TIGNISH, P.E.I. - The campaign for mayor of Prince Edward Island’s westernmost town pits a veteran municipal politician against a relative newcomer to Tignish.
Allan McInnis served as a councillor in the town almost continuously from 1999 until he took over as chair of the community council in 2012. He was re-elected in 2014 and became mayor a year and a half ago when Tignish was granted town status.
Dryden Buote just moved to Tignish last November, but he comes from the next-door community of Anglo. He says he loves his town.
“Just the small-town feel of it; everybody knows everybody and it is a very welcoming and warm community,” Buote said.
“I’ve been very transparent and I talk to a lot of people in the coffee shops and on the streets and I ask them their opinion,” McInnis said of his leadership style. “We try to accommodate our constituents in the community. I think it makes everything easier when you do that.”
McInnis says he’s proud of the Tignish council’s accomplishments during his six years as chairman and mayor, highlighting a splash pad at Bicentennial Park, sidewalks on Dalton Avenue and MacLeod Lane and a new lagoon.
Buote says he thinks things have been going fairly well in the new town and he wants to play a part in promoting Tignish even more, so that people right across the province know Tignish as a “really great place.” He said he wants to promote its wholesomeness.
Approximately 560 Tignish residents, out of a population of around 700, are eligible to vote either in Saturday’s advance poll or on election day Monday, Nov. 5 to choose between McInnis and Buote for mayor and to elect six councilors from a slate of eight candidates.
Running for the council seats are Samuel Arsenault, Colleen Dwyer, Edward Gallant and five incumbents — Debbie Fennessey, Lloyd Gavin, John McInnis, Angel Murphy and Judy Morrissey-Richard.
Shirley Harper, owner of Shirley’s Café, a popular gathering spot in Tignish, said the municipal election campaign has been quiet so far, generating very little discussion among her patrons.
Buote says he doesn’t have all the answers on how to meet the needs of the community, but he wants to find out.
“I think that is the first step, admitting we don’t know the answer. You have to get out there and find out what it is people want,” he said.
“The big thing is to get out and talk to them and see, ‘What do you want; what’s going to keep you here?’ We really have to engage the population to see what it is that’s going to keep them in Tignish.”
He wants Council to revisit past requests to have sidewalks cleared during the winter months. “That’s always been an issue. I would love to see the sidewalks cleared and I think it’s something that needs to be looked at more.”
McInnis says the sidewalks and splashpad were installed at no direct cost to the town and he’s optimistic that the town’s $400,000 share of the $1.6 million lagoon project can be trimmed in half with the benefit of more government grants. He feels he has been persuasive in getting provincial and federal governments to support projects in the town, and he wants to work with them to bring new services to Tignish, including long-term care beds, and a gym and pool facility with an indoor walking track.
“I want to try to lobby government for as much funding as I can get so we can keep taxes where they are today,” he said.
Buote, vice-chair of Tignish Initiatives, said it is important to find out with residents of the community, from youth to seniors, need, and then work to meet those needs
“That’s the kind of mayor I want to be; I don’t want it to be all about me and I don’t want the forefront. I can be the person to give the speech and put the ideas together, but I want it to be about the town and about Tignish.”
