A lot of new faces will be sitting in town council meetings across New Brunswick in the weeks ahead. There will also be some familiar faces, including Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon who won a second term over incumbent councilor Barry Ogden by around 1,200 votes. Businessman and veteran Blaine Harris finished third. “It’s a really strategic and interesting time for Saint John,” says Reardon ahead of her second term. “I don’t think there’s anything we can’t do, but we need to be focused, and we need to go for it.” She says there have been a lot of big changes in Saint John over the last few years. While not all have been met with positivity, Reardon believes it’s work that will help the city continue to grow. She will lead a relatively new team, with just three councillors (John MacKenzie, Greg Norton, and Gary Sullivan) from the previous term being voted back into their roles. Of New Brunswick’s three largest cities, Reardon is the only mayor to return. Three-term councillor Shawn Crossman is Moncton’s mayor-elect after defeating former mayor Brian Phillips by a mere 294 votes. “I’m extremely honoured by the citizens of Moncton that have given me the opportunity to lead the city for the next four years with our council and we do have a lot of projects to get covered,” said Crossman after Monday’s victory. The provincial capital’s new mayor shares a similar background with Crossman. Long time Fredericton councillor Steve Hicks has been voted to replace outgoing mayor Kate Rogers. Former MP Jenica Atwin finished second in voting by a little more than 1,500 votes. Hicks campaigned on affordability and public safety. CTV has reached out to Fredericton’s mayor-elect and is awaiting a response. The new councils will be sworn in in the weeks ahead. There is a total of 77 mayors across New Brunswick. Of those, 37 will be new to their roles while 40 will return as the incumbent. New mayors: Incumbent mayors: Voter turnout Compared to previous municipal elections, Elections New Brunswick says there were more ballots cast this year. Just below 40 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers voted in the election, resulting in over 216,000 ballots cast. That’s an increase of about eight per cent of votership compared to the previous two municipal votes. Communities like Kedgwick saw a higher amount of voter engagement with a 72 per cent turnout rate. New Brunswick Chief Electoral Officer Kim Poffenroth says other municipalities that saw higher voting numbers included Francophone communities such as Belledue and Caraquet. As for New Brunswick’s three largest cities, Fredericton saw a voter turnout of 40 per cent. Moncton saw 34 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, while in Saint John 37 per cent of people went to a polling station. With the mayoral races so tight in the three cities, Poffenroth says it was a bit surprising that voting numbers weren’t higher. “It always does surprise me when turnout for local governments is that low,” she says. “Given municipal governments do make really important decisions that impact the day-to-day lives of their friends and neighbors about everything from, property tax rates, fire, police, recreation.” A full list of the New Brunswick municipal election results can be found here. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
