GILLES DIONNE

Chris Lowrey
MANFIELD ET PONTEFRACT Nov. 5, 2017
Mansfield et Pontefract has elected a new mayor – Gilles Dionne.
Dionne won the mayoral election with more than 800 votes – accounting for more than 60 per cent of the total votes.
“I’d like to thank everyone that voted and gave me their confidence,” he said.

Dionne spent Monday relaxing after a late night waiting for the election results to come in.
Dionne has worked as a home care provider for the CLSC for 30 years. He plans to keep working with the CLSC but will scale back his hours so he can dedicate more time to his mayoral duties.
Dionne is no stranger to municipal politics, having served as a councillor in Mansfield for the last eight years – seven of which were spent as the municipality’s pro-mayor.
He said his election is a sign of the fact that voters wanted a change. Four of the six councillors positions were snatched up by newcomers.
Dionne was impressed with the voter turnout in the municipality, saying it was pushed higher by the fact that people could vote on their choice for warden for the first time.
He also said that during a time of such significant change, his familiarity with the files that council is working on will help when it comes to getting the new faces up to speed.
“They’re going to jump right in,” he said.
One of the hot-button issues in both the Mansfield-et-Pontefract and Fort Coulonge elections was the prospect of amalgamation between the two municipalities.
Dionne said he hasn’t settled on one side or the other, but wants to get more information before making a decision.
“I never said I was for amalgamation and I never said I was against amalgamation,” Dionne said. “I always said I’d be open to a study to start with and we can go from there.”
Dionne’s first priority is to turn his focus to the 2018 municipal budget, which needs to be presented by December.

SANDRA MURRAY

Chris Lowrey
SHAWVILLE Nov. 5, 2017
Sandra Murray will serve another four years as the mayor of the municipality of Shawville after the results were finalized early Monday morning.
The news came down the pipe just after midnight on Nov. 6 while Murray was at home after a long campaign and election day.
Murray ended up edging out mayoral challenger Bill McCleary by just 16 votes, in what she described as one of the closer races she’s been a part of.
“It was a very tight race,” she said.
Murray said that as the votes were being tallied, she found herself feeling nervous as she waited for the results to be made public.
“If you’re not involved it wouldn’t mean as much, but when you’re involved you want to know one way or the other,” she said.
But, in the end, she was extremely relieved when the final tallies were announced.
She said that volunteers helped on election day acting as spotters at polling stations, but most of the legwork was done by her and her husband Barrie – who helped with many of the election signs that dotted the landscape around Shawville.
She said the campaign was interesting because it gave her a chance to spend some quality time with many residents.
“It was very interesting knocking on people’s doors and visiting with them,” she said. “Especially some older people. Some people are lonely, you know? They’re glad to see someone come to the door and they invite you in to have a chat.”
“That was nice,” she said. “I got to meet a lot of nice people.”
Murray will be sworn in on Nov. 13 and will immediately set her sights on the municipal budget.
Murray is also looking forward to working with the new faces on the municipal council – Denzil Yach and Jaime Christie.
Murray said that Yach’s time as the town foreman means she already has a relationship with him and her path has crossed with Christie’s several times thanks to her involvement in the community.
“It’s nice to have new people,” Murray said. “They have new ideas.”