Sandra Masters shares thoughts on election loss, advice for Bachynski

Regina’s outgoing mayor is sharing her thoughts after losing the 2024 election to Chad Bachynski.

Sandra Masters, who finished third in Regina’s mayoral race with 12,114 votes, told 980 CJME’s Greg Morgan her feelings when she found out she was not re-elected as mayor on Wednesday. She said the blow was softer than it might have been because she was surrounded by family and friends on election night.

Listen to Greg Morgan’s interviews with Sandra Masters and Chad Bachynski:

“I had my daughter and son-in-law and my grandkids in town. I had some friends in from out of town that I’ve been friends with a long time, and then just staff from the office and just an amazing group of other leaders in the community,” she said.

READ MORE:

• Meet mayoral candidate Chad Bachynski
• Why did it take so long to get election results in Regina?
• Many new mayors elected across Saskatchewan

“So actually it was OK. It was in a room full of love and support, so it was better than you might expect.”

Masters said she knew there would be a vote split when the results started coming in, and the trend held throughout the night.

“When probably about 46, 50 per cent of the polling was in, you just went, ‘That’s some serious consistency there,’” she said.

When she saw people were waiting in long lines to vote, suggesting a higher voter turnout than the 21 per cent that voted in 2020, Masters said the outcome started to become more clear.

“We were looking and hearing about the polling stations, knowing that they had been lined up. You know that when there’s higher voter turnout, normally that means change,” Masters said.

Asked if she had any regrets about her time as mayor, Masters said the truth of the matter is you always learn from your mistakes.

“You do something and go ‘That didn’t work out the way you were hoping.’ It’s a lot of moving parts, and so as you’re trying to drive those moving parts forward, depending upon the support you get, both internally as well as from other external sources, sometimes the regret is you can’t move things faster than you want to,” she said.

Masters said she phoned Chad Bachynski the night of the election and congratulated him on his win, but she also shared some advice as he heads into his new job.

That advice included getting familiar with the city’s master plans and focusing on building relationships.

“At the end of the day, there’s a whole bunch of people in the city that are going to be looking for connection and leadership in terms of the relationships I’ve developed,” she said.

“Make sure to start connecting with the organizations of different communities across the city to understand what they’re doing, because they’re actually moving the city forward.”