With just over three months left before the end of her second term as Pontiac’s first elected warden, Jane Toller has announced she will not be running for a third term in the upcoming municipal election.
She shared the decision with a small group of local reporters on Wednesday morning at the Spruceholme Inn in Fort Coulonge, one of several businesses she owns in the municipality.
“After a significant amount of thought and prayer, as this is a very difficult decision for me to make, I have decided not to seek reelection as the warden of the MRC Pontiac,” Toller said, standing in front of paintings of her great-great-grandparents George Bryson Sr. (who served as warden in 1862) and his wife Robina Cobb, as well as a sign displaying the 11 development priorities she says have guided her eight years as warden.
She said after much reflection, she made this decision to step away from public office to be able to focus on completing her Doctor of Ministry, which she has recently begun, to invest more time developing the businesses she owns, and to spend more time with her family, including the seven grandchildren who have been born since she began her first term in 2017.
“My children need to see more of me. And I want my grandchildren to know me. I want to play an important role in their lives,” Toller said.
She expressed gratitude to Pontiac residents and MRC staff for trusting her in the position, and pride in the revitalization work accomplished during her mandate.
In 2021, Toller won with 3,301 votes (52.69 per cent), collecting 337 votes more than her opponent Mike McCrank. In 2017, she won 3,597 (47 per cent) of the 7,653 votes cast.
“This has been the best job I’ve ever had. I believe the revitalization is in full swing and we have reversed the predicted forecast of a downward trend.”
Reflections on energy-from-waste
Regarding Toller’s push for the development of an energy-from-waste garbage incinerator at the Pontiac Industrial Park in Litchfield in her second term, she said it was “an experience,” but that she has no regrets.
“Looking back on everything that happened last year, I’ve only grown and benefitted from the experience. [ . . . ] From a percentage of the population I received a lot of opposition. And I do know, because I’m told every day, that the majority of people who weren’t speaking up were happy we were at least studying it,” she said.
“And I will say too, it takes courage to even attempt a hot-potato item like that. [ . . . ] I think in the end it all worked out for the best. I don’t think Pontiac was the best location. [ . . . ] It got personal, but you know, that’s part of the job, you just have to be able to let that go and understand people need to vent.”
Toller said she plans to continue her community support efforts through business development, with a specific focus on bringing a public swimming pool to the Pontiac, a project on which she has been working since before she was first elected.
She said both attempts at securing provincial funding for the project have failed, but that she has found a new way to get it built.
Toller said she is happy to see two local politicians – Campbell’s Bay councillors Josey Bouchard and Jean-Pierre Landry – have already expressed their intention to run for her seat, and that she believes others will likely join the race now that she’s announced her decision not to run.
“I am very fortunate to have had two mandates,” she said. “We don’t have term limits, but I do think it’s important to step aside and let someone else take the torch.”
*This article was last updated at 3:15 p.m..
