Ushering in new era
Philip Brown says affordable housing, infrastructure will be two of his big priorities as mayor of Charlottetown
Philip Brown is ushering in a new era in Charlottetown.
Having lost to current incumbent Mayor Clifford Lee in the previous two municipal elections, Brown walked away from Monday night’s municipal election with a win by a margin of over 900 votes. In the final tally, Brown had garnered 6,136 votes.
The former city councillor and retired educator edged out four other candidates – Cecil Villard, Kim Devine, Jamie Larkin and William MacFadden – for the post.
In his victory speech at his campaign headquarters, Brown talked about his plans to re-invest in affordable housing and city infrastructure, two issues that had been the touchstone of his campaign.
“We’re going to be working on affordable housing, the CADC and cleaning up the rivers,” Brown said.
“It’s quite obvious the issue we want to deal with first. It’s affordable housing.”
Brown said he sees his role as a mediator working closely with federal and provincial authorities – being the “grease on the wheels”¬ as he put it – to address pollution in the Charlottetown harbour and the city’s housing issues.
Brown had previously served two terms as a city councillor in Charlottetown from 2001 to 2006. He ran unsuccessfully against Mayor Clifford Lee in 2010 and in 2014. Lee, who is stepping down from the post in order to work as the province’s special adviserr on affordable housing, won both contests handily.
Devine summed things up quite succinctly when asked what the difference was.
“More people voted for Philip,’’ Devine said, referring to Charlottetown mayor elect Philip Brown.
While the race was relatively tight most of the night Monday night — Brown led by Devine by fewer than 300 votes most of the evening — Brown never lost momentum en route to the mayor’s chair.
“You’re either going to win or lose,’’ Devine said. “It’s one or the other.’’
Devine said she can’t pinpoint anything during the campaign that cost her the election.
“More people voted for Philip,’’ she reiterated. “I’m proud of my campaign. I’m proud of what I did. I had a really good team behind me, I talked to a lot of people. I met a lot of really good people and really think in political campaigns, some people win and some people lose.’’
If he had to do the Charlottetown mayoral campaign over again, Villard said he wouldn’t do anything differently.
Villard finished third in the mayoral race Monday night, and as he got ready to leave Hil’s Sports Bar where he watched the results, he said he felt fine about the outcome.
“I always said if you go into a race you always have to be prepared for either outcome, whether you win or lose,” he said.
Villard was no stranger to municipal politics going into the election having served 11 years a city councillor.
That included eight years as chairman of the city’s finance committee.
He lost his council seat to Greg Rivard in 2014.
Larkin wasn’t worried when the results poured in early in the night, but as he remained in fourth place, a sombre tone surrounded his small camp of five sitting at a table at The Alley in Charlottetown.
“I’m going to run again, this is just a warm-up. I am just getting started; politics hasn’t seen the last of Jamie Larkin,” he said.
It was a long campaign for Larkin as he announced his candidacy for the top seat in Charlottetown back in April.
“The results don’t reflect what I have heard at the door. Money still buys elections,” said Larkin who noted he had a budget of $5,000 much less than other candidates.
McFadden was unavailable for comment.