Winners by default: No election needed in Bredenbury, Sask.

As thousands of people head to the polls in Saskatoon and Regina for their respective municipal elections, citizens of one rural municipality won't even need to cast a vote on Oct. 26 because their mayor and town council have already been acclaimed.

In the town of Bredenbury, Sask., about 203 kilometres east of Regina, candidates for council and mayor have all beenacclaimed, meaning the candidates who put their names forward in the nomination processaren't being challenged.

According to Bredenbury's new mayor, who already has the seat secure without a single person casting a vote in his name, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. It's actually turning into quite the norm.

"I can't remember the last time we had a big election," Jonas St. Marie said. "I know when I ran for town council there was another person, but most of the time the people who sign up are the ones who getthe job."

He added the town is quite pleased they won't have to spend thousands of dollars to hold an election and candidates won't need to spend money on election signs or eat up their nights campaigning.

That being said, St. Marie said he still door-knocked and spoke to some key stakeholders in the town of 250 just to make sure he had their support.

But at only 38 years old, St. Marie hopes he can set an example for future town council's showing that you don't have to be an expert in politics to run for office.

"One of my reasons to run was I want to set an example to the younger generations that you can do it. A lot of people I talked to say 'they'd never let me in there', or 'I don't know enough about the community'," he said.

"I hope when my term is over people can look at it and say, 'you know what Jonas jumped on board, the town didn't burn to the ground, nothing catastrophic happened, maybe I can do it.'"

Incumbent councillor Ken Reykjalin said the town's so small it seems like the majority of people have served on council at one time or another and it's hard to get people to commit with everything else going on in their lives.

But the community is very supportive of people who they want to be in office. Reykjalin said when he chose to run for council in the last election, his neighbours did most of the heavy lifting for him.

"The first time I got elected I wasn't campaigning, people actually asked me to put my name into council and my neighbours did all the work getting signatures on the application," he said.

Come election night, Reykjalin said he has no plans. It'll likely be just another regular Wednesday night in Bredenbury.