Lot’s of changes occurred at the 11th hour for HRM’s upcoming election. New candidates threw their hats into the ring, while others have thrown in the towel. Here’s our breakdown of what happened.
Mayor
One of the more interesting aspects of the candidate deadline, which was 5 p.m. Sept. 11, was Peter Kelly’s announcement at 4:45 p.m. He had said that he was ‘filing papers,’ and would finally let everyone know what was happening after months of speculation he might seek another run for mayor, or even run for the council seat in Bedford. That all came to a close when he confirmed he would not be running for anything in the election and focus on personal matters.
At the same time, three previously unheard of candidates put their name in for mayor. We’ll have coverage on all mayoral candidates, as we get closer to Election Day.
Candidates for mayor:
Fred Connors – fredconnorsforhrm.ca
Mike Savage – mikesavage.ca
Tom Martin – ask4more.ca
Aaron Eisses
Steve Mackie
Robert McCormack
District 1 – Waverly – Fall River – Musquodoboit Valley:
This race originally had the two incumbents going against a new challenger, but Judith Risser has since dropped out of the race.
Barry Dalrymple (incumbent) - elect.barrydal.ca
Judy Risser – Out
Steve Streatch (incumbent) – stevestreatch.com
District 2 – Preston – Porters Lake – Eastern Shore
District 2, which already had lots of candidates to choose from before the deadline now has even more. With 6 candidates, one of them an incumbent it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
Laurie Cook – cookforcouncil.com
Will Gilligan – willgilligan.com
David Hendsbee (incumbent) – hendsbee.ns.ca
Jason Josey
Keith Leahy – New
Gail McQuarrie – New
District 3 – Woodside – Dartmouth South – Eastern Passage
District 3 originally had the two incumbents Barkhouse and Karsten going head-to-head but a new challenger has since entered the race.
Jackie Barkhouse (incumbent) – jackiebarkhouse.ca
Bill Karsten (incumbent) – billkarsten2012.ca
Jim MacDonald – New – www.jimfordistrict3.ca/ and www.facebook.com/Jimfordistrict3
District 4 – Cole Harbour – Westphal
Many predicted that incumbent Nicoll would be acclaimed in her district, but when nominations closed, she had two challengers. However, on Sept. 13 HRM's returning officer declared Angela Jones' bid for the seat ineligible saying the HRM lawyer had not given sufficient notice of her intentions under the Municipal Election Act.
Lorelei Nicoll (Incumbent) – engagingcoleharbour.ca
Angela Jones – Declared ineligible to run (facebook.com/AngelaJonesForColeHarbourWestphal)
Barry Smith – New (facebook.com/barrysmith2012)
District 5 – Dartmouth Centre
A crowded district, almost from day one, now Dartmouth’s downtown district has seven candidates including one incumbent since Jim Smith’s decision to drop out. Definitely a race to watch.
Gloria McCluskey (incumbent) – gloriamccluskey.ca
Sam Austin – samaustin.ca
Ken Bowman - kenforhrmcouncil.com
Sonya Dudka – New (sonyadudka.com)
Bryn Jones-Vaillancourt – http://bryndartcentre.ca
Jim Smith (incumbent) - Out
Kate Watson - kwatson.ca
Bill Zebedee - zebedee.ca
District 6 – Harbourview – Burnside – Dartmouth East
Incumbent vs. former provincial politician should make this an interesting race to follow. The other previous challenger, who ran for mayor in 2008, has decided to drop out for personal reasons.
Darren Fisher (incumbent) - darrenfisher.ca
Jerry Pye - jerrypye.ca
David Boyd – Out
District 7 – Peninsula South – Downtown
One of the most heated races, at least on twitter, has been the downtown district featuring an incumbent and a few challengers who bring different viewpoints to the table. The upcoming debates and subsequent vote will be a must watch.
Sue Uteck (incumbent) – sueuteck.ca
Mike MacDonell – New (facebook.com/mikemacdonellHRM)
Waye Mason - wayemason.ca/
Dawgfather PHD – thedf.ca
Gerry Walsh – gerrywalsh.ca
District 8 – Peninsula North
Since we’ve covered this district it’s lost one challenger and added three more. Both incumbents are still in the race.
Dawn Marie Sloane (incumbent) – dawnsloane.ca
Jennifer Watts (incumbent) – jenniferwattshalifax.ca
Karen Dempsey – New (karendempsey.ca)
Doug MacDonald – New (dougmacdonald.ca)
James McKay – New
Trent Peacock - Out
District 9 – Peninsula West – Armdale
Two new challengers have entered the ring since our earlier coverage of District 9. Will three new candidates split the vote in favour of the incumbent?
Linda Mosher (incumbent) – lindamosher.ca
Giovanni Abati – New (abati4hrm.ca)
Richard MacLean – votemaclean.com
John Wimberly – New
District 10 – Birch Cove – Rockingham – Fairview
Debbie Hum’s unexpected departure from this race leaves Russell Walker as the sole incumbent. That doesn’t mean he’ll have an easy race, with two other candidates looking for his seat at city hall.
Russell Walker (incumbent)
Kurt Bulger – New
John Thibeau – johnthibeau.com
Debbie Hum - Out
District 11 – Spryfield – Sambro – Prospect Road
Another candidate has joined the two other challengers hoping for Steve Adams’ seat at council. In previous coverage both candidates brought up the incumbent’s lack of residence within the district as a reason for people’s frustration with the current representation. We’ll see if that message resonates with voters.
Steve Adams (incumbent)
Peter Grabosky
Jim Hoskins
Tom Lavers – New (electtomlavers.ca)
District 12 – Timberlea – Beechville – Clayton Park West
During initial coverage, Mary Wile, one of the incumbents in this new district did not wish to declare whether or not she would be running. Now it turns out she is indeed along with her fellow incumbent Rankin and two new candidates.
Mary Wile (incumbent)
P. Rano Khokar – New (electranokhokhar.ca)
Reg Rankin (incumbent) - rankinfile.ca
Bruce Smith – votebruce.org
District 13 – Hammonds Plains – St. Margarets
There are no new candidates for District 13 since earlier coverage, but it should still be an interesting race to watch with each candidate having strong roots within the community.
Peter Lund (incumbent) - peterlund.ca
Doug Poulton
Matt Whitman - mattwhitman.ca
District 14 – Upper/Middle Sackville – Beaver Bank
There was some confusion on September 11 when Brad Johns tweeted that he ‘is not a candidate for District 14.’ Turns out it was a typo, he meant to say ‘now.’ It’ll be him against Laurie Sauers who recently moved from Alberta.
Brad Johns (incumbent)
Laurie Sauers - lauriesauers-hrm-district14-election.com
District 15 – Lower Sackville
Bob Harvey, a longtime figure in Lower Sackville’s municipal politics has decided to retire. Now without an incumbent, the district has five newcomers hoping to represent its citizens.
Curt Wentzell – (curtwentzell.com)
Steve Craig - stevecraig.ca
Janet Langille – New (facebook.com/ElectJanetLangille)
Stephen Taylor – taylor4council.ca
Ian Wilson
District 16 – Bedford – Wentworth
This was seen as Peter Kelly’s plan B to stay in municipal politics, but it turns out he won’t be running here. Tim Outhit the incumbent was almost acclaimed in this district until a last-minute challenger also put his name in the running.
Tim Outhit (incumbent) – bedfordleader.com
Mark Ward – New
