What’s old is new
On Monday night, Basil Stewart, the man who steered policy in this city for nearly 30 years as mayor from 1985 to 2014 – before being defeated four years ago by current mayor Bill Martin – was re-elected.
There is no argument that mayor-elect Stewart brings experience to the job. One would be hard pressed to find anyone living in all of Canada who could match his mayoral resume.
With 2,392 votes, Stewart won this election in a tight three-way race against a fresh face to municipal politics, Nancy Beth Guptill – who captured 2,115 of the tally; and veteran city councillor Brent Gallant, 1,733 votes, who gave up an opportunity to remain a councillor to take a shot at the mayor’s chair.
Stewart’s successful pitch to the 15,000ish citizens of Summerside could be best described as populist. He vowed to lower taxes, lower electricity rates at the city-owned utility, pick up speed on the city’s lagging ditch in-filling schedule (something that’s been on the books since the city was created in 1995) and to build a new fire hall to replace the aging and structurally failing fire hall on Foundry Street.
That populist pitch struck a chord with the voters, besting Guptill’s message of ‘Change, choice and vision’, and the fiscally conservative ‘steady as she goes’, approach from Gallant.
Stewart, despite a four-year hiatus and the baggage of a failed concert bid that cost taxpayers more than $1 million, and criticism over transparency and procedure, obviously still appealed to taxpayers in Summerside.
It is also worth noting that with Stewart at the helm, the city overcame a devastating blow from which some communities would not have recovered – the loss of an adjacent military base in 1991. In addition, he has many other successes on his resume, including but not limited to, the creation of a federal tax centre and the hundreds of jobs that came with it; the construction of a community wellness centre; the redevelopment of the city’s west-end and the creation of the oceanfront boardwalk, and the immergence of the city as a global ‘green-energy’ leader.
The affable Stewart, Guptill and Gallant ran a clean campaign. The trio reportedly even exchanged pleasantries via text on election day.
But the election is over and done and the voters are always right. It is now up to Stewart to deliver on the promises he’s made and to cement his legacy in this city.
Basil Stewart was not the only mayor elected on Monday night. In Borden-Carleton Charles MacKenzie won the race to replace Dean Sexton who did not reoffer. In Prince County’s other eastern town, Rowan Caseley retained the mayor’s chair on Kensington when no one stepped up to run against him. Up West, there will be a new face in Alberton, after David Gordon defeated incumbent Michael Murphy, while in Tignish Allan McInnis was rewarded by voters with a third team. In O’Leary Eric Gavin was elected by acclamation.
We wish all elected officials the best as they look to make their communities better and more prosperous; which is good for all of Prince County.