Selwyn Township Mayor Andy Mitchell new county deputy warden
The deputy warden for Peterborough County has been named: Andy Mitchell, the mayor of Selwyn Township, got the job.
The deputy warden position is appointed at the discretion of Warden J. Murray Jones.
Jones made his selection after receiving expressions of interest and resumes from a number of county councillors, he said at a county council meeting Friday.
Jones didn’t say how many candidates there had been. Nor did he name those who’d been interested. All he would say was that the choice was difficult.
“I stayed up an extra hour last night over it,” he said, joking that he didn’t go to bed until 8:30 p.m.
Mitchell, 65, appeared surprised and had no remarks prepared when Jones asked him to speak briefly.
“Thank you for the confidence you’ve shown in me,” he told Jones.
And to fellow county councillors, Mitchell pledged to work “as hard as I can.”
“We’ve got a lot to do, but we’ll do it together,” he said.
Mitchell won the mayor’s seat in Selwyn in the municipal election Oct. 22. longtime mayor Mary Smith retired from politics and didn’t run again.
It’s not the first time Mitchell has been on Selwyn Township council: he was deputy reeve from 2010 to 2014.
Prior to that he was Liberal MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka for 13 years from 1993 until 2006.
He was federal agriculture and agri-food minister from 2004 to 2006 and the federal Indian affairs and northern development minister from 2003 to 2004.
Mitchell’s term as deputy warden began immediately on Friday and holds for two years, until Dec. 9, 2020.
He will be sworn in at the next regular county council meeting on Jan. 3.