Ladouceur and Holmes win in election recounts

Rob Ladouceur-web

by Ashley Janes

Morinville – The Morinville 2013 civic election saw candidates beating out their competitors by only a handful of votes and not many residents will appreciate the close race as much as newly elected Mayor Lisa Holmes and town council member Rob Ladouceur. The initial count done on Monday, Oct. 21, provided tight results with Holmes ahead of opponent Sheldon Fingler by eighteen votes. Because of the close difference, Fingler’s agent immediately requested a recount. Jackie Luker made it into the sixth and final council seat ahead of Ladouceur by two votes and because the difference between the candidates was within five votes, an automatic recount was scheduled.
On Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, the town conducted both recounts. Holmes retained her victory with 1034 votes over Fingler’s. However, the results did not favour Luker who received 684 votes to Ladouceur’s 689. When asked about his victory, he stated: “It was a very tight race. I feel really sad for Jackie. I think that Jackie Luker has worked hard, she’s an incredible woman in the community and she volunteers and works very hard and I think that it’s important that people recognize Jackie’s effort and work that she’s done. I do feel sad for her but I’m very excited for the opportunity to serve our community and to work with the other members on council, who are absolutely phenomenal, to help our town move in the right direction.”

The campaign trail proved to be a long and difficult for Ladouceur, who contracted mononucleosis five days after declaring. He admitted: “I’m very fortunate for the help that I received from other candidates and the support that I received from them as well.” About the campaigning he was able to participate in, he explained: “I’ve been helping with campaigns since I was pretty young and as a result I had some ideas when I came into this, but this is the first campaign that I’ve ever run for myself or that it’s been me running so I learned a lot. I had some great support from fellow candidates. I wish that I could have had more time to chat with people, which is why I think the biggest thing I learned is that the people in Morinville just want to have a way to communicate. I intend to work with the other members to make sure that our ears are always open and that our mouths are closed more often.” Jackie Luker was unavailable for comment before press release.

The successful candidates will be officially sworn in on Tuesday, Oct. 29th, 2013. Council meetings will resume in November on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month.

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1 Comment

  1. How do we know these results are correct? That seems to be a large difference between the first count and the second count. Maybe a third count should be done.

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