TOP POST ON PELEE ISLAND
Durocher set to take over as mayor
If islanders need to PELEE ISLAND find their new mayor, Ray Durocher, they can look for him fishing along the shore.
Of course, they already know that.
“There’s no secrets on Pelee Island,” Durocher said Wednesday. The 73-year-old former deputy mayor (2010-2014) will be acclaimed as mayor. Although there’s a council race leading to the Oct. 22 municipal voting day, no one chose to run against Durocher. After Mayor Rick Masse announced he wouldn’t seek reelection, Durocher said he wanted someone who knew island politics at the top post, and other islanders encouraged him to run for mayor. “It’s always nice to win an election rather than be acclaimed, but as it stands, I take it as a vote of confidence.”
Durocher, who turned 73 Tuesday, was the highest vote-getter on council on his first try in 2010, and because of that became deputy mayor. He didn’t put his name on the ballot in the 2014 election for health reasons but he said that’s not an issue this time.
The avid hunter and fisherman is originally from LaSalle, and his brother was a LaSalle councillor in the 1990s.
Durocher is a Chrysler retiree who, with his wife Louisette, ran a bed and breakfast called Island Memories for about 20 years. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
By being acclaimed, he’ll technically soon be in charge of nine Lake Erie islands that make up Pelee Island Township and are the southern-most islands in Canada. Pelee Island is the largest of the bunch and has about 300 residents year-round and almost 1,500 in the summer.
High water levels and 40 breaches in the stone breakwalls that protect Pelee Island pose the biggest challenge. Durocher said repairs will cost millions of dollars and government funding will be needed. About 30 per cent of Pelee Island is owned by the government — two provincial parks and three conservation areas — which reduces the tax base, he said. Pelee Island was three separate islands that were joined together in the early 1900s, he said. About 70 per cent of the island is lower than Lake Erie and islanders rely on breakwall protection, drainage and pumping systems. Blue-green algae is another big issue, he said. “We have to make the government aware that Lake Erie is in danger.” Durocher said he’s meeting with Masse to get updated on issues. He said the people make Pelee Island great. “You have to be very approachable on the island,” he said of politics there.
A new $40-million ferry arrived in Kingsville June 15. The crew is being trained before the new ferry starts operating in late September. The island has its fall pheasant hunts and, with the possibility of more tourists next summer, the island needs more restaurants and things to do, he said.
There is competition for four council seats between six candidates. Durocher organized an allcandidates meeting for Aug. 28 so cottagers could hear from the candidates. The election is Oct. 22 and a new council is usually sworn in in December.