Mayoral candidate ready to be ‘dark horse’ in 2020 civic race

A self-proclaimed ‘dark horse’ says he’s emerging into the Saskatoon mayoral race.

Cary Tarasoff, a candidate with life experience in the military, construction, planning and an entrepreneur believes that city hall is broken.

“Communication is failing and city hall is not responsive to citizens or businesses when we come with our complaints. I know, that’s why I am standing here,” he said in a press conference Monday.

“I’m tired of hearing all these empty promises and carrots on sticks from Charlie (Clark), Rob (Norris) and Don (Atchison)… it’s getting crazy, and it’s distracting from the real issues that we’re all facing in Saskatoon.”

When referring to himself as the dark horse, Tarasoff said that “if you back this horse, you won’t be taking a gamble.”

His plea, which included getting “back to basics” included three commitments Monday.

That if elected, Tarasoff would show leadership, stop taking on debt during the pandemic, forge strong relationships and overcome management issues at city hall.

“We know we’re in a serious situation and we don’t know if we’re going to pay our bills soon. So, we gotta stop all the fancy expenditures and tighten up really quickly… people are losing their lives right now,” he explained, when speaking about pandemic debt.

Tarasoff also spoke of his idea of moving Saskatoon’s rail lines underneath the city.

“I worked a lot in mining. It’s very common in mines,” he explained.

“They could set up their operations for the 21st century instead of the 20th, 19th century. Then they could go under the city, come back up where they want to and we wouldn’t know they’re there.”

He also said a potential future downtown arena would benefit, with a light rail connection, using some of the existing rails.

“We just have to think differently,” Tarasoff said.

When speaking of the upcoming Nov. 9 election, he had a message for voters.

“I’m a practical person… We go off on these ‘pie in the sky things,'” he said.

“We don’t need to spend the mega amount of money for this utopia when we could do small things that make people’s lives so much better, today.”

Tarasoff also spoke of the social media jabs that other mayoral candidates have made through the campaign in 2020.

“I want to fight with policy, (with) real direction… I do my best to put out real policy,” he said.

“I don’t really care about (social media fights), I’m making direct comments to Charlie Clark in my videos on purpose. Because he’s let me down, I voted for him.”

Tarasoff said people are scared, people need help, and he said he wants to protect the people of the city and the city itself come Nov. 9 and beyond.