Municipal
elections will be held in New Brunswick tomorrow to elect mayors
and councillors for each of New Brunswick's 105 municipalities. In
addition, voters will elect trustees for New Brunswick's five school
boards and two regional health authorities. There is also one
plebiscite for residents of the Village of Grand Manan about removing
the fare for their ferry connecting it to the mainland.
There won't
actually be elections in 19 municipalities because in those
communities, the entire council was acclaimed. Those were Aroostook,
Campobello Island, Dorchester, Eel River Crossing, Harvey, Lac-Baker,
Meductic, Nigadoo, Paquetville, Petit-Rocher, Rexton, Riviere-Verte,
Rogersville, Saint-Antoine, Saint-Francois-de-Madawaska, St-Hilaire,
St. Martins, Stanley, and Tracy.
In the
municipalities of Atholville, Baker Brook, Bas-Caraquet, Beresford,
Bertrand, Blackville, Bouctouche, Campbellton, Cap-Pele, Chipman,
Clair, Dalhousie, Fredericton Junction, Grand Bay-Westfield,
Hillsborough, McAdam, Millville, New Maryland, Petitcodiac,
Pointe-Verte, Richibucto, Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska, Saint-Leonard,
Tracadie-Sheila and Woodstock there are no mayoral races, because the
mayoral candidate has been acclaimed, however there are races in some
or all of their council seats.
In addition, the
municipalities of Alma and Canterbury are only having races for
mayor, as the rest of council was acclaimed.
The main three
elections are of course in New Brunswick's three largest cities:
Fredericton
 |
| Map of Fredericton's 12 wards |
In the provincial
capital, incumbent mayor Brad Woodside is facing one challenger,
Matthew Hayes, an assistant professor at the University of New
Brunswick. Woodside has been a long time mayor of Fredericton. He was
first elected to that position in 1986. He resigned in 1999, but was
re-elected in 2004 and has served has mayor ever since. He resigned
in 1999 to run for the Liberals in the provincial election that year.
He lost his race in the riding of Fredericton North. Woodside has
been accusing his opponent of being connected with the occupy
movement.
In addition to the
mayoral race, Fredericton is electing 12 other city councillors to
represent the city's 12 wards. Three races (wards 1, 3 & 9) are
not having elections because the incumbent councillors for those
wards are being acclaimed.
Moncton
 |
| Map of Moncton's 4 wards. |
In
Moncton, incumbent mayor Geoge LeBlanc is running against Carl
Bainbridge. LeBlanc has been mayor of Moncton since being first
elected in the last municipal election of 2008. He also ran in the
2004 election, where he lost narrowly to then mayor Lorne Mitton.
Bainbridge is a driver contractor, who has previously run for the NDP
on both the federal and provincial level. He ran in the 2008 federal
election in Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe and also ran in the riding
of Memramcook-Lakeville-Dieppe in the 2006 provincial election.
There are ten
other council seats up for election in Moncton. The city is divided
into four wards, which elect two councillor each. In addition, two
more councillors are elected at-large. These council seats are
elected by “bloc voting”, where voters get two votes, and the top
two candidates in each ward get elected.
Saint John
 |
| Map of Saint John's 4 wards. |
New Brunswick's
largest city is having a four-person race for mayor. The real race
however, is between two candidates; incumbent mayor Ivan Court and
city councillor Mel Norton. Mayor Court was first elected as mayor in
the last municipal election of 2008 where he defeated the incumbent,
Norm McFarlane (who actually finished 4th). Court
previously served as a city councillor. Norton is the newest member
of city council, having been elected in a by-election in 2010. Court
could be in a lot of trouble, as he has been criticized as allowing a
“culture of intimidation” to fester in city council. There has
been much criticism of his record, and many are predicting he will
lose. The other two candidates are businessman and ordained minister
Matthew Thompson and pension activist Joe Callahan.
Saint John, has
the same council structure as Moncton. It is divided into four wards,
with two councillors each, and two councillors are elected across the
city at-large.
Polls close across
the province at 8pm Atlantic Time (7pm Eastern). You can find a list
of candidates for all positioins here.
No comments:
Post a Comment