By Craig Westcott
The first five polls that rolled in election night in Mount Pearl pegged incumbent Mayor Dave Aker with a lead of better than 60 per cent over challenger Roy Locke.
But Aker wasn't ready to get comfortable about the certainty of the win until more results came in. He waited until the final count before acknowledging the victory and thanking Locke for putting his name forward.
Elections, said Aker, are always exciting.
"Whether you win by a nose, or you win large, you still have that wrench in your gut until you see the first results coming out,” he said. “It was funny, they released five polls at a time for a total of 33 polls, it was very consistent across the board as they released the results."
As the incumbent mayor, Aker said, the pandemic and Snowmageddon and their impacts on the city were more challenging issues than council's dismissal of Chief Administrative Officer Steve Kent, who has filed a suit against the City.
"Really that wasn't an election issue," Aker insisted. "And I really thought that at the end of the day, respect and positivity basically is what people voted for as opposed to negativity."
With the election over, Aker doesn't seem too concerned about dealing with the anonymously crafted campaign flyer that was distributed throughout the city asking voters to eschew the incumbents. Asked if there is anything council can do about regulating the activities of third parties in elections, Aker said council may look at it, but it's not a top priority and it has to be weighed against the right to freedom of speech.
"I was very disappointed to see it," Aker said of the flyer. "It's very unfortunate for our residents and very unethical to have used the City's logo in a way suggesting that the City of Mount Pearl was the organization responsible for it. And there were some things said there, including about me, that frankly were false."
Aker said he doesn't know who is responsible for the flyer, but he doesn't think it was a candidate. "I'm not a hundred per cent sure. All I can tell you it was very negative and the messaging did not seem to resonate with our residents. And frankly when we were knocking on doors we heard some very positive things and very constructive criticism and feedback, but it didn't reconcile with that flyer, so from a campaign perspective we just continued to truck along using our positive messaging and engagement at the doors and I think at the end of the day that's why we were successful."
During the campaign, one of the local radio stations ran a streeter in which every Mount Pearl resident who was interviewed called for change. Some of the usual suspects on social media made similar calls. Voters, however, seemed to feel differently, at least judging by the results.
"One of the things that was debated during the campaign was about electing a brand new council," Aker acknowledged. "Again, from the engagement we received at the doors, people were only too happy to welcome new members to council, but they clearly also valued the experience that I along with Jim Locke and councillors Isabelle Fry and Bill Antle (had). They really valued that experience and we were all re-elected."
