Jordan Evans grew up on a farm in Waltham, and returned to her roots in the midst of the pandemic in June 2020, after spending a good chunk of her life in B.C. 

With a masters degree in environmental science, specializing in mine reclamation, Evans said she considers herself more of a scientist than a politician. 

“I think that Waltham deserves leadership that listens and acts on the facts,” she said. “I grew up here, I’ve served on council, I’ve worked across Canada as a professional biologist and I think that means I’m used to solving complex problems.”

Evans served a partial term on Waltham council starting in 2021 but resigned in April 2024. She said she left because she felt there were council decisions being made behind closed doors that should have been made in public.

“At a time when transparency was most needed, I felt I couldn’t fulfill my duty to represent residents effectively,” she wrote in an email. “My decision wasn’t about leaving Waltham – it was about standing by the principle that democracy depends on openness and access to information. Since stepping down, I’ve continued attending council meetings as a member of the public because I still care deeply about this community and believe that engagement shouldn’t end with a seat at the table.”

One of the big issues that council dealt with in the previous term was the departure of the municipality’s long-serving director general, after a report published by the Commission municipale du Quebec (CMQ) alleged he had committed a litany of ethical and professional violations over the years. The report detailed that he was paying his wife a salary, charging the municipality a monthly fee for the “municipal computer” that he owned, and asking the mayors to sign stacks of blank cheques. There were also no contracts drawn up for any employees.

The former DG denied any wrongdoing and disputed the report’s findings. He resigned in Feb. 2024.

“For me, the lesson from that is that decisions can’t be made on trust alone, that decisions must be made on information, facts, and validated by the council,” Evans said. “I think one of the big criticisms that came from the report was that there were decisions that were made from blind trust.”

“My opinion on that is not to re-litigate the past and to move forward to create policies and procedures to make sure that safeguards are in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” she added. 

At the MRC level, Evans said that she would like to ensure that all documents are translated into English. She added that she would like to move the date of Waltham’s municipal council meeting to in between the MRC’s plenary session and the public meeting, a move she said could amplify Waltham’s voice at the regional council. 

An issue she said she would like to address was the MRC’s proposed focus on inter-municipal cooperation for fire services. 

“I’m not opposed to shared services, I’m opposed to losing control over decisions that affect local safety and taxes,” she said.

Emphasizing her scientific background, she said the data regarding the sharing of services needs to be carefully examined, down to the raw inputs.

“I think in my experience in environmental assessment processes, it’s often about models and validating the model, and being able to publicly defend those models,” she said. “So, what I am looking for in the fire services integration model is, can they publicly defend [their] model and decisions made based on that model? And that means opening it up and looking at what the inputs are.”

Evans can be contacted at jordanevans.pontiac@gmail.com or via her political Facebook page.

Odette Godin was born and raised primarily in Waltham, and served the past 12 years on council, running unopposed every time, including for mayor in the 2021 election. In her professional experience, she worked at the Royal Bank and also owned Fred’s Hotel in Chapeau until it burned down.

She explained that she hadn’t intended on stepping up to the mayor’s seat originally, but no one put their candidacy forward the first time following the retirement of David Rochon. 

“Well nobody wanted to run,” she said. “First round of nominations went through, nobody. So they had to put another call out, that all costs us money, every time they have to reopen nominations. So I put my name in, not just so there’d be somebody, I knew that I would give it my all, and I did.”

When asked why she was running for another term, she said that there were some projects that she wanted to see through.

“My mother, she had firm beliefs and one of them was that if you start something, you can decide you don’t like it, but you have to finish what you sign up for,” she said. “You don’t have to do it again if you don’t want to. If you sign up for it, finish it.”

Godin, who was the whistleblower to the CMQ about the former DG’s conduct, speculated that some of the tension in the air for this election was a result of that situation. 

“People know I did the right thing, but people don’t like what happened because they like him. Instead of blaming him, they’re blaming me for bringing it to the surface I guess. I didn’t want to be negative about anybody, but this is where it all comes from, this negativity right now.”

She said that looking forward, she would like to work on several projects at the municipal level. 

She said she would like to look into expanding the municipal gravel pit to extend its lifespan, as well as putting in a beach area on municipal land. 

“We’re surrounded by water and we have nowhere to swim,” she said. “We own property on Dempsey Road, I would love to make a beach area there.”

Godin said the biggest challenge facing Waltham is the lack of cell service, and said that addressing it would fix several issues.She also said she would like to look into a roof structure for the outdoor rink, though it would require grant funding.

At the county level, she said that she would like the MRC to be more transparent about how it receives grant funding for certain positions. 

“All the public sees is, they keep hiring all these people. ‘Why do they need all this. That’s where our tax dollars are going,’” she said. “It does look like that, but there’s a lot of people working at the MRC that the MRC is not paying.”

She also questioned the spending of more than $200,000 of FRR grant money on the Pontiac pool project. 

“That money is gone, only to find out what we had already said, you can’t have a swimming pool, it will not be self-sufficient. We don’t have the population,” she said. “You know what [Waltham] could have done with a little chunk of that?”

Godin said that she considered campaign hats and signs to be a waste of money in a tight-knit place like Waltham. 

“Politics should not be a popularity contest because it’s too serious for that,” she said.