Prince Edward County: Quaiff is an easy winner in mayoral race

Prince Edward County Mayor-elect Robert Quaiff (left) with local MPP Todd Smith after his victory Monday night. Photo by William Proulx

BELLEVILLE – Robert Leighton Quaiff is the new mayor of Prince Edward County. He led his closest opponent by almost 2,000 votes.

In second place was Jeff Goddard, while Paul Boyd was a distant third in the race to replace Peter Mertens, who announced last spring that he would not seek re-election.

Mike McLeod, a representative of the Prince Edward County Chamber of Commerce, was at the municipal building in Wellington, where results were announced. McLeod said he thinks the county’s biggest issue is infrastructure. “It’s interesting because there’s a lot of changes coming,” he said. “We have three mayoral candidates; all of them bring qualities to the position. The one thing I’m going to be looking for is leadership:

In the race for council positions, Lenny Epstein and Stephanie Bell are the council members in Picton.

Jim Dunlop will fill the single seat for Wellington.

In Ameliasburgh ward, Dianne O’Brien, with the most votes, Janice Maynard and Roy Pennell are the new council members.

In Athol, Jamie Forrester will fill the single seat for council.

In Hallowell, Brad Nieman and Gordon Fox are the new council members.

In Hillier, Steven Graham won single seat by a close vote.

In North Marysburgh, David Harrison fills the single seat.

In South Marysburgh, Steve Ferguson will be the only new council member.

In Sophiasburgh, Bill Roberts and Kevin Gale will fill the two seats on council.

In Bloomfield ward, incumbent councillor Barry Turpin, a teacher, was acclaimed.

Quaiff lives in Picton. He has said he thinks the issues council should be addressing are affordable public transportation and education partnerships that enable youth employment. Outside of politics, Quaiff has coached a number of sports, including baseball and hockey.

For the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board’s north wards, Jennifer Cobbs was acclaimed. Dwayne Inch was acclaimed as trustee for the south wards.

For the separate school board, Gregory Speagle was acclaimed, while Dianne Burns was acclaimed as the French-language separate school trustee.

Claudia Major and Rachel Laforest were running for French-language public school trustee. Results were not available at deadline.