By Patrick Newhook/December 30, 2021
It’s a new title, but much of the work is similar.
That’s the take of newly minted Mount Pearl North MHA Lucy Stoyles, who captured the seat in this past year’s provincial election after a long carer as a city councilor.
Sizing up the past 12 months, Stoyles allowed it has been difficult for everyone because of Covid.
“Well, between it all it certainly has been a difficult year for families and especially for a lot of seniors who find it very difficult to get out and be around crowds,” said Stoyles.
As for Stoyles, she’s had a busy year since successfully making the jump from municipal to provincial politics back in March.
“It was different, but it wasn’t,” said Stoyles. “I had worked for MHA Paul Lane for seven years, so dealing with the district stuff wasn’t anything new to me because I was the go-to person in the district, (Mount Pearl – Southlands),” said Stoyles. “I spent 25 years on council in Mount Pearl and I was well used to the people and that’s why the people voted for me, and it was an honor to represent them in the House of Assembly.”
One of the more controversial parts of the year was the provincial election itself, again because of Covid. Originally scheduled to be in held in February, the election faced numerous issues and had to be delayed to March 25. The Liberals won a majority but saw a record low voter turnout.
While Stoyles believes the election was the called for the right reasons, she understands why some people had concerns.
“We knew that tough decisions needed to be made and in order to do them he (Premier Andrew Furey) needed a majority government,” said Stoyles. “You can speculate and say, ‘No it shouldn’t be,’ or ‘Yes it should be,’ but at the end of the day he didn’t expect COVID to reappear again and everything to shut down, so when he went into it, I think he went into it expecting everything to be fine and the election to be over within the five weeks. Of course as we know that didn’t happen. So, I think it was good intentions when it all happened.”
Throughout the past two years, COVID-19 has had a big impact on people’s lives. This continues to be the case going into 2022. Stoyles said COVID has also impacted the government’s ability to make decisions.
“Overall, it was a very difficult year to deal with and when the government won the election and got into power we knew we were going to have to make some tough decisions. This year the government didn’t make, I don’t think, as many tough decisions because of COVID that they had planned on making,” said Stoyles.
As for 2022, Stoyles is hoping the economy gets better. In the meantime, she plans to continue doing her district work, Covid or not
“Like I said, and have always said, I act when people call me,” said Stoyles. “If someone got an issue and I can deal with it, no matter who we’ve got to go to, I’ve got no problem going to the premier, or to the prime minister to help someone, whatever people need. That’s what I ran for and that’s what I am going to be doing… My goal for next year is to represent the people of Mount Pearl North and do the best I can.”
