Richmond County voters return 3 to new 5-member council
Jean Laroche | CBC News | Posted: October 16, 2016 3:15 AM | Last Updated: October 16, 2016
Original expense whistleblower happy with outcome and hopeful for change
They didn't clean house, but voters in Richmond County sent a message with their vote on Saturday.
In the first election since council was reduced from 10 seats to five, three incumbents went down in defeat.
The warden, Victor David, won the support of only 52 voters. Instead, Alvin Martell was elected in District 2 with 282 votes. Martell — who was the former District 4 councillor — also topped Macel Boudreau (256), Larry Keating (247) and Gina Stanley (201).
David wasn't the only incumbent to go down to defeat.
Resident hopeful for new council
Gail Johnston, a fixture on council for decades, lost to Jason MacLean in District 5. MacLean's 362 votes squeaked by Johnston's 351.
Rod Samson lost to former warden James Goyetche in District 1. Goyetche is making a political comeback after being defeated in 2008 and again in 2012.
The new makeup of council gives some hope to voter Germaine MacDonald, whose search through council expense records triggered an ombudsman's report which is yet to be officially made public.
That report was scathing in its criticism of the way some officials have used taxpayers' money in "opportunistic and self serving" ways.
There were calls to suspend the municipal election until the report was made public, to no avail.
Happy to see 'positive change'
"We've got two councillors right now — out of the five who wanted the forensic audit — who wanted to bring serious allegations to the public and pushing to give us the information. Then we have one person who's new and hopefully comes into this with fresh eyes," she said.
"We'll be happy to see any positive change."
Brian Marchand was acclaimed in District 3 and Gilbert Boucher won in District 4 to keep his council seat, defeating challenger Darren Campbell by 43 votes.