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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

You can't call election in Dauphin boring

Plenty of drama and cheek to go around

By: Mary Agnes Welch

Posted: 10/26/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Current mayor Alex Paul and ex-MP Inky Mark, above, are in a civic race that has voters enthralled. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

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Alex Paul

A former federal MP is a top contender for mayor, newspaper and radio attack ads abound and the voters have never been more engaged.

Forget Winnipeg. Dauphin's civic election has all the same drama and a lot more cheek, thanks largely to former Tory MP Inky Mark. He has promised to install giant beaver statues all along Main Street and hinted he'd fire the city's top administrator.

"In the 20 years I've been in politics, I've never seen so much excitement in Dauphin about a municipal election," said Mark.

In an election cycle where 33 rural councils have already been acclaimed due to lack of interest, Dauphin has three credible mayoral candidates, some with uncommonly detailed platforms, vying to unseat incumbent mayor Alex Paul.

The race also has a sad and mysterious undercurrent -- the still unsolved shooting death of Paul's wife, Diane, in the spring of 2007.

Paul was arrested days after the killing, questioned by police and then released unconditionally 24 hours later. No one has ever been charged with the crime, which has left the town divided. Paul couldn't be reached Monday for an interview.

Paul is up against Mark, the former maverick MP, and Eric Irwin, a local lawyer and community booster who is president of the Countryfest board, the Dauphin Co-op and helped get the new movie theatre built after the old one burned down. Irwin said city hall could be a much more effective instrument of progress, especially in attracting manufacturing and new businesses to town, which is one of the reasons he's running.

Irwin and Mark have traded barbs in the local media, with Irwin criticizing Mark as a weak voice in Ottawa who will now collect the same hefty MP's pension he once decried when he was with the Reform Party. Mark also resigned as MP before he could vote on his signal issue -- killing the federal long-gun registry, noted Irwin.

And, Irwin has taken a few cheeky shots at Mark's "curious affinity for beavers."

As part of a 77-point plan of action, Mark has pledged to create a Dauphin Order of the Beaver award as well as a promise to line Main Street with beaver statues.

He has also promised to review the role of senior city administrators and has harshly condemned the city's chief administrative officer. In radio ads, Mark says a vote for Irwin is a vote to retain the CAO, though others say Dauphin's chief administrator is among the best-respected town managers in the province.

The race's fourth candidate is Brian Chita, a small businessman and council's deputy mayor who has largely ducked under the war of words between Irwin and Mark.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 26, 2010 A5

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