Toller: Our first elected warden

November 7, 2017

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The Equity

Jane Toller, newly elected Warden for the MRC Pontiac.

Chris Lowrey
PONTIAC Nov. 5, 2017
The MRC Pontiac’s first warden elected by universal suffrage is Jane Toller.
For the first time, Pontiac residents were able to vote for their preferred choice for the MRC warden position. In the past, the person who occupies the position was chosen from the 18 mayors on the MRC council.
Toller said that when the results came in during the wee hours of Monday morning she was humbled when she found out she had won.

The results came in as all five warden candidates sat in the boardroom at the MRC where they had what Toller called a pleasant time with one another, despite the competitive nature of the business.
“They made it very pleasant,” Toller said. “We were all pleased to see the end of the campaign.”
Toller said she was especially pleased with the wide-ranging support she received from across the MRC.
One of her main concerns was getting her message out across the MRC to everyone. But, she said the election results reassured her that she had done a good job of that.
“I believe that my platform resonated because everyone would agree the number one priority is economic development,” she said.
One plank that many voters mentioned when speaking to Toller was the emphasis she put on keeping youth and seniors in the Pontiac.
Toller said her top priorities are to meet with the mayors that she doesn’t know and wants to focus on the MRC budget.
During her campaign, Toller said she will ask each mayor to bring their top three priorities to the MRC council table so she can identify the most pressing issues right off the hop.
In the meantime, Toller said she plans on catching up with the files the MRC is currently working on and getting up to speed as fast as possible.
Toller, who owns the Spruceholme Inn in Fort Coulonge, brought an impressive political resume from her time in Toronto.
She won a seat on Toronto’s municipal council in 2,000 in the riding of Don Valley West.
After serving on various committees on municipal council, Toller threw her hat in Toronto’s 2006 mayoral election. Toller eventually finished second to the winner, David Miller. She finished with 32 per cent of the vote while Miller garnered 57 per cent.
After her time as a municipal politician in Toronto, Toller opened the Spruceholme Inn and has been in the Pontiac ever since.
Toller thanked the volunteers that helped her with her campaign as well as her opponents.

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