ST. PAUL - While Maureen Miller could quite possibly be acclaimed to a second term as St. Paul’s mayor with no challengers having yet stepped forward, nine people have put their names forward for the six available councillor positions as of Monday. With a week to go before nomination deadline, it is possible that number could change.
Incumbents Ron Boisvert, Tyson deMoissac, Norm Noel, Nathan Taylor and Gary Ward are all letting their names stand for re-election. It is also likely incumbent Brad Eamon’s name will appear on the ballot, at least that’s what he hinted to Lakeland Today in a recent interview, which would mean all of the current council is seeking re-election. He has until noon on Sept. 20 to file.
At this point, there are at least four challengers to the incumbents. Jyotiranjan (Joe) Khandual, Siddharth (Sid) Sood, Daniel Gadowski and Dwight Wiebe have all filed their nomination papers to date.
Miller told Lakeland Today she doesn’t take anything for granted, especially around election time and while no one has yet stepped forward to challenge her for the mayor’s position, she’s in a wait and see mode until the deadline for nominations comes and goes.
She described her first four years in office as challenging. Right of the bat, the new council was in a hunt for a new chief administrative officer and also had to right the ship after several years of turmoil experienced in town operations.
“We worked in collaboration with many partners and we were able to achieve many projects to set the community up for growth in the future,” Miller said, adding that while it has been a challenging term made even more so with navigating the pandemic, “I’ve been honoured to serve because it has truly been an exhilarating experience for me.”
Asked if she felt council had worked as a cohesive unit, Miller said, “What we were able to achieve is opportunity for debate and respect at the end of the day.”
A clear understanding of the role and responsibilities of council is essential she said, adding she felt council worked cohesively over the last four years while still being a forum to express differing opinions.
“As a council, we could see that the endgame was bigger and attainable than the individual parts that people may have come in with – we all transferred into the larger picture.”
The municipal election will take place Oct. 18.
