On Friday afternoon, MRC Pontiac warden Jane Toller announced she would indeed be running for a third term in the position in the upcoming municipal elections, back-tracking on an announcement she made in July that she would not be seeking re-election.
Toller made the announcement on the same day nominations opened in front of the Félix-Gabriel-Marchand Bridge in Mansfield-et-Pontefract.
She said that after she initially declared she wouldn’t be seeing re-election, she received feedback from the community encouraging her to reconsider.
“Sometimes you don’t know how much you’re valued until you announce that you’ll no longer be providing your service,” she said.
The primary reasons Toller gave in July for her decision to step back from public office were that she wanted to spend more time with her family, on her religious studies and at her businesses.
“I find now that I have the time for everything,” she said when asked if anything had changed in terms of these priorities. “I’m leaving everything in God’s hands.”
She also said she would be announcing further details about her priorities in the coming weeks.
“There are many projects that I’ve started this term and I believe that I am the only one who can complete them,” she said. “I still believe that I have the strong interest and health to do the job. I have the experience and I have the qualifications.”
Toller was first elected warden of MRC Pontiac in 2017, winning 47 per cent (3,597 votes) in a five-way race, and in 2021 was re-elected by a smaller margin (52.69 per cent or 3,301 votes) in a head-to-head contest with former warden Mike McCrank. Prior to entering Pontiac politics, Toller was a Toronto city councillor in the late 90s and early 2000s, and made a run for mayor of Canada’s largest city in 2006, placing second with 32 per cent or 188,932 votes.
The full list of candidates for MRC Pontiac warden will be available once the nomination period closes on Oct. 3.
