Regina's mayor-elect believes grassroots campaign, desire for change were his pathways to victory

Regina’s mayor-elect Chad Bachynski believes a grassroots style campaign and the desire for change led him to victory in the Queen City on Wednesday night.

“I’m so proud of the team and what we were able to accomplish running a truly grassroots campaign,” Bachynski told CTV Morning Live Thursday morning. “ And just [the need for] change, really what I heard was people were looking for change and they wanted to see something different in terms of approach and experience,” Bachynski said when asked what he feels resonated with voters.   

The 38-year-old mechanical engineer, who will be sworn in on Nov. 18, says his first order of business at city hall will be seeing the lay of the land and getting a look at the current state of the city.

“Lots of new faces and lots to learn, lots of people to meet, lots of process to understand so that will be absolutely [top] priority and getting at it as quick as I can,” Bachynski said.

Aside from a new mayor, all but two wards will have a new councillor. Bachynski said he took the opportunity to meet as many as he could Thursday evening.

“Did some of that last night, which was great to meet some. Now I’m looking forward to meeting everybody and getting together and planning together,” he said.

In his platform, Bachynski said he planned to prioritize process efficiency, infrastructure investment and overall fiscal responsibility, while also bringing together people with diverse backgrounds and opinions to collectively determine the best outcomes.

“I always knew it would be monumental,” Bachynski said when asked how he will keep his campaign promises. “We’ve got a number of challenges, a billion-dollar infrastructure deficit, understanding that and starting to [see] what does that framework look like in order to tackle those things, that’s going to be key,” he said.

Bachynski also said keeping taxation low will be a key goal he wants to reach.

• Download the CTV News app for local breaking news alerts on your mobile device

The father of two also recognized that two main issues he heard from residents while campaigning, affordability and keeping the city safe, will be tall orders to address.

“We’ve talked about a number of things through the campaign on this, it’s going to be meeting with all the different organizations, our community organizations, our emergency services and again understanding and gathering all the details that we need in order to make sure we’re making good policies and good decisions to start to improve that.”

While thanking all those that supported him and put trust in him, Bachynski said he is now focused on doing everything he can to follow through on his promise to move Regina forward and make it a place where everybody can thrive.

CTV Morning Live plans to speak one on one with Bachynski every couple of weeks.