Well, it’s all over but the crying, and even that’s started to die out. The elections on Nov. 2 came and went and there’s a new slate of eight mayors along with 10 incumbents headed to the MRC Pontiac council of mayors, along with the same warden we’ve had since 2017.
THE EQUITY spoke with all four candidates in this year’s contest for warden of MRC Pontiac to get their perspectives on the campaign and how it compared to previous races. Just under half (48 per cent) of eligible voters participated in the election, slightly up from the previous contest.
Outgoing warden Jane Toller secured her third consecutive term in office with 2,380 votes out of 6,254 votes cast (38.06%). Campbell’s Bay councillors Jean-Pierre Landry and Josey Bouchard trailed her with 1,748 (27.95%) and 1,659 votes (26.53%) respectively while Mansfield-et-Pontefract businessman Bruno St-Cyr received 467 votes (7.47%).
Toller, who initially announced she was not seeking re-election in the summer before reversing course at the last minute, said that she was delighted with the support, as it would allow her to complete some projects that she has started.
She said she was happy that her opponents ran a clean campaign.
“First I want to go back to my three competitors, I reached out to all three to congratulate them for running a good campaign,” she said. “I think they should all be really proud of the results that they received. And I will also say it was an enjoyable campaign, there was not any mudslinging or anything like that. I think we were all respectful, which is important, it’s very important.”
Landry said that the warden’s race was much different from his initial run for council, and if he had to do it over again, he would use more of a team.
“I was disappointed, not that I didn’t go in, but disappointed to see that we are going to be operating in molasses for the next four years again, disappointed to see that we’re taking a step back instead of going forward,” he said.
“So other than that, I’m very content with my campaign considering that I did it all by myself. I had no volunteers, no help, nothing. [ . . . ] Considering the minimal resources that I had, and being by myself, I think I did pretty good.”
Bouchard said despite the result, she enjoyed getting out into the community and meeting people.
“It was super fun, it was nice to get to chat with people, see what their concerns were and see a little bit what their hopes were,” she said. “It was intense but it was a lot of fun.”
St-Cyr said that he enjoyed hearing the ideas of people from all over the region.
Splitting the “change” vote
Landry also said that he and Bouchard ended up splitting the voters who wanted an alternative to Toller after eight years.
“Maybe it would have been a good thing to sit down, the two of us, you know and strategically plan ‘Ok, what do we do,’” he said. “Because we both had the same objective, [to provide a change from the current warden], but by doing it both together we’ve hurt ourselves more.”
Bouchard agreed that there were too many options for change, which allowed Toller to win a mandate with less than half of votes cast.
“People decided, they sort of split between Jean-Pierre and I,” she said. “Overall I think people were ready for a change, it’s just that there were many options offered to them and one didn’t crystallize all their desire for change, so it made for Mme. Toller to get in with less than 40 per cent.”
She added that she would be in favour of a voting system other than first-past-the-post.
“Having four candidates was not what we expected, it was expected to be a two-person race until at the last minute Mrs. Toller decided to go in and [Mr. St-Cyr] also was out of left field a little bit,” she said.
“In a first past the post type of election, as soon as you get more than two candidates it becomes anybody’s wild guess. And very often the outgoing person will go back in because the other people wanting change will disperse their votes among all the other candidates. If it was a proportional election, then we would probably see something different, more to the people’s wish.”
St-Cyr said that he would be in favour of a runoff taking place if a candidate doesn’t manage to attain a majority in the first round of voting, similar to the presidential elections in France.
“I would like to say, good luck Jane, because thinking six in 10 people aren’t in agreement with the warden, it won’t be easy to work,” he said.
Toller said that while there may have been groups seeking change this election, she heard from plenty of people who wanted her to remain at the helm.
“You never know what the outcome will be until the day comes. I did my best to get around to all the municipalities. I would say I was really running on my record for the past eight years,” she said.
“Certainly at the door most of the communication I was receiving was very supportive and positive. Let’s not forget that I stated that I wouldn’t run and the only reason I re-entered the race on Sept. 19 was I had been asked every day to reconsider.”
Regional differences
In a municipality-by-municipality analysis of the voting results, Toller garnered the lion’s share of her support in Mansfield-et-Pontefract, Fort-Coulonge, Bristol, Shawville and Clarendon. She said that she attributed her good showing there to residents’ familiarity with her.
“I think it’s because I live in Mansfield, my businesses are in Fort-Coulonge
see you most often,” she said.
Landry won the municipalities around where he lives as well, taking the most votes in Campbell’s Bay, Bryson, L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet and Litchfield. However, despite higher percentages of the vote, these communities have smaller populations than the ones that Toller won.
“Where I did good, probably it was because I had ambassadors working for me behind the scenes,” he said. “I think that would explain Campbell’s Bay, Litchfield, the Island.”
The only municipality where Bouchard did better than both Landry and Toller was Alleyn-et-Cawood, which only had 177 electors cast a vote. She attributed this support to the property tax dispute that the municipality has with the MRC as a reason why they chose to support someone other than Toller.
“I had the chance to meet a lot of people when I went to the community meal there. We talked a lot about, of course, the taxation problem. I think people were looking for an alternative to Mrs. Toller in that regard,” she said. “It’s been very contentious between the MRC and that municipality so I think they were wanting to send a strong message to her about that. That was one of the things.”
St-Cyr did not come close to winning any municipality, and did best in his home of Mansfield-et-Pontefract, as it was the only jurisdiction where he garnered triple digit votes (108 or 11 per cent).
Future goals
Toller said that she was looking forward to working with the new crop of mayors at the MRC council.
“As far as some of our mayors coming in as a wave of change, I just look forward to working with all of them,” she said. “We always need to be aware of issues, of what’s on the minds of the residents and some of those candidates will be bringing to the table new ideas, and I’m happy to embrace all of them.”
Currently on the sidelines of municipal politics, Landry said that at this point he wasn’t interested in another run at the warden’s seat, but four years was a long time.
“So right now no, I would say I’m not really interested in four years from now, but my mind could change,” he said.
Bouchard however, was quite certain of her goals.
“A lot of people have asked me, ‘What are your plans in four years?’ I said, ‘Heck yeah I’ll be back in the race in four years.’”
St-Cyr said that he was unsure about his future plans, but said he would continue his advocacy work with the health care user committee. He paraphrased John F. Kennedy’s famous line, adding that despite their leadership, he believed in the people of the Pontiac.
“Don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” he said. “Again, because the leadership maybe won’t be there, I think the people in the Pontiac can [make] the difference.”
