REGINA - Mayor Sandra Masters used the occasion of the 56th Kiwanis State of the City address to confirm she is running for re-election in 2024.
Masters, who had been asked during media interviews earlier in the day about her plans, finally tipped her hand on her future near the end of her “fireside chat”-format address. She was asked by moderator Pam Klein what was happening for Nov. 13, the municipal election day.
Masters responded: “I believe I’ll be having a beer with some close friends waiting to see the results of the next election.”
Soon after in the media scrum, Mayor Masters confirmed to reporters she was in the mayor’s race.
“So, what I’m hoping when I’m watching the results that the city of Regina will give me the absolute privilege and honour of being Mayor again. I will be running in the 2024 election, yes.”
As for why she came to that decision, Masters said there had been talking about it among “the folks in my office, and the folks that I trust that are in my inner circle, and we have thought we would announce later in the year. But there have been some mayors that have been announcing. And at the end of the day it’s my intention to run. We have a lot of work to do, done a lot of work, we had a lot of work to do and I’m just not quite done yet. I think we need to keep moving the city forward.”
Masters said she had also discussed running again with her family over the Christmas holidays, when her kids were asking her if she was running again. "My answer is always I don't know, what do you think?" Masters said. "They worry about me sometimes, but yeah, there were those discussions."
She said her announcement was not tied directly to that morning’s announcement of funding for the new Regina Aquatic Centre, which had been a central pledge in her previous campaign for Mayor.
As for what her priorities will be in that campaign to come, Masters pointed to municipal infrastructure and proper planning for that investment, as well as financial accountability and transparency from an operational perspective. She also pointed to safety, affordability and inclusiveness as well.
She pointed to the recent council approval of the North Central revitalization project, something which she spoke of at length during her State of the City remarks — a youth-centred approach to neighbourhood revitalization.
“I want to see what we can get accomplished in the next four years in that neighbourhood for those kids and those families and those folks that live there.”
Masters also pointed to continued investments in road construction, the water network expansion, investment in the Globe Theatre and the YWCA, and investments in shelter spaces, supportive housing and transitional housing. “It’s about that continued investment that gets us as those incremental improvements.”
Masters also voiced her support for a strong Regina downtown. “Great cities have great downtowns,” she said.
"There's just a lot of work to do and we're not quite done it yet."
