By Chris Lewis | April 1, 2021
Lucy Stoyles spent over 20-years on Mount Pearl city council. Now, she has stepped up to the role of MHA.
Stoyles, a familiar face to many residents of Mount Pear after first stepping into city politics about 25 years ago, announced late last year she would not be running again in the upcoming municipal election.
As Mount Pearl residents soon found out however, that did not mean she was stepping away from politics.
Stoyles announced herself as the Mount Pearl North Liberal candidate for the recently concluded provincial election, an affair that spanned some 10-weeks.
Although Stoyles said the election went on for longer than she or likely any other candidate had expected, she was feeling good about her success.
Stoyles came out on top against incumbent PC candidate Jim Lester by only 109 votes, with the Liberals claiming 46.69 per cent of the ballots cast while the PCs notched 44.6 per cent. The other votes went to Jennifer McCreath of the NDP with 337, and 136 votes for the NL Alliance’s William Neville.
Stoyles’ initial estimate, she said, was that she had about a 50/50 chance of winning. According to the numbers following the election, her guesses were fairly close to reality.
“I mean, this has been a strong Tory district for a number of years. It’s only been myself and Eric Gullage to have turned it over,” Stoyles said of her victory, noting that she had actually helped Gullage with his own political campaign back in 1987. “It’s a difficult district to win in … I worked very hard, day and night, and then spent all my days home on the phone when the lockdown hit.”
Having won and lost elections throughout her career, Stoyles was proud to have won the vote of the people this time around. Aside from the work put into her campaign over the course of the election, Stoyles said her name was a recognizable one around Mount Pearl by this point and she was happy to see that play a role in her success.
Stoyles said she is confident in her new role and eager to show the constituents what she can bring to the table as a Member of the House of Assembly.
“They’ve given me a chance to represent them. Helping people is what it’s all about, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing – that’s why MHAs were put in place,” Stoyles said. “I’ve spent my lifetime doing just that, and I continue to do it now. As I always say, that’s what I’m good at.”
Although it has not yet been a week since Stoyles was elected, she has already begun some of the hard work. The former executive assistant to Mount Pearl – Southlands independent MHA Paul Lane, who managed to get re-elected, said she has been on the phone with people since the result, trying to set up meetings with higher level government officials to discuss the needs and wants of the people of the city.
“I’ve served on city council for 25 years, so now I’m in the middle of arranging to get (MP) Seamus O’Regan to come in and have a meeting with them, to talk about some possible funding and other ways that we can work together with the federal government,” Stoyles said. “Hopefully, in the next two weeks, I’ll be sitting around the council chambers again in one of those meetings, just this time as their MHA.”
Stoyles said she has also been in contact with a number of community groups around the city, such as the various churches, to let them know about her new role and to discuss possible funding and other opportunities that she might be able to help with.
“I’ve already started working … I’ve done this job in a different capacity, working with Paul Lane over the years, so it’s not all that new to me,” Stoyles said. “It’s all about getting in touch with people in a timely manner, and doing what you can to help them out.”
