Lamoureux wins 'clear mandate' in La Pêche
After receiving over 70 per cent of the vote on Nov. 7, according to preliminary results, Guillaume Lamoureux told The Low Down that he has been given a “clear mandate” to continue the work of the past four years.
Lamoureux won his second term as La Pêche mayor, beating his challenger Luc Richard by more than 1,400 votes to snag an impressive 72 per cent of the vote. Only 46.4 per cent of the 6,825 registered voters in the municipality cast a ballot on Nov. 7.
Lamoureux told The Low Down on Nov. 8, that he sees the results of the mayoral race as a literal vote of confidence in his record over the past four years. He also pointed to the fact that all of the councillors who ran for re-election successfully defended their seats by comfortable margins.
“They all came back with a strong mandate and that speaks volumes,” He said. “People have recognized the good work that we have done together.”
Lamoureux credits his success to the hard work and long hours he put into the campaign, and never taking his role as mayor for granted.
“I knocked on hundreds of doors, made hundreds of phone calls and emails, and held three virtual Q&As to answer questions from constituents and present my platform,” Lamoureux explained. “I was making phone calls until 7:30 p.m. [election night] to remind people to go vote, and I know that some people arrived to vote five minutes before polls closed because of that.”
Lamoureux said his first order of business will be to sit down with the two new councillors Daniel Meunier and Pierre Lebel, elected on Nov. 7, to make sure everyone is on the same page.
“There is so much that we have put together in the last four years when it comes to governing tools and planning,” Lamoureux explained. “They'll have to get a good sense for that momentum.”
Lamoureux said that he hopes to maintain the same humility he brought to the role in his first term, while using the confidence he gained from the past four years to move forward with a little more conviction and a little less hesitancy.
“In a first mandate, you're really careful not to make mistakes,” Lamoureux explained.
La Pêche incumbents return across municipality
According to preliminary results, Ward 6 in Wakefield also did not see change, with incumbent councillor Claude Giroux snagging a whopping 83 per cent of the vote, over his challenger Shawn DeNeire, who only saw a total of 83 votes come his way.
Ward 1 in La Pêche proved to be the closest race of all, with Daniel Meunier barely snagging a seat on council by a slim margin of just two measly votes, according to preliminary results. He ousted challengers Daniel Laflèche and Christian Philippe to win the seat.
Ward 2 saw Carolane Larocque beat Julien Meunier by 147 votes, while Ward 3 saw incumbent Francis Beausoleil beat his challenger Jean Meunier by 142 votes, according to preliminary results.
Pierre Lebel won in Ward 4, beating challengers Monica Blaylock and Jean-Simon Dion, and Wards 5 and 7 were acclaimed by Pamela Ross and Richard Gervais, respectively, again, according to preliminary results.