The first votes in the first-ever election for a new town of Tantramar council will be cast this Saturday at the Middle Sackville Baptist Church.
There are two advanced polling days before election day on November 28, both at the Middle Sackville Baptist Church, which also goes by Church by the Lake, at 14 Church Street.
Advanced polling days
- Saturday, November 19, 10am to 8pm, Middle Sackville Baptist Church, 14 Church St
- Monday, November 21, 10am to 8pm, Middle Sackville Baptist Church, 14 Church St
Election day on Monday November 28 will mean a second polling station is open in Dorchester, at the Dorchester Veterans Community Centre. Elections NB has also arranged for a shuttle to take people from the Tantramar Civic Centre on Main Street in Sackville, over to the Middle Sackville polling station. That shuttle will run every half hour, and will also bring voters back to the Tantramar Civic Center after they vote.
Election day polling
- Monday, November 28, 10am to 8pm, Middle Sackville Baptist Church, 14 Church St
- Monday, November 28, 10am to 8pm, Dorchester Veterans Community Centre, 4955 Main St
What to bring
Elections NB says that everyone who is already on the voters list should have received a Voter Information Card by mail, with all the details for advanced and regular polling days.
Voters are not required to show ID to vote, unless they are NOT on the voters list. To get added at the polling station, you will need one or more pieces of ID to shows your name, address, and signature. If you don’t have identification documents, you may also have an eligible elector who is on the List of Electors at the polling station vouch for you, and swear an oath that you meet the qualifications to vote.
What positions will you be able to vote for?
This election will be simpler than most regular municipal elections, because there are no education or health council positions up for election. But there will be changes from previous elections. In 2021, both Dorchester and Sackville residents elected a slate of councillors ‘at-large’. This time, voters will have the option to vote for candidates running in their ward. Voters in Wards 1, 2, 4, and 5 will be able to choose one candidate to fill the single seat in their ward, and also vote for a single mayoral candidate. Voters in Ward 3 will vote for a single mayoral candidate, but will be able to choose up to four candidates from the list, to fill four seats on the new council.
Who is eligible?
To be eligible to vote, you must be a Canadian citizen eighteen or older on November 28th, and you must have been ‘ordinarily resident’ in New Brunswick for at least 40 days, and live in Tantramar on election day.
This definition means that university students in New Brunswick have some flexibility. Students who attend school in one district of New Brunswick and have homes in another may chose where to cast their vote, but they can only choose one electoral district to be included in.
Students who came to New Brunswick from other provinces may declare New Brunswick as their ‘ordinary residence’ if they have lived here for at least 40 days. But Elections NB points out in their online materials, that, “NO ONE can be ordinarily resident in more than one province at the same time,” which means anyone voting in New Brunswick for this election cannot be simultaneously voting in another election elsewhere at the same time. That could mean that students from Ontario, if they voted in the recent Ontario municipal elections, would have disqualified themselves from voting again in New Brunswick.
Voting by mail
Elections NB also makes it possible to vote by mail. People interested in doing so must make sure they are on the electors list, and then contact their local returning office to either request a paper application or fill out an online form. Tantramar is part of Elections NB region M09, and the municipal returning officer is Paul-Emile Mallet.
Mr. Paul-Emile Mallet
Office Address : Notre Centre
468 Route 530
Grande-Digue
Toll Free : 1-877-830-5601
Email : Paul-Emile.Mallet@gnb.ca
Mail-in ballots must arrive at the returning office by 8pm on Monday, November 28, 2022. More details on voting by mail are available at the Elections NB website.
Your candidates
There are five contests for Tantramar elections, and one ward with no contest. The candidates are as follows, with links to their CHMA Meet the Candidates interviews, where applicable:
Mayor, Tantramar
- Andrew Black (incumbent Sackville deputy mayor)
- Shawn Mesheau (incumbent Sackville mayor)
- Bonnie Swift
Ward 1, Dorchester (one seat)
- Debbie Wiggins-Colwell (incumbent Dorchester mayor)
- Robert Corkerton (incumbent Dorchester deputy mayor)
Ward 2, West Sackville-Rockport (one seat)
Ward 3, Sackville (four seats)
- Allison Butcher (incumbent Sackville councillor)
- Alice Cotton
- Joshua Goguen
- Virgil Hammock
- Charles Arden Harvey
- Sana Mohamad
- Sahitya Pendurthi
- Mike Tower (incumbent Sackville councillor)
- Bruce Phinney (incumbent Sackville councillor)
Ward 4, Upper Sackville-Midgic (one seat)
- Sabine Dietz (incumbent Sackville councillor)
- Matt Estabrooks (incumbent Sackville councillor)
Ward 5, Point de Bute (one seat, acclaimed)
- Greg Martin (incumbent on advisory committee for Point de Bute Local Service District)
