Hinton residents have a choice of five candidates to fill the two vacant councillor seats in the Feb. 27 byelection, while Ian Duncan takes the mayoral seat by acclamation.

The five residents vying for council are George Higgerty, Lorraine Johnson-MacKay, Ryan Maguhn, Rick Grinnell and Anton Sitar.

Sitar was a town councillor in Hinton for 27 years. He was first elected in 1968 and was re-elected 15 times after that. He moved to town in 1957 to work in the pulp mill. He retired in the late 1990s.

This is Grinnell’s second kick at the can, after running in the 2010 election, in which he garnered 913 votes, putting him 415 votes away from the sixth councillor position.

Grinnell, who has lived in Hinton for about six years, is the general manager of Cars, RV and Motorsports.

This is the first time around for the other three candidates. 

Higgerty is a real estate agent with Re/Max Realty 2000. He is also the president of the Hinton and District Chamber of Commerce.

Johnson-MacKay is a long time Hinton resident and is the president of the Hinton Historical Society. She also sits on the board of the chamber of commerce.

Maguhn is a high school teacher at Gerard Redmond Community Catholic School. He is also a former volunteer fire fighter.

The Feb. 27 election is the result of three resignations. The first was Coun. Stephen Mitchell on Dec. 20. Mitchell cited family reasons for his resignation.

The next was Mayor Glenn Taylor, who resigned on Jan. 3, in order to run in the upcoming provincial election. His resignation came the same day as the byelection was called. Taylor said that decision was intentional because it will save taxpayers money to have both elections at once.

Coun. Ian Duncan was the third to hand in his resignation, which was required by law in order for him to throw his hat in the ring for mayor. He ran uncontested and won by acclamation.

Jan. 30 was the last day interested candidates had to submit nomination forms for the vacant mayoral and council seats.

The Hinton Chamber of Commerce will be holding an all-candidates forum Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. in council chambers. For those who can’t make it there in person, it will be televised on Shaw Cable and will later be available on YouYube.