Waddell elected Cornwallis reeve with 71% of vote
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Former councillor Mike Waddell was elected reeve in the Rural Municipality of Cornwallis in a decisive vote Wednesday evening.
Waddell won with 389 votes — 71.3 per cent of the total — compared to former reeve Bill Courtice’s 156, senior election official John Armstrong told the Sun shortly after the votes were counted.
“I feel very, very honoured,” Waddell said in a phone interview. “I’m honoured that the electorate would put their trust in me.”
Mike Waddell
Waddell said while he’s “relieved” that he won, he will postpone his celebration with family until when he’s sworn in.
Waddell, 55, works as a car salesman and owns the coffee-shop newsletter News In A Minute. He previously served as a councillor in Cornwallis between 2014 and 2018.
Waddell campaigned on improving communication and transparency with the public and other municipalities, and bringing stability to the RM.
“I don’t believe that I’m there to impose anything. I’m there to serve and just to be a voice of stability and hopefully accountability and someone that everyone can trust,” the reeve-elect said.
Waddell said he’s happy with how the campaign played out.
“We’re proud of the fact that Mr. Courtice and I were able to have a clean race in which I don’t believe there was any conflict or tension in the visible eye to anyone. There was no games, no hijinks, no stresses played out,” he said.
Courtice, who previously served as reeve from 2018 to 2022, when told the result Wednesday night by the Sun said, “It is what it is.”
He attributed some of the result to the work of “keyboard warriors” on social media.
“It’s hard to have an honest election and everything when people are so one-sided,” said Courtice, the owner of Bill’s Prop Shop. “Social media is not polite.”
Courtice said he would have liked to get out to campaign more than he did, but couldn’t because he was sick during much of the lead-up to the election.
After serving a term as reeve, Courtice lost to Sam Hofer in a two-person race in 2022, receiving about 45.3 per cent of the vote.
This year, Courtice campaigned on supporting municipal staff to reduce burnout and having better representation in the Keystone Planning District.
Courtice received 28.6 per cent of the vote.
Voter turnout was 19.3 per cent, with 545 voters casting ballots. The turnout in the 2022 general election was 34.5 per cent.
There were no rejected or spoiled ballots, Armstrong said.
The byelection was triggered in April when Hofer resigned after having been found to have contravened the Municipal Act. The municipality delayed the byelection in hopes of finding a chief administrative officer. After continued delays in hiring a CAO, the byelection was called in late September.
The result leaves Waddell with less than 11 months in office before the next regularly scheduled municipal election in late October next year.
» alambert@brandonsun.com