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Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin didn’t exactly cruise to an easy victory Sunday night, but he won re-election as mayor of Gatineau by hanging onto an early lead while his four challengers split the opposition vote into too many little pieces.
Pedneaud-Jobin, 49, held on to a steady share of 46 per cent of the vote for much of the night as one poll after another reported in, while his closest challenger, Denis Tassé, was stuck at about 32 per cent.
The other serious challenger, Sylvie Goneau, trailed in third place with less than 20 per cent. Two newcomers, Rémi Bergeron and Clément Bélanger, were far back in low single digits.
Tassé, a former city councillor, had identified one central issue and stuck to it through the campaign. It was old-style politics: Offering to pave people’s neighbourhood streets.
After trekking from door to door in the long campaign, he told a interviewer simply: “It’s what people want.”
“There were too many candidates, that’s obvious,” Tassé told Radio-Canada. “If there had been only two candidates, I think I would have won.”
“I have no regrets.”
Task said there would be no more elections for him.
“I had 12 wonderful years (on council) … it’s time for someone else to enjoy it.”
Goneau told Radio-Canada she was satisfied with the results.
“I did a strong campaign and had a wonderful reception from the voters,” Goneau said. “The voters have spoken.”
A recent poll by LeDroit and 104.7 Outaouais found that improvements were far and away the most important issue for voters, cited by 44 per cent of respondents.
A raucous crowd packed Les Brasseurs du Temps in downtown Gatineau on a wet night to cheer their Action Gatineau mayor, though there were worried looks at the results for many of his fellow party candidates.
Many of the Action-Gatineau council candidates seemed to be in neck and neck battles for most of the evening.
Turnout in the election was unusually low, at 38.5 per cent of eligible voters.
Gatineau voted for four more years of a mayor whose management style has never been flashy, but who has satisfied voters — enough of them at least — with a steady-as-she-goes approach.
Tassé was the only candidate to show growth from mid-campaign polls, apparently drawing votes from former council colleague Goneau rather than taking them from Pedhneaud-Jobin.
Pedneaud-Jobin made a long list of promises throughout the campaign — on his vision for development, parks, culture and more. For the moment, though, he will be plunged back into the management of old-fashioned issues that have pushed themselves to the forefront.
For example, Gatineau still has significant flooding and washout problems. It is still grappling with the task of rebuilding following last May’s devastating floods.
And, with the heavy rains over the past week, the mayor can’t afford to delay dealing with the muddy realities of life.
Some of the mayor’s vision of the future may prove costly, which can be an issue in a city where taxes have been rising at an annual rate of 2.9 per cent.
Action Gatineau promises included:
• Millions more for green space, including $5 million for Parc des Cèdres;
• Adding $13.5 million to the $32 million already allocated for downtown renewal;
• More money for snow-clearing;
• $1 million over four years for cultural events downtown;
• And, of course, a new hockey arena to replace the Robert Guertin Arena. The city’s share is capped at $36.5 million, plus $25 million to line up streets with the new site. That was a decision taken by the previous council, but the incoming one will have to pay the bills.
• Transit in the long run may dominate civic spending. In addition to the relatively new Rapibus system, the mayor is firmly in support of a plan to bring light rail transit across the river, linking with Ottawa’s LRT.
That won’t come soon, but Pedneaud-Jobin said there would never be a better time to obtain funding from senior levels of government, and the LRT link also has support from a good many councillors outside his Action Gatineau party, even though there is disagreement about where the link or links should be.
Paradoxically, the mayor told this newspaper in an interview that he considered one of Gatineau’s greatest successes to be the recent bid, joint with Ottawa, to bring Amazon’s new headquarters to the capital.
Even if Amazon does not come, it marked the first major occasion when Ottawa and Gatineau took on a major economic plan as a single integrated unit, he said.
The voting results were in line with an experimental program launched in 13 Gatineau-area high schools, where students were provided both campaign information and background data on electoral systems in Quebec and Canada.
Some 3,900 students, a participation rate of about 25 per cent, took part of their lunch hour to vote and backed Pedneaud-Jobin at 39 per cent, followed by Tassé and Goneau, both at 16 per cent, Bélanger at 13 per cent and Bergeron at 10 per cent.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
Pedneaud-Jobin, 49, held on to a steady share of 46 per cent of the vote for much of the night as one poll after another reported in, while his closest challenger, Denis Tassé, was stuck at about 32 per cent.
The other serious challenger, Sylvie Goneau, trailed in third place with less than 20 per cent. Two newcomers, Rémi Bergeron and Clément Bélanger, were far back in low single digits.
Tassé, a former city councillor, had identified one central issue and stuck to it through the campaign. It was old-style politics: Offering to pave people’s neighbourhood streets.
After trekking from door to door in the long campaign, he told a interviewer simply: “It’s what people want.”
“There were too many candidates, that’s obvious,” Tassé told Radio-Canada. “If there had been only two candidates, I think I would have won.”
“I have no regrets.”
Task said there would be no more elections for him.
“I had 12 wonderful years (on council) … it’s time for someone else to enjoy it.”
Goneau told Radio-Canada she was satisfied with the results.
“I did a strong campaign and had a wonderful reception from the voters,” Goneau said. “The voters have spoken.”
A recent poll by LeDroit and 104.7 Outaouais found that improvements were far and away the most important issue for voters, cited by 44 per cent of respondents.
A raucous crowd packed Les Brasseurs du Temps in downtown Gatineau on a wet night to cheer their Action Gatineau mayor, though there were worried looks at the results for many of his fellow party candidates.
Many of the Action-Gatineau council candidates seemed to be in neck and neck battles for most of the evening.
Turnout in the election was unusually low, at 38.5 per cent of eligible voters.
Gatineau voted for four more years of a mayor whose management style has never been flashy, but who has satisfied voters — enough of them at least — with a steady-as-she-goes approach.
Tassé was the only candidate to show growth from mid-campaign polls, apparently drawing votes from former council colleague Goneau rather than taking them from Pedhneaud-Jobin.
Pedneaud-Jobin made a long list of promises throughout the campaign — on his vision for development, parks, culture and more. For the moment, though, he will be plunged back into the management of old-fashioned issues that have pushed themselves to the forefront.
For example, Gatineau still has significant flooding and washout problems. It is still grappling with the task of rebuilding following last May’s devastating floods.
And, with the heavy rains over the past week, the mayor can’t afford to delay dealing with the muddy realities of life.
Some of the mayor’s vision of the future may prove costly, which can be an issue in a city where taxes have been rising at an annual rate of 2.9 per cent.
Action Gatineau promises included:
• Millions more for green space, including $5 million for Parc des Cèdres;
• Adding $13.5 million to the $32 million already allocated for downtown renewal;
• More money for snow-clearing;
• $1 million over four years for cultural events downtown;
• And, of course, a new hockey arena to replace the Robert Guertin Arena. The city’s share is capped at $36.5 million, plus $25 million to line up streets with the new site. That was a decision taken by the previous council, but the incoming one will have to pay the bills.
• Transit in the long run may dominate civic spending. In addition to the relatively new Rapibus system, the mayor is firmly in support of a plan to bring light rail transit across the river, linking with Ottawa’s LRT.
That won’t come soon, but Pedneaud-Jobin said there would never be a better time to obtain funding from senior levels of government, and the LRT link also has support from a good many councillors outside his Action Gatineau party, even though there is disagreement about where the link or links should be.
Paradoxically, the mayor told this newspaper in an interview that he considered one of Gatineau’s greatest successes to be the recent bid, joint with Ottawa, to bring Amazon’s new headquarters to the capital.
Even if Amazon does not come, it marked the first major occasion when Ottawa and Gatineau took on a major economic plan as a single integrated unit, he said.
The voting results were in line with an experimental program launched in 13 Gatineau-area high schools, where students were provided both campaign information and background data on electoral systems in Quebec and Canada.
Some 3,900 students, a participation rate of about 25 per cent, took part of their lunch hour to vote and backed Pedneaud-Jobin at 39 per cent, followed by Tassé and Goneau, both at 16 per cent, Bélanger at 13 per cent and Bergeron at 10 per cent.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
