While the municipal election is still months away, and the official nomination period only opens mid-September, two new faces have declared their intention to run for warden in the fall.
Josey Bouchard and Jean-Pierre Landry, both councillors for the Municipality of Campbell’s Bay, have confirmed they plan to make a go for the region’s highest public office position come September.
“New challenge for me this fall, I’m running to be the next warden MRC Pontiac,” Josey Bouchard announced in a July 9 post to her private Facebook account.
Bouchard has worked as a teacher for over 30 years, is a co-founder of local healthcare advocacy group Pontiac Voice, and is in her first term as councillor.
She was campaign manager for her mother, Charlotte L’Écuyer, both when she served as Pontiac MNA, as well as when she ran for MRC Pontiac warden in the 2017 election.
Bouchard said she has been mulling the decision for about a year,
“It’s been a process, because you think about the ins and outs, the positives and negatives, because public service is not an easy thing at all. [ . . . ] Of course as a teacher, as a health advocate, being a town councillor, it’s sort of the normal progression of saying, ‘Maybe I can be even more useful there [as warden],’” she said.
“Of course everybody is [in politics] for their own sets of reasons, so it’s to try to make sure we look forward all together to the 21st century, and that we’re ready to take on all the challenges that comes with that, especially in this volatile environment we’re in,” she added, alluding to the economic turmoil caused by U.S. president Donald Trump, and particularly the local impacts of U.S. tariffs.
Jean-Pierre Landry has also confirmed his intention to run for the warden’s seat this fall, as was first reported by Pontiac radio station CHIP FM.
Landry, whose family moved to the Pontiac in 1967 from Shawinigan when he was four years old, is in his second term as municipal councillor in Campbell’s Bay since being elected in 2017.
He also served in the role in the late ‘90s, and over the years has served on boards of various local community organizations.
“I had some people approaching me, asking me if I was considering maybe running in the elections for warden, so knowing that there was a public interest for my candidacy, j’ai dit okay.”
Landry said he was approached with the same question ahead of the 2021 elections, but that he decided not to run at that point as his children were still young and he was still working full-time.
Now he is retired from his 33-year career working for Services Québec in Campbell’s Bay, and teaches part-time at École secondaire Sieur de Coulonge.
“It is my adopted region, I am very proud of the Pontiac, and I know there is potential here, as much in the people as in our resources,” he said.
“Why not give it a try? I’m available, I have experience, I love the place.”
MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller has not yet announced whether she intends to run for a third term in the seat.
“At this point I have four months left in my current term. I am working hard, focused on completing as many projects as possible by November,” she wrote in an email to THE EQUITY.
“I am happy to see others stepping forward as the race for the warden position is an important one. I will confirm my future plans at a later date.”
The nomination period during which candidates must submit their names for the Nov. 2 election is between Sept. 19 and Oct. 3.
