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This article was published 21/5/2014 (2314 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You can scratch Coun. Scott Fielding off the list of potential mayoral candidates.

The two-term St. James-Brooklands councillor announced this morning he will not run for mayor this fall.

Fielding, first elected to council in 2006, does not plan to run for his seat a third time. He no longer lives in St. James-Brooklands and committed to serving only two terms‎ in 2007.

"In a discussion with friends, and more importantly, family, I just figured that it wasn’t the right time for me to run," Fielding told reporters, adding he is considering either running provincially for federally and he’ll make that announcement in a few weeks.

Fielding joked he will focus on "selling soap," a reference to his family business, Tiber River Naturals.

The card-carrying Conservative said he will make his intentions known in the coming weeks about potential provincial or federal runs.

"I ran on a term-limit and I want to live up to that commitment that I won’t be running again for council," Fielding said.

Fielding's departure from the mayoral race means the race will be less crowded than expected on the right. Conservative candidates Gord Steeves, Brian Bowman and Paula Havixbeck have registered their campaigns.

Incumbent mayor Sam Katz and former NDP MP and MLA Judy Wasylycia-Leis have yet to announce their intentions.

Fielding conceded that with three right-of-centre candidates already running for mayor, it would have been difficult for any of them or himself to pull ahead of a single centre-left candidate.

"It’s looking like a bit of a train wreck on the right-hand side of the equation," Fielding said.

Fielding said he will endorse a candidate for mayor after he sits down with each of them individually and determines which has the best chance of beating Wasylycia-Leis.

bart.kives@freepress.mb.ca

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca