Incumbent mayors face rough ride in municipal elections

Many New Brunswickers were ready to embrace change in Monday's municipal election and that meant 18 incumbent mayors who faced challengers were punished at the polls.

Eighteen of 39 mayors who faced opposing candidates were defeated by voters on Monday.

Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside may have been the most high-profile mayor to be turfed by voters but he can find solace in the fact that he was not the only incumbent tossed out of office.

In McAdam, Frank Carroll's time in village council has come to an end. After 35 years as mayor, Carroll was defeated by Ken Stannix.

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Stannix went out of his way to praise Carroll's leadership and said he learned a lot about his village went he went door to door and listened to the concerns of the public.

"I'm pretty humbled really to be given this opportunity of the people of McAdam. It's been quite an experience," he said.

Stannix, who retired from the military, said he was babysat by Carroll when he was younger.

Now the 61-year-old retiree said he wants to bring in a new vision to the community.

"Not that there was anything wrong with what Frank was doing … but change is often good, it allows you to have a different viewpoint," he said.

Several new mayors will be sitting on municipal councils in northern New Brunswick.

In a very close race, Stephanie Anglehart-Paulin defeated Ian Comeau and incumbent mayor Bruce MacIntosh in Campbellton.

About 30 kilometres away in Dalhousie, Clem Tremblay also went down to defeat.

Normand Pelletier, a former town councillor, launched a political comeback. Pelletier said he didn't realize there was such a wave of change making its way across the province

"It's quite surprising," he said.

"I didn't think there was that big of a change provincewide. I know for Dalhousie … Mayor Tremblay was there for 12 years and I think the municipality just wanted a change."

The 18 municipalities that saw incumbent mayors defeated are:

• Beaubassin East
• Blackville
• Campbellton
• Chipman
• Dalhousie
• Drummond
• Fredericton
• Grand Falls
• Hanwell
• Kedgwick
• Lameque
• McAdam
• Nackawic
• Quispamsis
• Saint Francois de Madawaska
• Saint-Antoine
• St. George
• Tracadie