About 2500 residents of Tantramar voted in the first mayor and council for the new municipality, with six of the new slate coming from existing council positions in Sackville and Dorchester, and another three new to local politics.
Current Sackville Deputy Mayor Andrew Black will steer the ship as mayor of the new municipality, winning by a margin of about 10% over his next closest competitor, current Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau.
Black won the mayoral contest with 1164 votes, about 46% of the ballots cast. Shawn Mesheau garnered about 36% of the vote, with 922 votes cast. And Bonnie Swift took 17% of the vote with 432 ballots cast in her favour.
In a post on social media, Mesheau congratulated the winning candidates, and thanked his campaign team. He also had thanks for the current and outgoing council. “As the last Mayor of Town of Sackville I wish to recognize and thank the current Council and staff for their efforts over the past 18 months. As Mayor I also want to thank Sackvillians for entrusting us to serve their interests. I have had a wonderful experience in my 14 years as an elected official,” wrote Mesheau.
Three new faces, five ‘incumbents’ elected to council
In Ward 1, current Dorchester Mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell beat out her colleague Robert Corkerton with 176 out of 258 votes cast. In Ward 2, former Sackville superintendent of public works Barry Hicks won the most contested seat on the council, with four candidates in total. Hicks took the seat with 94 out of 261 votes.
Out of the four councillors elected in Ward 3, the three with the highest vote counts are all current town of Sackville councillors: Allison Butcher (1098), Michael Tower (950), and Bruce Phinney (861). Newcomer Josh Goguen will join them in the fourth spot representing Ward 3, after getting 852 votes.
In Ward 4, current Sackville councillor Matt Estabrooks beat out his colleague Sabine Dietz for the seat. Estabrooks won 154 votes out of a total of 242.
Finally, in Ward 5, lone candidate Greg Martin is acclaimed.
To see the full results from electionsnb.ca, scroll down.
Surprised, excited, determined to try again
Some Tantramar candidates spent the evening at Ducky’s awaiting results, including newly elected Ward 3 candidate Josh Goguen.
“It’s gonna be exciting,” said Goguen Monday night. “I’ve hit a lot of houses, and I’ve heard a lot of positive vibes. And I’m actually quite excited for everybody else that got elected… Let’s make this a great community.”
The election night crowd at Ducky’s also included two candidates who fared well but didn’t make the cut in terms of winning a council seat. Alice Cotton won 713 votes in Ward 3, which put her in fifth place, just about 140 votes shy of a seat on council. Cotton says she was pleased with her results and will likely consider running again.
Sahitya Pendurthi was a first time candidate who took home 541 votes, putting her in 6th place. Pendurthi said the experience of running was “overwhelmingly positive.”
“This town actually likes opinionated women with strong leadership qualities,” said Pendurthi. “I got more votes than I hoped I would, and I’m ready for the next time.”
Mayor-elect Andrew Black was also on hand at Ducky’s. Though he was disappointed with the voter turnout in Tantramar and the province, he was ultimately pleased by the results locally. “I guess I was surprised,” said Black Monday night. “I had a good feeling that things were sort of going my way, but I didn’t… I never know. I never knew for sure if I was gonna win or not.”
About 39% of eligible voters in Tantramar came out to vote, the highest percentage of turnout was in Ward 1 Dorchester, which saw 44% of voters cast a ballot. The lowest turnout was Ward 4, with just 37%. Province wide, voter turnout averaged 36%.
Black confirmed that most details of how the new council will function are completely unknown, and in the hands of the province and provincially appointed facilitator Chad Peters.
“I would suspect that because we’re sort of in a lame duck council until January, I don’t think that we will meet,” said Black, though he is hoping to meet with each of the councillors who won a seat, “just to get a sense of of their thoughts on their win, and what they’ve heard in their own campaigns from their constituents.” But in terms of a first council meeting, “my suspicion is, that’s not going to happen until January when we’re sworn in,” said Black.