Mike Connolly, Neila Auld look to be Crapaud mayor

Crapaud residents have a decision to make.

For the first time in recent memory, there is a race for the mayor’s chair with Mike Connolly running against Neila Auld.

Connolly became Crapaud’s acting chair in September 2015 and then acting mayor when the new Municipal Government Act was passed.

Auld, former owner of the South Shore Pharmacy, served two terms on village council.

Council candidates Arnold Stewart, Donna Henley, Gary Lippman, Sabrina Arthur, Joanne Harvey and Spencer MacKinnon were all acclaimed.

Connolly is in favour of a bypass around Crapaud, and his reason is personal.

In 2016, his kids witnessed a fatal car-onpedestrian accident at the bottom of their driveway on the curve in the Trans-Canada Highway.

“It was awful. That turn’s just not great.” Auld said she would need more information to take a position on the bypass project, but she believes it will happen.

“I worry about the businesses that are here … I don’t know how much business is related to coming through Crapaud, but the tourism part of it, you’d certainly lose that.”

The issue of a family doctor has dominated local circles since Dr. Joey Giordani left the area less than a year ago, and it’s a priority for both candidates.

Connolly is a co-chair of the South Shore Health and Wellness committee, alongside current pharmacy owner Lisa Gallant.

The province recently gave permission for the committee to do its own recruiting, he said.

“We want the doctor. We’ve had a doctor here going back over 100 years. It’s kind of the focal point of the community, so we’re really trying to make that happen.”

Construction is underway on a new health clinic, he said.

Auld said Gallant has “worked her butt off” to set up a walk-in clinic with a nurse practitioner, but that it isn’t enough to serve the area’s needs.

“Nothing replaces (a) family physician. The follow-up care is just not there.”