These interviews are part of a series THE EQUITY is publishing with candidates in all 12 mayoral races ahead of the election. Thorne interviews were done by K.C. Jordan.

Karen Daly Kelly is originally from Montreal and pursued a career in banking before moving to Thorne in 1975. About 20 years ago, she got a job as a bylaw officer with the municipality before deciding to run for council in 2009, where she served two terms. She has now served two terms as mayor, and is seeking a third. 

Kelly said she is seeking another term because she believes the municipality “needs a better understanding of what’s going on in the world,” and that it needs to choose a direction on how it is going to attract more businesses and residents. 

“I just love the town, and I think that it has a good chance of surviving a lot of problems, it’s just a matter of we have to work at things. We need businesses here in order for us to progress [ . . . ] If we want to try and bring in more businesses, we’re going to have to try and figure out what we want more than anything else,” she said.

She said her passion for the community, its people, as well as her volunteer involvement in the community have made her in tune with ratepayers’ needs.

“I’ve been around long enough now, I can more or less understand how the ratepayers feel. I have no bones to pick with any particular people, and I just like the municipality of Thorne. It’s been a benefit for me to be here and to enjoy myself, and I enjoy the people.” 

She said her accomplishments as mayor include being welcoming, as well as speaking and understanding French – something she says many Thorne mayors before her could not do. 

“It would be [being] a very welcoming and gentle mayor.


I think being as open as possible and as friendly as possible makes a world of difference,” Kelly said. 

“This is one of the things we have to learn here in Thorne – we belong to the Quebec government. I’m lucky, I can read French.” 

She said she has also worked hard to make sure the mill rate was lowered for her residents, and that public works employees responded in a timely manner. 

“We’re trying to maintain the mill rate so that it’s not too onerous on ratepayers. And with the road men, we make sure they go out there where it’s necessary,” she said. 

She said with the influx of cottagers coming into Thorne in recent years, one of the biggest challenges going forward will be communicating with those cottagers and helping them understand what to expect in terms of public works, or how to set up a business. 

“Let the cottagers know we are available, and let the cottagers realize that we have rules, and the office is not here to bring you down. The office is here to inform you [ . . . ] Sometimes people come in here and they expect things to be “city-fied”. You’re not going to get “city-fied” here,” she said. 

She said helping to attract new businesses will also be a priority. 

“We always hope that people when they’re moving in will try and bring in a lot of their own wishes with them. If [newcomers] have businesses, to bring them to the office, and then they can bring them to the council to see whether or not we approve.”  

Kelly said one of the issues that should be top of mind for the MRC’s council of mayors is that of municipal evaluations.

“More knowledge for each municipality, so they can garner more information into their offices, so they understand a little bit better,” she said.

Kelly said she will be going door-to-door with her pamphlets, and is available to be spoken to. 

Terrence Murdock grew up in the village of Portage-du-Fort before moving to Ottawa to become a policeman. After leaving the force he purchased a construction company before moving back to the Pontiac, where he bought a farmhouse in Thorne. He and his wife have lived there ever since. 

Murdock has served on various boards in the Pontiac including as president of the Pontiac Tourism Association, president of the Pontiac Fish and Game Club, and a board member of the Federal Liberal Party of Quebec. He served as mayor of Thorne for one term (2013-2017), and has lost to Karen Daly Kelly in the two elections since then.

Murdock said he is running for mayor again because he wants to reduce the financial burden on ratepayers. 

“The reason I’m running for mayor is because I don’t feel it’s being run properly. We’ve got two DGs, we don’t need that. And I don’t like the idea of councillors being paid $740 [every month]. That’s a lot of money.”

Murdock said his priorities will be to cut costs, as he said he did last time he was elected to office in Thorne. 

“I’ll do like I did the last time – I’ll cut all the fat out of the system and reduce the spending, reduce the taxes. The first thing I would do is I would phone and find out what other municipalities are paying their councillors and just take the average,” he said. 

His said other priorities include instituting a compost program at the waste transfer station, continuing road upgrades and introducing video recordings of council meetings. 

On why he thinks he should be elected instead of the other candidates, Murdock said he will be straightforward and use his knowledge and experience in the municipality.

“I’m straight, I’m honest, I mean what I say and I do what I say I’m going to do. And I’m on top of the municipality. I know what needs to be changed, what needs to be improved on, and what needs to be dealt away with,” he said. 

Murdock said if he gets into office he will prioritize attracting more people into the municipality, which he plans to achieve through lowering taxes. 

“I live here. I want it to be a good place to live. I’d like to attract more people – that’s what we need here. If you have low taxes, you’re going to have people coming,” he said.

When asked what the most pressing issues in Thorne are right now, he said the relative lack of population in the municipality means there aren’t many big issues at the moment. 

“We don’t have any real big issues. We have no business, no manufacturing. By bringing down the taxes, I will bring more people into the municipality.”

As for the issue of property evaluation, Murdock said his solution to help the ratepayers would be to simply lower the mill rate. 

“Just bring the mill rate down. If you do that, the taxes go back down to where they should be.” 

As for issues he believes the MRC should be working on together, he said “anything that’s regional,” naming property evaluation as one example. 

“Stay out of the municipal issues and take care of the regional issues. The MRC should be there to back up municipalities when they need help [with evaluations].” 

He said he is campaigning by going door-to-door, distributing flyers and phoning ratepayers.

Deborah Stafford-Turcotte was born to Pontiac parents but grew up in Aylmer. She met her husband at the Shawville Fair and moved to Thorne in 1996 where she has lived ever since. Stafford-Turcotte worked in criminal files with the RCMP and then for a law firm before pivoting into education. Currently she works as an administrative technician at Pontiac High School. 

Stafford-Turcotte has served on council in Thorne for 12 years and is making her first bid for the mayor’s seat, which she wants because she believes she can bring a strong voice at the MRC’s council of mayors table. 

“We [need] change in the municipality. We need good people in council, we need voices for our ratepayers and voices at the MRC because we don’t have the voices at the MRC. I’ve done it for 12 years, I was pro-mayor for part of those 12 years and I see what needs to be changed,” she said. 

Stafford-Turcotte said some things she would like to see changed at the municipal level include taxes, infrastructure as well as looking at where the municipality can cut costs. 

“Our roads, there are roads that need to be updated with gravel, so we have to look into which roads need to be paved and which are in really bad shape.”   

She said some of her short-term priorities include better communication between council and ratepayers, as well as looking at the municipal budget with the council and an accountant to see where costs can be saved.

“I want to see a council that works together and a mayor that will represent the ratepayers and go to the [MRC] meetings and bring stuff back from the meetings [ . . . ] And checking the amount of employees we have and if there’s any way we can save money. A lot of the stuff can be sourced out. We can bring in trucks for putting gravel down instead of buying a new truck. We can crush our own gravel, which we have been doing. We have to look within ourselves to see how we can save money,” she said. 

She said she intends to improve communication by being there to listen to anyone’s concerns, whether it’s inside of the council chambers or at the grocery store. 

“You’re a council member from day one right until the end of the term, and if people want to stop you at the store and ask you something, that’s their right and that’s what I agree with. You have to be there for listening to people.” 

She said the biggest issue the MRC’s council of mayors should be looking at is the increase in property evaluations, an issue that has impacted many residents in Thorne recently. 

“Taxes are very high and we have a lot of older people, so this new assessment really hit them hard. Some of [the assessments] are ridiculous. So I’d like to get in as mayor and bring it up at the MRC because we’ve got to look out for our people,” she said. 

She said some other regional issues that the MRC should prioritize include access to health care, increasing employment
opportunities, and improving reliability of the power grid. 

“There’s no reason for the hydro to keep going out the way
it does. There’s no jobs for young people around here. We’ve got beautiful departments in the hospital that are needing to be used, the maternity ward that needs to be reopened because people have to go to Pembroke,” she said. 

Stafford-Turcotte said she has been visiting as many people as possible on the weekends, including cottagers, and has put her poster online for people to see as well.