Mayor Easily Wins Re-Election, Huge Wins For Women In Council Races
HALIFAX — Eight women will have a seat on Halifax’s new city council.
The results from the Halifax Regional Municipality election have yet to be finalized, but the unofficial tally shows a wave of women sweeping into municipal office.
Several of the newly elected women snapped up seats left vacant by retiring councilors, however, a few muscled their way past incumbents to win their races.
All five seats left open by retiring councilors were won by women.
Deputy Mayor Lisa Blackburn easily won re-election in District 14. Joining her in the next council will be Cathy Deagle-Gammon in District 1, Becky Kent in District 3, Trish Purdy in District 4, Kathryn Morse in District 10, Patty Cuttell in District 11, Iona Stoddard in District 12, and Pam Lovelace in District 13.
In District 1, Deagle Gammon squeaked by Steve Stretch, gathering 42.4 percent of the vote, compared to Streatch’s 41.2 percent.
Deagle-Gammon is well-known in the not-for-profit world as the executive director of the Dartmouth Adult Services Centre, a non-profit vocational day program for adults with intellectual disabilities.
Meanwhile, in District 12, Stoddard edged out a win over incumbent Richard Zurawski. Stoddard has ties to the labour movement and was endorsed by the Halifax-Dartmouth And District Labour Council. She and returning councillor Lindell Smith will be the only two African Nova Scotian representatives on council.
Outside of the two incumbets who were defeated, and the five open seats, the rest of the council seats went to sitting councillors.
Mike Savage Easily Re-elected Mayor
The night’s upsets did not extend to the mayor’s race, where Mike Savage easily defeated his challengers.
Savage ended up with about 80 percent of the votes cast for Halifax’s highest office, while challengers Max Taylor and Matt Whitman split the remaining support almost evenly.
Whitman, a two-term councilor, gave up his seat to challenge Savage, running on a platform of cutting spending at city hall.
Taylor, a popular TikTok creator, used his campaign to encourage young people to vote — often saying he didn’t care who people voted for as long as they cast a ballot.
Savage, meanwhile, campaigned largely on promises to create a more prosperous and equal city.
Speaking to Huddle shortly after he was declared the winner, he said one of his biggest challenges will be managing the next city budget.
“We’re going to be coming out of this election and going almost immediately into a budget for next year,” he said. “We’re going to have to figure out the impact of Covid-19, and obviously there’s going to be impacts.”
This year, council had to slash more than $80-million from its budget to make up for revenues lost due to the pandemic. The city’s CAO has warned that next year’s budget will be even tougher.
Savage said, however, he believes the city’s economy will bounce back strongly.
“We came into Covid-19 with a strong economy, we’re going to come out of it, I’m convinced, with a very strong economy, but we need to make sure that a lot of people are a part of that,” he said.
He pointed out that businesses still want to set up shop in the city, and the city remains an attractive place for immigrants, all things he believes will help with economic recovery.
He also acknowledged the mounting housing crisis in the city, and said the next council will need to make affordability a top priority.
He said it will be vital for Halifax to “grow in a just and equitable and sustainable way.”
A full breakdown of the election results is available here.