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MacDonald unseats Tompkins in close contest in Nova Scotia’s smallest town
Nova Scotia’s smallest town and the birthplace of modern Canada has a new mayor with visions of continued growth and vitality.
William ‘Bill’ MacDonald unseated incumbent mayor Michael Tompkins in a 126 to 114 vote Oct. 15. Both campaigned on the town’s strengths of history and built heritage and how to leverage that for the future.
“For me, the primary and most important goal is economic growth in Annapolis Royal,” said MacDonald from his home on election night. “It’s really, really critical. We all recognize what we have as assets; we all recognize the things that bring tourists to visit us. But we want to bring people to live here, and to grow here, and to raise their families here. So economic growth is a significant part of that. That’s going to be a primary direction I think for the next four years.”
Under Tompkins, Annapolis Royal remained economically sound while across the province some foundering towns were absorbed by counties or explored amalgamation options. Tompkins ran in 2012 to make sure his town didn’t move in that direction. Under his leadership the town converted an architecturally and historically significant Annapolis Royal Regional Academy into property-tax-paying condos - converting it from a financial liability to a revenue generator. The town was able to design and fund a $600,000 boardwalk project, and recently started its own main street beautification project. He also led a regional group of municipalities focusing on legacy projects for Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017.
Excited
“We’re going to continue with the projects that are already in the hopper,” said MacDonald, “and I anticipate there will be more coming through. We’re excited about the projects that are already in place and we’re going to carry those forward. But we’re looking for, obviously, more things to happen. More growth. More excitement. More vitality.”
Leading up to Saturday’s election, MacDonald felt the race with Tompkins was a tight one.
“When I was doing my campaigning, and my door-to-door - very positive response,” he said. “People were interested. Supportive. But you never know until the voting day - you know, never count your chickens until they’re hatched. But my sense was that it was probably going to be a horse race. I didn’t think it was going to be quite as close as it was.”
He described it as an interesting result.
“It recognizes that there were two strong candidates for the position,” he said, “with Mike Tompkins running on the things that happened during his term and the things that I was proposing and the vision that I had for Annapolis in the future. So those are the two things I think that were splitting the voters - what they knew and what they might expect.”
MacDonald recognizes that not all marks on the ballot were for him.
“I think as a new mayor I have to recognize there were a number of people who voted for the other candidate,” he said. “So part of what I want to do is prove to them that I am the right candidate and will be a good mayor for everybody.”
MacDonald advocates having a permanent youth representative on council, increasing the visual impact of gateways to direct and draw visitors into town, enhancing existing fibre-optic cable infrastructure to encourage global business opportunities, and enhance the pedestrianfriendly nature of Annapolis Royal. He is also calling for the formation of an Annapolis Royal Film and Television Commission to market and promote Annapolis Royal as a site for movies and television.
Council
Unlike many other municipalities, the only race in the town was the mayor’s position – all four council seats were filled by acclamation. The only returning councillor is Pat Power who was deputy mayor. She’s joined by storeowner Holly Sanford, restaurant owner Owen John Elliot, and retired healthcare worker and former mayor John Kinsella.
“I’m extremely grateful and proud to be elected Mayor of Annapolis Royal and look forward to working with everyone. I want to acknowledge the hard work of Michael Tompkins on behalf of our town over the last four years. I’m excited to get started on the next four years with our new council,” said MacDonald in a statement moments after the result was known.
A total of 52 per cent of eligible voters in the town of 481 marked ballots in the election. A far cry from 64 per cent voter turnout in 2012 and 78 per cent in 2008. Both MacDonald and Tompkins were perplexed by the low numbers.
As for the outcome, Tompkins said he was surprised. He was surrounded by supporters at Hillsdale House Inn where he received the call from town hall.
“I figured what we did in the last four years, what I’ve done ... you know this town surprises me at times and today’s a pretty good surprise - that they decided to go in a different direction,” Tompkins said moments after learning the result.