Harvey Lothrop could pull it off
Municipal government was less bureaucratic in the late 1980s and early 1990s than it is today. And that suited Harvey Lothrop’s style. Lothrop died on April 19. He was 79. Lothrop was the mayor of Stanstead East for about 15 years, Ross Murray, the former owner and publisher of the Stanstead Journal, said in a phone interview Wednesday. Murray said much of Lothrop’s term was beset by turmoil. His office was in his home in the Curtis Neighborhood, something the councillors of the day wanted moved to the old school house on Route 143, and did. His son Scott was the municipal secretarytreasurer who was suing the town in a dispute over money and duties. Some said Harvey Lothrop was incompetent, and he had a lien on his salary for unpaid taxes, Murray said.
John Mahoney, the publisher of the Log Cabin Chronicles, quoted Lothrop in a news story in May 2000 as saying the council was harassing him, and Lothrop was threatening to quit. But the 2001 election between him and former councillor Louise Belec ended in a tie. Lothrop ultimately won in a coin toss.
“He still managed to pull it off,” Murray said. “They knew what they were getting with Harvey. He knew the political system.” He said the personable mayor had contacts with provincial and federal politicians.
Mahoney wrote in an e-mail Wednesday that some people loved Lothrop. Some despised him. He described him as a flawed human being, but not evil.
“He could be charming, he could be helpful,” Mahoney wrote. “And he could be venal and, yes, he could and did lie…he was not wedded to the absolute truth always.”
Mahoney’s wife Jane was the assistant town clerk in Ogden under Town Clerk Faye Dustin for several years, while Lothrop was the town’s accountant.
“I liked him,” she said. “He was congenial, and if you had a question he was always willing to help.”
Lothrop’s friend Fred Richardson worked with him in the jewellery business, selling to the Maritimes. But he said Lothrop was well known and well respected as an accountant. Richardson remembers walking down a Quebec City street with Lothrop, and several people greeted him by name.
“He had the contacts,” he said. “I think the majority liked him.”
Lothrop lost his mayoral seat to Guy Lefebvre in 2005.
Despite the sometimes critical scrutiny Lothrop saw as a public figure during his time as mayor, he rarely took it personally.
“There was never any animosity,” Murray said.
Mahoney said Lothrop knew he would face criticism, but he was open to the press.
“I don’t know what toll it took in his
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“He was the end of an era for smalltown mayors.”
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