Essex attracts four candidates to battle for mayor’s job
Two candidates who couldn’t beat Essex Mayor Ron McDermott over the last 15 years will face off in a key county mayoral race.
Once 80-year-old McDermott didn’t seek re-election, Essex became the county’s most crowded mayoral race with four candidates: two councillors and two newcomers.
“It will be less colourful not having Ron,” University of Windsor political science professor Lydia Miljan said Monday.
Essex council has a history of heated debates. McDermott’s daughter was banned from attending meetings in 2016 and a feud between McDermott and Coun. Randy Voakes went to court in March where a judge called their behaviour “immature, childish and rancorous” but sided with Voakes. Miljan said voters don’t follow municipal campaigns as well as they should so the race will be between the two veterans with name recognition.
Two Ward 3 councillors, Ron Rogers and Larry Snively, are candidates for the top spot, along with Katie McGuire-Blais and Rob Shepley. Rogers, 64, is making his third run for mayor. Snively was briefly mayor when he was 47 years old in 2002, which would make him around 63. Snively did not respond to requests for more information or an interview.
Rogers got 2,392 votes in 2014 when there were 7,850 votes cast for mayor between four candidates. That put him 227 votes behind McDermott in the last election. Snively was first elected to Essex council in 2000 and then was elected mayor in 2002 to replace Joan Flood who died of cancer. He was upset by McDermott in the 2003 election by more than 487 votes and lost to him again in 2006. Snively lives north of Harrow and was the top vote getter in Ward 3 in 2014 with 1,148 votes. Rogers has 12 years of experience having served on the former Colchester South Township council for seven years, another four until 2010 on the amalgamated Essex council and then he won a Ward 3 byelection council seat last year. Rogers lives in Colchester and said he wanted to anchor support in the northern end of the municipality before announcing his candidacy at the filing deadline. He said he’s a diplomat who will “create an environment on council that encourages respectful, positive interaction, debate and consensus.” His priorities are the completion of the Highway 3 widening, more reliable electricity, expanded hispeed internet, the development of the municipality’s infrastructure, and growth in the residential, commercial and industrial tax base,” Rogers said. McGuire-Blais, 35, works parttime for a marketing company in Windsor and is also a mom. She said she ran for mayor because Essex needs change and growth. “I ran for mayor to give people choice. They now have four choices, two men with 16 plus years experience helping run the municipality to the state it is now and two people who want to see change within the municipality.” Shepley, 47, runs a commercial flooring business and lives next door to the town hall in a home that includes an ice cream store. Shepley wants to reduce development fees to attract investment, work toward bringing high-speed fibre optic service to rural and urban areas of Essex and make paving and maintaining all roads his priority. “As a business owner, I know the importance of having a thriving town and a community and council that works together.” Essex has two people running for deputy mayor and 13 in the election by wards for council.