There are now five candidates running for mayor in this fall’s civic election.
Cary Tarasoff is the latest to join the race, as he announced his bid for mayor at Fred Mitchell Memorial Park Friday morning.
Tarasoff joins Rob Norris, Mark Zielke and Zubair Sheikh on the ballot to challenge Charlie Clark.
Tarasoff is an architectural technologist and at one time served in the military. His name is similar to Saskatoon’s chief financial officer, Kerry Tarasoff, but as far as they know, they are not related.
He wasted no time in taking jabs at Saskatoon’s current leader, Charlie Clark.
“Since Charlie has been mayor, he does not want to talk to me about a lot of issues,” Tarasoff said. “Saskatoon needs proper leadership and decision making. If I felt there was a viable candidate for mayor I wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
Tarasoff discussed whether he would take measures to defund the Saskatoon Police Department or not.
“I don’t believe in some sort of blanket of defunding the police,” he said. “Our police need to be extra prepared for a lot of situations. I believe the police force needs a bit more focus on some things.”
When asked about body cameras, Tarasoff responded that he thought it was something to consider and that it’s important to keep track of what’s going on when no one is looking.
Tarasoff also gave his thoughts on a mandated mask policy.
He didn’t go as far as to publically endorse it, but said it comes down to health officials to make that decision.
“If it’s to save lives, then we need to do it,” he said. “The conditions to trigger a mandatory mask-wearing situation would have to come from health officials directly.”