been elected in Ward 1 and Lorraine McConnell has been elected in Ward 2 in the Brandon School Division board of trustees byelection.

Both candidates who supported the movement to institute a committee to review and potentially ban books dealing with sexuality or gender issues, Henry Sieklicki and Kara Morrice, failed to win in their respective wards.

In order from most to least votes, here are the unofficial tallies in Ward 1:
• Kirk Carr, 1438 votes
• Sheri Miller, 807 votes
• Kara Morrice, 595 votes
• Quentin Derhak, 253 votes
• Bonnie-Lynn Mills, 240 votes
• Brad Rusnak, 78 votes
• Breanne Bauche, 66 votes
• Scott MacMillan, 57 votes

Here are the unofficial results in Ward 2:
• Lorraine McConnell, 299 votes
• Henry Sieklicki, 128 votes

Total votes cast: 3,961.

Both Carr and McConnell told the Sun after their wins that with the parental rights-supporting candidates being rejected by residents, it’s time for the division and the board of trustees to move on to other matters.

“My first priority is to stop the bigotry that’s been going on, stop this hate,” Carr said. “There’s a lot more things that need to be addressed within the division. We need to get started on doing the hard work.”

“That discussion goes against everything in the Brandon School Division’s policies,” McConnell said. “It’s time for the school board to get on with doing their job and I think the public wants that.”

The topic that dominated the byelection campaign was the same one that has dominated discussion at the board table since May — what content is appropriate to display in local schools.

The issue was first raised by former trustee Lorraine Hackenschmidt, who served in the early 1990s, who made a presentation objecting to books discussing sexuality and gender issues being present in BSD libraries and linking 2SLGBTQIA+ people to pedophilia and grooming.

She called for the board to form a committee to review and potentially ban objectionable content, but that proposal was defeated by a margin of six to one at a board meeting attended by hundreds of people in the gym of Vincent Massey High School.

The latter topic became a bigger point of discussion after Progressive Conservative Leader Heather Stefanson promised to enhance parental rights during the provincial election campaign in same vein as similar efforts in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan to enshrine in law a parent’s right to know if their child changes their personal pronouns or gender identity at school.

This was described by some groups, including the Manitoba NDP, as an anti-2SLGBTQIA+ dogwhistle.

One of the supporters of those planks was Ward 2 candidate Henry Sieklicki, the father-in-law of trustee Breeanna Sieklicki.

The other candidate endorsing those policies was Kara Morrice, the lone Ward 1 candidate to do so.

The other candidates in Ward 1 — Kirk Carr, Brad Rusnak, Quentin Derhak, Scott MacMillan, Bonnie-Lynn Mills, Sheri Miller and Breanne Bauche — and the other candidate in Ward 2 — Lorraine McConnell — all voiced opposition to book bans.

The latter group of candidates, minus MacMIllan and Derhak, congregated at Brandon’s Canad Inns with friends and family to chat as results came in.

When the final results came in around 11 p.m., both winners expressed their excitement.

For Carr, the victory comes just under a year after he failed to be elected to the board of trustees in last fall’s municipal election.

The difference this time around, he said, was that after getting a feel for campaigning, he came out of his shell and voters got to know his true self. He also said he felt that the public responded to his positive campaign.

“The love of our community, in general, really shone through,” he said. “I think a lot of times, Brandon gets kind of shown in a different light, we get shown as a kind of old boys club type of city and we’re not … this election showcases that we aren’t that.”

Some of his concerns heading into the role include looking at rising bullying rates mentioned at the last board meeting and preparing for collective bargaining with teachers and other staff.

For McConnell’s part, she said she thought she was chosen because residents felt she understood the role of a trustee and working together in consensus governance.

“I think I’m willing to collaborate and I’m willing to listen to what other people have to say,” she said. “And also be okay with the fact that there might be something that I feel passionately about that maybe is not going to be viewed the same way as the rest of the board.”

She credited the help of her friends and family in running a grassroots campaign, especially her daughter who helped run her social media accounts and her son who helped her make videos.

Both McConnell and Carr said they were looking forward to working with each other over the next three years.

Though they didn’t come out on top, Bauche and Miller said they were happy with Wednesday’s results

They agreed with Carr and McConnell’s assessment that it is time for the board to move past the book banning and parental rights topics.

The first vacancy on the board came about in the first half of the year, when Ward 2 trustee Caroline Cramer submitted her resignation effective May 1, 2023. Last October, Cramer was acclaimed to the board when no one else ran for the single seat representing the division’s rural constituency.

Later that month, Ward 1 trustee Jason Gobeil submitted his resignation so that he could take a new job opportunity in The Pas with Ducks Unlimited Canada. Gobeil had first been elected to the board in a November 2020 byelection and then re-elected in Oct. 2022.

At this Monday’s Brandon School Division meeting the date of the swearing-in ceremony for the new trustees was set for Nov. 13 before that evening’s regularly scheduled board of trustees meeting.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» X: @ColinSlark