Ken Johnston bids a bittersweet farewell ahead of Oct. 20 election

Johnston, a proud Newfoundlander, was first elected to Red Deer city council in 2013, and after two terms decided to run for mayor in 2021.

But at 71, the former banker decided to hang ’em up, as they say, paving the way for a new mayor to be elected Oct. 20.

“This has been the greatest labour of love I could imagine. I never imagined getting a second career after I retired in 2013, but council and running for civic politics seemed like a natural progression based on my love of the city and work I had done in the community,” Johnston shared.

“It’s a difficult goodbye, but I’m certainly at peace of the decision because what I set out to do in 2021 has largely been accomplished.”

For Johnston, that primarily means securing the $1.8 billion in improvements to the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre.

Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston during a December 2023 year-in-review interview with rdnewsNOW at City Hall. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

Not that that’s something he takes all the credit for, nor anything close, of course, but Johnston made that issue a personal quest when his wife Issy experienced cardiac arrest, and later passed away in early 2017.

Issy experienced complications and a long stay in the hospital prior to her passing, likely due to the lack of a cardiac catheterization lab in Red Deer.

Red Deer is now getting two such labs with the new hospital around 2031, and a temporary one within the next two years.

“That was an amazing collaboration of the medical community, certainly our MLAs, council, and ordinary citizens who wanted to make a difference and get that message across. It’s heartwarming to see the construction now occurring, and to understand we’re on a journey to really modernize and become a centre of excellence,” he said.

He’s also proud of the progression in Capstone, as well as with what the city has done to ensure it is properly practising reconciliation with the Indigenous community.

He also noted the city’s growth, with the most recent data from Statistics Canada putting Red Deer over 120,000 people.

“All those things gladden me,” he remarked. “I got elected, largely, on a platform of being able to grab people’s imagination and saying ‘Let’s talk together, and let’s get a shared vision for the city and drive towards it.'”

That’s also why he mentions helping give more visibility to Red Deer’s various ethnic communities.

And he’s confident too that Red Deer’s quality of life is as high as anywhere.

All that said, Johnston is not pretending there haven’t been challenges.

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Chief among them is not seeing a permanent homeless shelter come to fruition, which is a result of various factors, but largely the inability to secure a location.

Rumour has it, he suggests, there’s a potential positive announcement coming in the near future.

“Amongst all the successes we’ve had, not landing a shelter in the four years is certainly a regret of mine. I really thought we could accomplish it,” he said, noting he had a conversation about three weeks ago with Jason Nixon, Alberta’s minister of assisted living and social services.

“He encouraged me that they’ve landed on an operator. This is a topic we never let go as a council. I really think we should have asked the province four years ago, arguably before that, who the operator would be and what kind of programming we would see; that might’ve made it easier for us to be able to deal on some land acquisitions.”

Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston at a Black History Month proclamation event in February 2023. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

Johnston said they looked at over 100 sites, but came to the conclusion that the citizenry needed to see something more tangible from the province in terms of what it was proposing for a shelter.

For Johnston, the future looks like this: more rest, more travel, and family time with both his kids, extended relatives, and of course wife Carolyn, whom he praised heavily at his party for being by his side every step of the way.

Whomever is elected mayor will become the city’s 16th since it amalgamated with the former Village of North Red Deer in 1948.

So what says Johnston in the way of advice for the next mayor-elect?

He actually has way too much advice to publish, sharing he’s written a letter entitled ‘Dear Mayor’ which will publish on his mayor’s blog in the coming days.

He did attempt to sum it up though.

“There is a reality to being mayor that there’s no other position you can offload problems to. You’re it, completely. Another is to invest in your council, make sure you understand your council, who they are, what’s important to them, what issues you can find agreement with, what issues you need to massage, those kinds of things,” he continued.

Mayor Johnston with wife Carolyn at the Bower Place Pancake Breakfast. (Supplied)

“The next piece of advice is to understand your day is never ordinary. You may think you’ve got a 9 o’clock and you can go here and there, but you’re going to get calls from the province, from councillors, from admin, from citizens, from media, and so on.”

He also encourages the next mayor to embrace their administration, and to be pragmatic.

He spoke too about savouring the newness of the role, and being the new mayor who everyone wants to open their door for, giving you a chance to make a great first impression.

“When those 10 months, maybe sooner, are over, you’re no longer the new mayor, you’re the mayor, period. Use that newness to your advantage,” he said.

“This is the greatest privilege that Red Deer has ever given me, and we’re still a great city. The new mayor will have a great city to run, and we’ll continue to build this place we call home.”

Johnston will remain mayor until the new council is sworn-in the first week of November.

by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Ken Johnston bids a bittersweet farewell ahead of Oct. 20 election

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