It was a clean sweep in the Municipality of South Dundas, as all five political positions were filled with new candidates following the reading of the 2022 Municipal Election results on Oct. 24. Pictured are the new deputy mayor, Marc St. Pierre (left), and the new mayor, Jason Broad following their win. Casselman Photo
MORRISBURG – Boisterous cheers could be heard coming from the Municipality of South Dundas’ council chambers on election night, as Jason Broad and Marc St. Pierre took the top two political seats on the township’s next term of council.
Roughly 50 people attended council chambers on Oct. 24, waiting to hear the election results firsthand. Clerk and deputy CAO (chief administrative officer) Leslie Drynan started by listing the new members of council with Broad taking the position of mayor and St. Pierre the position of deputy mayor. The three councillor seats were taken by Cole Veinotte, Tom Smyth, and Danielle Ward.
Broad won the top seat with 1,596 votes, beating out current deputy mayor Kirsten Gardner’s 1,160 votes and Bill Ewing’s 1,093 votes. St. Pierre blew the competition away when he snatched the deputy mayor position with 2,040 votes, leaving current councillor Don Lewis with 1,112 votes and Tammy Thom with 681. Cole Veinotte secured his councillor position with 2,219 votes, Tom Smyth with 2,027 votes, and Danielle Ward with 1,851 votes leaving the competition – current councillor Lloyd Wells (1,527), Michael Burton (1,484), Trevor Riopelle (681), and Jeff Welsh (506) – out of the positions.
Roughly 45.4 per cent of the eligible voting public participated in South Dundas’ 2022 Municipal Election. Out of an eligible 8,439 voters, only 5,095 people participated with 2,639 people voting online, and 1,228 people voting manually. Voter participation was down almost 10 per cent from the last municipal election, as the 2018 voter turnout saw 53.79 per cent of eligible voters going to the polls.
With only three official council meetings left in 2022, the new council’s inaugural meeting is set for Nov. 15. They will meet again on Dec. 6. The outgoing council, which includes current mayor Steven Byvelds, Gardner, Wells, current councillor Archie Mellan, and Lewis, will sit for their final meeting on Nov. 1. South Dundas council meetings can be viewed in person or online via the municipality’s YouTube channel. The agenda packages are available on the township’s website (southdundas.com).
