New town council reflects on election

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Strathmore council has been sworn in and members are eager to get started serving the greater community. 

Council members attended a multi-day orientation following the results of the election, which brought new members up to speed with how council operates, and refreshed the memories of the re-elected incumbents. 

“I can say emphatically I am very optimistic the next four years are going to be good. The amount of experience and talent and wisdom and prudence sitting around that council table is just going to be awesome,” said Brent Wiley, entering his second term on council. “After two days of orientation, we’ve gotten to know each other really well. And what I would say is everybody’s mind is in a similar vein, like how do we find the most number of efficiencies in spending, keep the taxes as low as possible, but at the same time try to do that without hurting our services.”

This year’s vote was the first municipal election without the effect of COVID-19 concerns. As public health restrictions have long since lifted, candidates were freer to personally attend local residents, in addition to spreading their campaigns digitally. 

Particularly the incumbents noted this year’s to be a vastly different campaign than their first, as Councillors Richard Wegener and Melissa Langmaid joined Wiley in running for their second respective terms. 

“One of the things that was different during this campaign is, and maybe it happened in the first one, but I noticed there was quite a bit of negativity out there from a lot of the public … for me, I wanted to run a clean campaign without any mudslinging. I wanted to get my word out there, what I was campaigning on, and I wanted to make sure that I ran a clean campaign,” said Wegener.

Langmaid also noted the differences.

“This campaign was a lot different for me for personal reasons. Having a little one at home made it more difficult to get out and knock on doors and be more public. Of course, the postal strike made it difficult to get campaign materials out across town,” added Langmaid. 

From those returning to council, the message of collaboration was not only shared, but emphasized, in order to maintain momentum from the previous term, as well as to continue addressing common concerns and priorities. 

“I think the expectations have been set and people are looking for a council that’s going to really watch the dollars and cents, but also a council that’s going to take care of the of the needs of the town and services that the residents expect,” said Langmaid. 

“Collaboration is a big thing – collaboration with your council. I still want to hear from the public and what they have to say, then that will come back to our council, we will discuss and look at ways that we could make things better for the community,” said Wegener.

On the other hand, those who are joining council for the first time, Claude Brown and Matt Hyde, each expressed they are eager to get started. 

Both noted the campaign process to have required dedication in order to pursue, which by itself, served them to accumulate information about how to best serve and represent the community. 

“It was eye opening for sure. There was definitely a lot of … feelings on every side of the board. People really expressed their feelings, and I really appreciate all of the different forums and the opportunity to meet people,” said Hyde. 

“The more important work comes after, and so really the campaign is about getting people’s attention and earning their trust. At the end of the day, what matters is getting out and doing the job right,” said Brown.

Top of mind for the new council, is the imminent budget season for the 2026 financial year. 

Each of the responding council members shared the consensus that residing in Strathmore needs to remain as affordable as possible, while still allowing the town enough of a budget to maintain local services. 

“A big part of my campaign was fiscal responsibility and … to keep trying to do my part to keep the expenditures down, and if I if I could try and work towards keeping tax increases to zero or next to zero or very low. I definitely am working towards that, but I also recognize that it’s a team of people that help make that happen,” said Brown.

“I’ve got experience with large budgets and we have a great administration here in Strathmore that has definitely done their due diligence preparing things for us to consider and I am ready for the challenge,” added Hyde. 

Council held its annual organizational meeting, Oct. 29, which also observed the swearing in of the mayor, re-elected Pat Fule.