Elections to be held across Prince Edward Island

Municipal elections are being held across Prince Edward Island on Monday, November 3.

In addition to elections in the two cities, Charlottetown, Summerside, and two towns, Stratford and Cornwall, voters in 69 other towns and communities will be eligible to vote for their mayors, chairpersons and councillors through all-day voting or evening community meetings.

Polling stations will be set up in eight towns, Alberton, Borden-Carleton, Georgetown, Kensington, Montague, North Rustico, O’Leary and Souris and three communities, Brudenell, North Shore and Tignish. Residents of these communities had until October 20 to file nominations to run for mayor, chairperson and councillor seats.

Nominations will come from the floor for elections at the community meetings.

Elections for mayors will take place in Alberton and Georgetown. Natasha Dunn and Michael Murphy are seeking the mayor’s chair in Alberton. Murphy was acclaimed to the position in 2012 when Dunn was elected a councillor. In Georgetown, Lewis Lavandier is looking to continue being mayor and is being challenged by Cindy MacLean.

Mayors have been acclaimed in the remaining six towns and one community. David Dunphy will return as mayor of Stratford, and Dean Sexton as mayor for Borden-Carleton. Rowan Caseley, who served as a councillor has been acclaimed the mayor in Kensington.

In Montague, Richard Collins has returned as mayor after being elected in 2012.

Anne Kirk, who served as a councillor, will be the first mayor of North Rustico and Stanley MacDonald will be the first mayor of O’Leary after being elected as its chairperson in 2012.  The two communities applied for and were granted town status by the province’s department of finance, energy and municipal affairs.

David MacDonald, elected in 2012, will continue to serve as the mayor of Souris.

It is a battle of the Allans in Tignish with Allan Gavin and Allan McInnis seeking the chairperson’s role. McInnis had been acclaimed in the last election and Gavin was elected to council.

In Brudenell, Peggy Coffin has been acclaimed as chairperson again and Gordon Ellis will return to his role as chairperson of North Shore.

Council elections to be held

Elections will be held for council in all the towns and communities. Ten people are running for six council seats in Alberton while nine are running for the same number of seats in Borden-Carleton, Georgetown, Montague, and North Rustico. In O’Leary and Souris, eight people are running for the six seats on those councils and seven are running in Kensington.

Seven people are seeking election for five council seats in Brudenell while in Tignish, eight people are looking to fill the six council seats in that community. North Shore has three wards and a total 11 people have put their names forward for the 12 seats there. An election will be held in the ward of Stanhope with five people vying for the four seats. The other two wards, Covehead Road and West Covehead will each have acclamations for three council seats and a vacancy.

While Elections Prince Edward Island oversees the elections in the two cities of Charlottetown and Summerside and two towns of Stratford and Cornwall, the provincial government is responsible for the elections in the remaining communities and towns.

John Chisholm is a senior municipal officer with the department. “We have a good partnership and working partnership. We do training together for the elections.”

Polls open at 9 a.m. on November 3 and will close at 7 p.m.