In Labrador City, the ballot was one of the longest the town has seen in a while. Fifteen candidates ran for seven positions. Council voted in August not to hold a separate vote for Mayor. A number of new faces will sit on this council.
The candidate with the most votes in the election was Wayne Button, a new candidate. He polled 1186 votes. Button has his own chiropractic clinic and is very involved with volunteer work in the community. With the most votes, Button will be offered the position of Mayor when council meets for the first time early in October.
The candidate with the next number of votes was Fabian Benoit, another new candidate, with 1030 votes. Benoit is very involved with the Steelworkers union, sits on a number of committees and is also President of the Labrador West district labour council.
The remaining candidates elected are
Junior Humphries -998 votes (re-elected)
Nick McGrath -920 votes
John Penney -883 votes (re-elected)
Ken Lawlor - 863 votes
Richard Fahey -783 votes
This present election marks the first time the Labrador City council has been without a female candidate in some while. The outgoing Mayor Karen Oldford decided not to run at this time after taking on more work commitments.
In Wabush the election also included a race for Mayor, with two well-seasoned candidates looking to fill the position. The race was close, with Ron Barron elected to be Mayor with 378 votes. Barron has 12 years previous experience on council, four as a councillor, four as deputy Mayor and four as Mayor.
His opponent Terry Curran, with the same number of years on council in various positions, polled 317 votes.
Also elected to the Wabush council.
Richard Burke -512 votes (re-elected)
Gertrude Canning -487 votes (re-elected)
Sam Andrews -443 votes
Boyd AuCoin -423votes
Francis Delahunty -419 votes
Colin Vardy -401 votes (former Mayor ran for council this election)
The new councils will be sworn in early in October .
With the issue of amalgamation, and the recent feasibility report recommending the towns amalgamate, it should make for a busy fall for new and returning councillors. The question for many voters now is will they have to go back to the polls anytime in the near future?
