Councillor-elect Shawn Mesheau
Shawn Mesheau celebrated with supporters Monday night in Ducky’s pub after his victory in the municipal by-election to fill the vacant seat on Sackville town council.
Unofficial results from Elections New Brunswick show Mesheau winning with 470 votes while his nearest rival Sabine Dietz received 296. Dylan Wooley-Berry came third with 216 with Brian Neilson receiving 113 and Julia Feltham 104.
“I’m very excited and I am honoured,” a beaming Mesheau said during an interview with The New Wark Times.
Mesheau, who has already served three terms on council, added: “I’m excited about getting back in there, back with some former colleagues and with some new colleagues too.”
‘Balanced approach’
He promised to bring a “balanced approach” to council, seeking the “diverse economy that we used to have in years past.”
When asked what he meant by balance, Mesheau responded that the town has been focussing on one initiative or another without taking an overall approach.
“We do really well at community development, we’re weak at economic development,” he said, adding that his recent participation in a public consultation on the town’s business development strategy showed him that the business community needs a voice, especially since the demise of the local Chamber of Commerce.
“We’ve lost that voice with the Chamber being gone,” he said. “Where is the voice now?”
To listen to the interview with Shawn Mesheau, click on the media player below.
Next time
“I’m a bit disappointed with the results,” said Sabine Dietz who was also with her supporters in Ducky’s Monday night.
She added she was encouraged that the results showed that more than half of Sackville’s voters “would like to see a different voice.”
Dietz explained that a “different voice” would mean longer-term, strategic thinking in which the environment and climate change would be central aspects of public policy rather than a short-term focus on jobs.
“Let’s just see what happens with the next municipal election, so hopefully we can get some more progressive people into council,” she said, adding she may well run again for council herself in 2020.
To listen to the interview with Sabine Dietz, click on the media player below.
Welcome aboard?
Meantime, as Shawn Mesheau celebrated his victory, Sackville town councillors were wrapping up their regular December meeting.
Only three councillors responded when they were asked during the question period about Mesheau’s win.
Bill Evans said he was going to send Mesheau an e-mail congratulating him, but couldn’t because he was the only candidate who didn’t file his e-mail address with Elections New Brunswick.
“So, I’m going to take this opportunity to say congratulations, I look forward to working with him,” Evans added.
“I enjoyed working with Shawn,” said Councillor Bruce Phinney, “sometimes we had our differences, but overall we worked well together and I look forward to working with him again.”
Councillor Michael Tower also congratulated Mesheau saying they had worked together on municipal finance and other committees.
“We worked fairly well together,” Tower said, “there were times when it wasn’t the smoothest, but we worked well together and he’s had the experience and it will be nice to have him come aboard.”
Mayor Higham, who has had his differences with Mesheau, said nothing at all.
Mesheau will be sworn into office at Sackville Town Council’s next regular meeting on January 14.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr Mesheau & look forward to having him working for the good of our Town on Council. I would also like to congratulate the others who stepped up to serve but were unsuccessful at this time & hope they will offer again in the future.
Also a thank you to Bruce Wark for keeping us up to date with the latest information. I knew that when I woke up this morning Bruce would already have his report on the Election posted & ready for me to read.
Bravo Mr. Wark. What a great coverage indeed, ending with this well-prepared article (with the two interviews). Thank you for existing in Sackville!
Congratulations to Councillor Mesheau (+ wife, committee/team, friends). Well-deserved. Good luck!
As for all our other candidates, you did a great campaign everyone. Thank you!
I had the chance to write on this forum to Mr. Brian Neilson to express my high opinion.
I would like to particularly acknowledge Mr. Dylan Wooley-Berry now. As I had the chance to tell him this in person ten days ago, he ran a very professional campaign. With his approach to the campaign process and his ambitions, he will go far in politics… Who knows? Maybe our premier one day 🙂 but first we need a “new” solid Town Councillor. Mr. Mesheau is surely what Sackville needs right now, according to most of the voters.
To Ms. Dietz and Ms. Feltham, “ce n’est qu’un au revoir”, as the song goes? Time will tell.
Regardless of the winner, I hope everyone will keep our best interests in mind when they will disagree or agree… and vote.
And your mayor couldnt even come up with a congrats. You can tell he is not really from Sackville.
I don’t know who “G” is, but speaking as a CFA, this is the kind of comment that makes me wonder why I’ve spent the past 25 years volunteering in this community. I also am “not really from Sackville,” although I’ve raised my children here, paid taxes here, and given the better part of my life to this town. I’d be interested to know what “G” and others like him/her have done to try to make Sackville a better place to be. I’d also like people who think like this to reflect a little bit on what kind of a community this would be if all the people who are “not really from Sackville” and who are made to feel unwelcome here were to pick up and leave. There wouldn’t be much left.
The best candidate is always the one the people find the most worthy… Shawn has certainly proven his dedication to the Town .. and I wish him well .. he has experience and he has the ability to dissent.. that’s appealing.
Woohoo! Need some practical balance against the naive idealists and corrupt consultants motivated by the honey pot. I pay $6k per year in property taxes on my own well/septic which is an outrage.
Dear Potatostrong:
I *smiled* when I first read your comment… until I read how much you pay for your own well/septic!
First of all congratulations Shawn. Hopefully over the next number of months all citizens will be represented equally by council. When reading the article I can’t help look for the positive things that may get started now with all the reports and recommendations over the past couple of years. The audio clip provided from Sabine Dietz says it all to the collective small business community. Her only concern is the environment, not the economy. As a small business owner and a child of a single mother who grew up in this town I fear for the future of such strong women as to where jobs may come from if we are to elect people with such extreme views. There has to be a balance approach to all ways, not the this way or no way. I think that, contrary to what that candidate says, we’ve been pretty weighted on environment over the past couple of years. I would rather be thinking of hiring additional employees rather than wondering if maybe our business should maybe cut even more hours again. We have reduced hours of service over the past 2 years and I would like to say it is not a good feeling. Again great job Shawn and best of luck over the rest of the council term.