Saint John’s Ward System Plebiscite Passes by 71%

This May, Saint John will be electing our officials in a mixed-ward system. We will have the option of voting for two individuals in our ward, and two at large. This results comes after many months of hard work from councilors such as Stephen Chase and Michelle Hooton. They were able to convince council to let the people decide in a plebiscite. I strongly supported the plebiscite as it allowed the citizens to vote on a matter that council has an obvious conflict of interest in!

Although turnout was low (22%), everyone had plenty of opportunity to vote if they wanted to. There were two advance polls last week and voters were able to visit the returning office to vote. The city even provided free bus service all day to allow people to get to the polls! The people that wanted to vote did so and those are the only numbers that matter at the end of the day.

According to the Telegraph Journal, the “yes” vote won in every single ballot box except for one - it tied. The unofficial results are: 7,570 voted yes and 3,110 voted no. The official results should be released later today.

There is now a deadline to get the new bylaw submitted to the province - December 9th. The only remaining work to approve the ward boundaries and how the deputy mayor is selected. The current proposal, from city staff, is to have the deputy mayor’s duties split between the two at large councilors. I like that idea; but, I am open to other ideas.

Overall, I’m very glad of the result, and I look forward to next May! Who ever said Saint John isn’t exciting?