RICHMOND COUNTY: A former Richmond County warden made a successful return to municipal politics, joining three incumbents and a first-time councillor for the inaugural edition of the county’s new five-district municipal council.
Former warden James Goyetche defeated Rod Samson, the incumbent for Richmond’s previous district 2, and two other candidates in the new district 1, which takes in Petit de Grat, Little Anse, Samson’s Cove and Alderney Point, as well as most of Arichat. In unofficial results made available on October 15, Goyetche took 418 votes to Samson’s 329, while the county’s former municipal recreation director, Clifford Boudreau, took 163 votes and Isle Madame entrepreneur Terrance Fortune received 73 votes.
As he ends a 12-year absence from municipal service, Goyetche is determined to stick to his campaign pledges for tighter restrictions on allowable travel expenses, the cancellation of credit cards currently made available to the county’s warden and chief administrative officer (CAO), and a freeze on councillors’ stipends.
“I think we have to get someone impartial – and I’m thinking of Dalhousie University’s] Henson College or the Department of Municipal Affairs – and we have to have a special session… to go through all the policies, the stipends, the travel expenses, the per diems, what conferences you attend,” Goyetche declared.
A heated five-person race for district 2, including West Arichat, D’Escousse, Lennox Passage, Janvrin’s Island and the western portion of Arichat, saw incumbent Alvin Martell emerge victorious with 282 votes. Martell defeated first time candidates Marcel Boudreau, Larry Keating and Gina Stanley, with 256, 247 and 201 votes, respectively, while the county’s current warden, Victor David, finished fifth with 52 votes.
“It was the toughest campaign ever, not only because of the contenders but because of the size of the district,” Martell declared.
“I was really humbled at the fact that I still made it, with all the stuff that’s going on and the candidates that were running.”
Martell will join fellow incumbents Brian Marchand, acclaimed in the new district 3 last month, and Gilbert Boucher on the new five-district Richmond council. Boucher, who had held the former district 7 for the previous two council terms, took 506 votes to newcomer Darren Campbell’s 463 in the new district 4, which incorporates the St. Peter’s, Samsonville, River Bourgeois and Sporting Mountain areas. Boucher did not return multiple interview requests from The Reporter by press time Monday morning.
The only one of the seven first-time Richmond council candidates to score a victory was Jason MacLean, who took 362 votes in the new district 5, comprised of L’Ardoise, Framboise, Fourchu, Loch Lomond, Johnstown and the surrounding areas. MacLean, the vice-principal of Richmond Education Centre and Academy, took 11 more votes than council incumbent Gail Johnson, who had represented the previous district 10 for the past 25 years.
“It was exciting to the very end,” MacLean said Monday morning.
“It was a huge learning curve for me, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. But it’s a really great feeling to know that people have confidence in me the first time around.”
Voter turnout was reported at 75 per cent in district 1, 79 per cent in district 2, 60.2 per cent in district 4, and 52.8 per cent in district 5.