TERRACE BAY — Paul Malashewski has won his bid for mayor of the Township of Terrace Bay, and he says he’ll do his best to make the community proud.
“I'd like to thank [residents] for all their support,” he said. “Not only, you know, for my election to office as mayor, but over the last four years and I, you know when I say going forward, I'll do my best to make them proud and keep Terrace Bay moving in the right direction.”
Malashewski won with 417 votes, nearly double that of his opponent Gino Leblanc who received 225 votes on election night, and Malashewski said that he’s overwhelmed by such a strong show of support from the community.
“I just wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Gino Leblanc, he has [a lot] of experience on council, but I think I said my campaign I've been volunteering in Terrace Bay for 45 years now with different council positions or committees of council and other organizations,” he said.
“So, I think people appreciated that. And like I say, by doing that I put community first, just trying to help make Terrace Bay a better place to live.”
Malashewski will be joined in council chambers by returning councillors Bert Johnson and Rick St. Louis, as well as Chris Dube and Gary Adduono.
“Bert brings a lot of experience working with trying to help out with all of the seniors and Rick, he's been on numerous committees of council, so both of them will be a great help,” said Malashewski.
“And the two new councillors Gary Adduono and Chris Dube, two young councillors, they have young kids, so I think they will help out with the youth of the community, they can bring forward different ideas on what we can do to help the younger people in town.”
Throughout his campaign, Malashewski focused on four main issues including supportive housing and care for seniors, housing, infrastructure, and fighting for Terrace Bay’s interests during the planned EMS base consolidation, and he says that he’s excited to start working on all of those points.
“We're not going to sit here and, you know, pick one thing and say we'll work on this and see what happens before we start working on another thing,” he said.
“I'd like to, kind of, get everything going, you know, and hit the hit the ground running when they swear us in in the middle of November.”
